Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, she studied at the city’s Conservatory, from which she graduated in piano (1970) and composition (1972). From 1973–76 she was Karaev’s research assistant, and in 1989 she completed her doctoral thesis ‘Orchestration in Works by Azerbaijani Composers’. In 1976 she began to teach musicology at the Baku Conservatory, where she has been a professor of contemporary music and the history of orchestral styles since 1990. She also worked as choirmaster at the Opera House in Mersin, Turkey (1993–96) and subsequently taught piano and music theory for two years at the Mersin Conservatory. After a short period back in Baku during the 1998/99 season, she moved to Germany, where she presently spends most of her time.
Her honours include the titles ‘People’s Artist of the Republic of Azerbaijan’ (2000) and ‘Outstanding Artist’ of the Azerbaijan ssr (1990), as well as the annual award of the Azerbaijani Composers’ Union (1980). As a pianist she has performed numerous works by contemporary composers from the former Soviet Union and has given the first performances in Baku of music by the Second Viennese School and of works by composers such as Olivier Messiaen, John Cage and George Crumb. In 1976 she performed her Piano Sonata in Memoriam Alban Berg at the Pesaro Music Festival.
Since the early 1980s her music has been performed at many European festivals including the Swedish Spring in Stockholm (1982), the Warsaw Autumn (1983), the Berliner Festwochen (1986), the Almeida Festival in London (1987), the International Festival for New Music in Heidelberg (1989), the Holland Festival (1989), the Frankfurt Festival (1989), the International Forum for Contemporary Music in Mexico (1989), the Hamburg Women’s Festival (1990), the Prokofiev Festival in Duisburg (1991) and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (1993). It has also been featured at concerts in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Buffalo, and in many towns of Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Holland, Portugal, Denmark, France, Italy, Australia, Spain, Israel and other countries.
In 1999 Ali-Zadeh was the first woman-composer in residence to be invited to the Internationale Musikwochen in Lucerne. In 1999/2000 she received a year-long daad fellowship to work in Berlin, during which time the Berlin sfb radio broadcast her ‘composer’s portrait’ concert. In 2000 an all-Ali-Zadeh concert was also given in New York by the ‘Continuum’ Ensemble and the Seattle Chamber Players invited her to Seattle for concerts and workshops. Ali-Zadeh was also
a guest at the Künstlerhaus of Schloss Wiepersdorf in Brandenburg (2000) and received a grant to work in the Schreyahn artist’s colony in Lower Saxony (2002).
Ali-Zadeh’s music has generated much interest from outstanding musicians, particularly cellists and ensembles including Camerata Bern and the Kronos Quartet. Earlier this year, the Kronos Quartet performed her Oasis on a worldwide tour and included three other pieces – Apsheron Quintet, Music for Piano and Mugam Sayagi – on its recent cd (issued by Nonesuch, with the composer at the piano). Yo Yo Ma invited Ali-Zadeh to his ‘Silk Road’ Project with her composition Dervish. Ivan Monighetti gave the premiere of her Concerto for Cello and Orchestra commissioned by the Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon, 2002). In October 2002 the twelve cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic celebrated their thirtieth jubilee with a grand cello festival at the Berlin Philharmonie. On this occasion, Ali-Zadeh wrote the commissioned work Schüschtar (Metamorphoses for 12 Cellos).
On the occasion of the re-opening of the Philharmonic Hall in Baku in 2004, Mstislav Rostropovich conducted Ali-Zadeh’s orchestral work Hommage. In the same year, a series of concerts featuring her music and a workshop for students of the Music Academy were held at the ‘Klanghorizonte’ Festival in Augsburg.

Selected works (since 1985): Partita for organ (1985), The Legend of the White Horseman, rock-opera in one act set to folk poems (1985), Concerto for Chamber Orchestra (1986), Three Aquarelles after Nighar Rafibehli, songs for soprano, flute and prepared piano (1987), Dilogia I for string quartet (1988), Music for piano (1989), From Japanese Poetry after Isikava Takuboku, song cycle for soprano, flute and prepared piano/celesta/vibraphone (1990), Dilogia II for nonet (string quartet and wind quintet; 1990), Piano Sonata (1990), Piano Sonata No. 2 (1990), Crossing I for clarinet and vibraphone/celesta (1991), Crossing II for 11 instruments (1992–93), Mugam Sayagi for string quartet and synthesizer/tape (1993), The Empty Cradle, ballet in two acts (1993), Fantasy for Solo Guitar (1994), String Quartet No. 3 (1995), Mirage for ‘ud and chamber ensemble (part of ‘Silk Road’ cycle, 1998), Azerbaijani Pastoral for two guitars, flutes and percussion instruments (three percussionists; 1998), Sturm und Drang for chamber orchestra (1998), Azhk Havasi for cello (part of ‘Silk Road’ cycle, 1998), String Quartet No. 4 ‘Oasis’ (1998), Journey to Immortality for baritone, mixed choir and chamber ensemble with words by Nazim Hikmet (1995–99), Silk Road, concerto for percussion and chamber orchestra in three movements (part of ‘Silk Road’ cycle, 1999), In Search of Lost Time for soprano, clarinet (or alto flute), violin, cello and piano (and zarb) with words by Franghiz Ali-Zadeh after Marcel Proust (in Russian, 1999), The Might of Beauty, romance for countertenor and string quartet with words by Alexander Puskin (in Russian, 1999), Gottes ist der Orient for mixed choir, organ and percussion with words by Goethe (West-östlicher Divan, 2000), Dervish, septet for solo cello, violin, viola, tutek, kanun, gosha-ngara and tape (2000), Piano Quintet (2000), Concerto for Cello and Orche-stra (2000–01); music to experimental films (Azerbaijani Film Studio, 1982–90).