Ivan Moody
BIOGRAPHY
Ivan Moody was born in London in 1964.
He studied composition with Brian Dennis at London University (winning the
Royal Holloway Prize in 1984 for his Three Poems of Anna Akhmatova), and
privately with Sir John Tavener. He later
studied Orthodox theology through the continuing education centre of the
University of Joensuu, Finland, and is currently pursuing postgraduate
compositional work with William Brooks at the University of York. He lives at
present in Estoril, Portugal, with his wife, the singer Susana Diniz Moody, and
two children, Sebastian and Sofia.
Eastern liturgical chant has had a
profound influence on his music, as has the spirituality of the Orthodox
Church, to which he belongs. His music has been performed and broadcast all
over Europe, both East and West, as well as in Japan, the USA and South
America. Following the enormous success of Canticum Canticorum I,
written for the Hilliard Ensemble and performed by them all over the
world, in 1990 he won the Arts for the Earth Festival Prize for Prayer for
the Forests, which was subsequently premièred by the renowned Tapiola Choir
in Finland. One of his most important works to date is the oratorio Passion
and Resurrection (1992), based on Orthodox liturgical texts, which was
premièred in June 1993 by Red Byrd and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
under Tõnu Kaljuste at the Tampere Festival and recorded by Finnish Radio. It
was subsequently repeated and broadcast to great acclaim in the Netherlands,
the USA and Great Britain, and has been recorded on CD by Hyperion.
The work was toured in the USA (Portland, Seattle, Irvine and Los Angeles) in
October 2002 by Cappella Romana, under the composer’s direction, to rapturous
applause. In April 2003 Passion and Resurrection was given its Canadian
première by Canzona under the distinguished conductor Henry Engbrecht.
The same year also produced the viola
concerto Vigil of the Angels, premièred to a standing ovation by its
dedicatee Alexandre Delgado and the Lisbon Sinfonietta, and the following year
Ivan Moody completed a 'cello concerto, Epitaphios. It was premièred
with tremendous success by Raphael Wallfisch and La Camerata at the Megaron Mousikis in Athens in May 1995,
and subsequently taken up by Paul Marleyn and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, who gave the work's
triumphant Canadian première (recorded and broadcast by CBC) in October 1999.
The Armenian ‘cellist Levon Mouradian gave its Portuguese première with the
Lisbon Sinfonietta in November 2002. Among the series of vocal works written
subsequently, of particular importance are two works for the German ensemble Singer
Pur: Le Renard et
le Buste, first performed in the Bayreuth Opera House in June 1995, and Lamentation
of the Virgin, which received its first performance in Nuremberg in May
1995. This work was subsequently recorded by Singer Pur on a disc for Oehsm
Classics in 2003. 1996 saw the first
broadcast on BBC Radio 3 by the Taverner Consort under Andrew Parrott of Revelation,
a substantial choral work with narrator on texts from The Apocalypse, and the
first performances of In Nomine by Fretwork in Evia, Greece and the cycle Endechas
y Canciones, by the Hilliard Ensemble, in Leipzig, subsequently recorded on
their double album for ECM, "A Hilliard Songbook".
The third in the concerto series, Pnevma,
for recorder and strings, commissioned by the Lisbon Sinfonietta, was
premièred with António José Carrilho as soloist at the 1998 Mafra
International Festival, and the series of vocal pieces has continued with O
Taphos (to a text by Kostas Palomas) for Michael Chance and Fretwork, Lullaby
for a Byzantine Princess for the soprano Suzie
Leblanc, The
Meeting in the Garden, premièred by the Grupo Vocal Olisipo in Lisbon in October 1998, and Words of the Angel, first
performed by the three female voices of the Norwegian group Trio
Mediaeval in Oslo in
December 1998 and subsequently released to tremendous critical acclaim on CD by
ECM in 2001. The success of Words of the Angel has outstripped even that
of Canticum Canticorum, and has become a regular feature in Trio
Mediaeval’s concerts. Ivan Moody’s largest work to date, the Akathistos Hymn,
for a cappella choir (the first complete setting of the text since the middle
ages), was premièred by the American choir Cappella Romana under Alexander Lingas with resounding success in Portland,
Oregon, and repeated in Seattle, in January 1999. The work was also toured in
the USA in Spring 2001 and was recorded on CD in August 2002, with the composer
producing; the double-disc set has recently been released on the Gothic label).
