Born in Minsk, Belarus, she arrived in the United States in 1993. When honoring her with the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship, the American Academy of Arts and Letters hailed her as a "force on the American musical scene" with the observation: "Every note she writes has an intensity and immediacy that is as startling as it is affecting." Two-time winner of the All-Union Composition Contest before her arrival in the U.S., the winner of the Delius Composition Contest, the recipient of the Susan Rose Recording Award, bestowed by the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, she has also received awards from various foundations (ASCAP, the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, Copland Recording Program, New York Foundation for the Arts, American Music Center), held residencies (Yaddo, Brahmshaus in Baden-Baden, Germany), and served on the panel of the New York State Council for the Arts.