Recently described by LA Weekly as Òan original composer with something important to sayÓ, Philippe Bodin aims at writing music which transcends geographic or stylistic boundaries. Inspired by poetry, mathematics, language games, 1960s jazz, African rhythms and Renaissance techniques, his work has garnered attention for its capacity to use structure to create visceral sonic experiences with high emotional impact.
Philippe has been commissioned by the Orkest de Volharding (Amsterdam, Netherlands), the Da Capo Chamber Players (New York), the Chamber Ensemble Left Coast (San Francisco), Electra (Amsterdam), the Eroica (New York), Mojave (Los Angeles), Mannes (New York) and Kungsbacka (Gšteborg, Sweden) trios, the Empyrean Ensemble (Davis, CA), Lost Dog (New York), pianists Genevieve Lee (Los Angeles) and Guy Livingston (Paris), the Ho-Ahuvia piano duo (New York), and Dogs of Desire (Albany, NY).
A finalist in the 2007 American Composers Orchestra Competition, Philippe has received grants and awards from the American Composers Forum, the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, the American Music Center, the Chamber Music Partnership; and prizes from the Lutoslawski International Competition (Warsaw 2005), the Angelo-Comneno International Competition (Rome 2006), the Utah Arts Festival 2006 Competition, the Homage to Mozart International Competition (Moscow 2006) and the Music of Changes Competition (Los Angeles 2001). He has been offered residencies at Yaddo, MacDowell, the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Atlantic Center for the Arts and the Viriginia Center for the Arts.
Recently featured on Los AngelesÕ Monday Evening Concert entitled ÒAmericas: The Next GenerationÓ, his work has been performed in the Asia Pacific Festival (New Zealand), Utah Arts Festival (Salt Lake City), Sonic Boom Festival (New York), Sounds French Festival (New York), Brave New Works Festival (Ann Arbor), and Las Vegas Music Festival. Other performers include the New Zealand Trio, the St LukeÕs Chamber Ensemble, Xtet, the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, Brave New Works, and the Vim Saxophone Quartet.
A Doctor in Musical Arts from Yale University where he studied with Martin Bresnick, Jacob Druckman, Ezra Laderman, and Nicholas Maw, Philippe has taught composition at Illinois Wesleyan and Lawrence universities. Prior to his incarnation as a composer, he studied mathematics, architecture, piano, and organ, and had a career as an operatic baritone under the batons of Myung-Whun Chung, Philippe Herreweghe and Marc Minkovski. Born in Calais, France, he now lives in Brooklyn, NY. He is still active as a singer and also directs opera. The videos above are from his staging of Evan Hause's ÒNightingaleÓ, produced in 2002 in New York City.
In 2008, Albany Records released ÒElementsÓ, a CD of piano music performed by Genevieve Lee, featuring his piano cycle ÒInner BannersÓ, commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition in 2004.
More information can be obtained on his website:
http://philippebodin.com. Scores of his music are available for purchase at
http://stores.lulu.com/philippebodin