1999 saw the first performances of Apokathilosis,
(Amarcord Ensemble, Leipzig, May 1999), Cantos Mozárabes II, (premiered at
the Mafra Festival in October 1999 by Julia Gooding and Sophie Yates) and Canticle
of Light, (premiered by Invocation in Horsham on 31st December, 1999), and,
in the following year, The Troparion of Kassiani (premiered by the Trio
Mediaeval in Oslo, March 2000), The Adoration of the Lamb (premiered by The Tallis Scholars, Dorchester, July 2000) and Penthos
for viola and marimba, premiered by André Cameron and Pedro
Carneiro at the
Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon in May 2000. Three important premières in
2001 were those of The Prophecy of Symeon, commissioned by Oporto
European Capital of Culture 2001 and premiered to great acclaim by the Grupo
Vocal Olisipo in October 2001, Vecheri Tvoeya, premiered by the Pravoslava Chamber Choir, Lisbon in November 2001, under the
composer’s direction, and the string quartet Lamentations of the Myrrhbearer,
premiered at the Gulbenkian Foundation in December 2001.
Recent works include Chalice of
Wisdom, for Amarcord, The Blessed Among Women, Weeping, for Red
Byrd, which will receive their first performances during the 2003-4 season. In addition,
Supplication for Peace, scored for male voices, was awarded top honours
by "Waging Peace through Singing", based in Oregon, USA, an
international initiative prompted by the tragic events of 11th September 2001.
Premièred in 2002 were In Paradise of Old, by the Schola Cantorum of St
Peter the Apostle, Chicago, under the direction of J. Michael Thompson, for
whom it was written; Anghelu for double bass quartet, given on 29th
June, 2002 in a remarkable concert by the twelve double-basses of Contr’orquestra,
at the Teatro Garcia de Rezende in Évora; and Lumière sans déclin,
scored for baroque string orchestra, which was premièred by Les Voix Baroques
at the Jusqu’ aux Oreilles Festival in Montréal (Québec, Canada) in
August 2002.
Works premièred in 2003 include Erimos,
given by the Scottish vocal group Canty, in a series of concerts in Scottish
cities in June, Isconsolada, premièred by the Winterthur Vocal Ensemble under the composer’s direction on
13th and 15th June in Oberwinterthur and Rheinau, Switzerland, Canon for
Theophany and Exaposteilarion for Pascha, given by the Orthodox
Choir of the University of Joensuu, directed by the composer, at a hugely
successful gala concert at the Carelia Hall, Joensuu, on 22 May, and Lullaby
for a Byzantine Princess, given by Suzie Leblanc and the Quatuor Alcan on
5th June as part of the New Music Series in Vancouver, Canada, which follows on
the Canadian première of Passion and Resurrection under the direction of
Henry Engbrecht in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on 13th April. This year has also seen
the Australian première of Pnevma, as part of the Melbourne Autumn Music
Festival, as well as its third Portuguese performance, at the Leiria Festival,
and the world première of A Lion’s Sleep, in a concert given by Trio
Mediaeval in the chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge on 18 July. October saw
the first performance of the play Diálogo das Compensadas, by the
Portuguese theatre group Fatias de Cá, in the Castelo de São Jorge in Lisbon,
with music specially composed by Ivan Moody and recorded under the composer’s
direction.
Both A Lion’s Sleep and Troparion
for Kassiani were recorded for a new disc on ECM, whose launch in Oslo in
January 2004 (celebrated with a concert given by Trio Mediaeval ending with Troparion
of Kassiani) the composer attended.
Another major work, The Dormition of the Virgin, a large-scale
cantata commissioned by the BBC for soloists, choir and instrumental ensemble,
was premiered to prolonged applause by the BBC Singers and St James Baroque
under the direction of Stephen Layton at the Temple Church, London, on 21st
May, 2004 (the work was also recorded by the BBC for future broadcast),
following a monographic concert given to celebrate the composer’s 40th
birthday at Christchurch Cathedral, Oxford, on the preceding day. Crocifissione, for voices and brass,
commissioned by the Antidogma Festival for performance by the DolciAure Consort
of Turin, received its première on 19 June 2004 in the magnificent surroundings
of the Abbazia di Staffarda, and another major première was that of the piano
concerto Linnunlaulu, given by the young Portuguese pianist Elsa Silva
and Orchestrutopica at the Mafra Festival on 10
October. The year ended with a further
series of performances of the play Diálogo das Compensadas in Lisbon,
and the première of O Viridissima Virga, a setting of words by Hildegard
of Bingen for the St Louis Chamber Chorus.
