Short answers, pulled from the story.
Sofia Gubaidulina was born on the 24th of October 1931 in Chistopol within the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Her father worked as a surveyor and engineer while her mother taught school to local children.
Authorities blacklisted Sofia Gubaidulina during the Sixth Congress of the Union of Soviet Composers for using alternative tunings and procuring banned Western scores. They dismissed her output as noisy mud unconnected with real life under the supervision of composer Tikhon Khrennikov.
Sofia Gubaidulina utilized elements of the Fibonacci sequence to determine phrase and rhythm length starting in the early 1980s. She also experimented with the Lucas series which begins by adding 2 instead of 1 to initial values.
In 1973 Sofia Gubaidulina was attacked and strangled in the elevator of her apartment building in Moscow but survived. Friends later theorized the attacker was a KGB agent due to the political climate surrounding her work.
Sofia Gubaidulina died from acute heart failure at her home in Appen on the 13th of March 2025 at age 93. She achieved over 40 awards and prizes throughout her career including Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2013.