Performances in 2005 will include the
premières of a large-scale work for the Antidogma Festival, Passione
Popolare, to be given at the Abbazia di Staffarda, Clépsidra, a song
cycle on poems by Camillo Pessanha commissioned by the Casa de Música, Oporto,
two works for the Scottish choir Cappella Nova, He Who Clothed Himself in
Light and Aurora radius, and the American première of Bogoroditse
Devo. Rcently completed are Ossetian
Requiem for the extraordinary Amsterdam-based ensemble ‘Cello Octet Conjunto Ibérico and Arise, a work for bassoon
and chamber orchestra for the Serbian bassoonist and conductor Zarko
Perisic. Works in progress include new
commissions from the San Franciso-based ensemble Chanticleer, Fretwork, the extraordinary Finnish vocal
ensemble Rajaton, Trio Mediaeval, L’Antica Musica. ‘cellist Levon Mouradian, violinist Kevin Lawrence,
tenor Scott Tuomi, the Israeli singer Yahli Toren, the vocal trio Juice and violist Rivka Golani.
Ivan Moody's music has been broadcast
in many countries, and has been featured on the Finnish television programme Jeesuksen
syntymäjuhla and in Britain, on both Channel 4 and BBC television. His work
has been featured particularly at the Tampere International Choir Festival
(Finland), the Musica Sacra festival in Maastricht (Holland), the York,
Thaxted, Little Missenden, Presteigne, Spitalfields and Byzantium in London
festivals (Great Britain), the Mafra International Music Festival, Estoril,
Leiria and Capuchos Festivals (Portugal) and the Byzantium Festival in Plovdiv
(Bulgaria). In 1994 he was Composer in Residence at the Hilliard Summer
Festival (which finished with the première of Hymn to the Light), and in
1996 was Composer in Residence for the 3rd International Festival of Voices and
Viols in Evia, Greece, which culminated in the first performance of the cantata
John in the Desert, to a text by the poet Yannis Ifantis. In 1999 he was
invited to give composition seminars at the Universities of Toronto and
Manitoba, Canada, and in 2002 gave similar seminars in the USA, at Reed College,
Portland, OR and the University of Oregon, as part of a residency. In March
2003 he gave a seminar on his own music at the University of Joensuu, Finland,
as part of his residency there, and in May 2004 lectured at the Universities of
York, Joensuu and Belgrade, at the Uspensky Cathedral, Helsinki (by invitation
of the Finnish Association of Church Musicians), the Academy of Arts and the
Matica Srpska Gallery in Novi Sad, Serbia.
Until 1998 he was Professor of Composition at the Academia de Artes e
Tecnologias, Lisbon, and currently teaches privately.
Ivan Moody is also extremely active as
a conductor. He has directed a considerable number of choirs and vocal groups,
notably Voces Angelicae and the Kastalsky Chamber Choir in Britain (both of
which he founded) and Capilla Peña Florida in Spain. In 1992 he was invited by
Radio Nacional de España to direct the inaugural concert in celebration of
Columbus Day, broadcast live to more than 30 countries. He is a founder member
of Ensemble Alpha, specializing in eastern and western
mediaeval music, and which has given hugely successful concerts in various
European countries and the USA, and of the Pravoslava chamber choir (the only choir devoted
exclusively to Orthodox sacred repertoire in the Iberian Peninsula). Formerly a
member of the choir of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in London, under the
direction of Fr Michael Fortounatto, he currently serves as protopsaltis
and choir director of the Greek Orthodox Church, Lisbon. He is in frequent
demand as a guest conductor, and has given courses with a number of groups,
such as Capilla Peña Florida (Spain), Vértice and the choir of the Semanas
Internacionais de Música (Portugal) and the Early Music Ensemble of the UFF
(Brazil). In October 2002 Ivan Moody conducted the American ensemble Cappella
Romana in a hugely successful West Coast concert tour of his oratorio Passion
and Resurrection on the West Coast of the United States, and in 2003
directed the Winterthur Vocal Ensemble in Switzerland and the Orthodox Choir of
the University of Joensuu, Finland, in a concerts featuring his own music. in May 2004 he worked with the choir of St
George’s Cathedral, Novi Sad, Serbia, presenting and lecturing on his own
music; he will conduct them again in 2005 in Lisbon. 2006 will see a further tour with Cappella Romana, centred around
the composer’s Canon for Theophany and featuring Orthodox church music
from Serbia and Bulgaria.
He has edited a large number of
performing editions of sacred music, including 16th century music from England,
Spain, Portugal and Mexico and Russian Orthodox repertoire, much of which is
published by the Chester, Faber, Mapa Mundi and Novello publishing houses, and
has frequently served as musicological and programme consultant for such
specialist performers as The Tallis Scholars, The Sixteen, the Orlando Consort,
the Hilliard Ensemble and Westminster Cathedral Choir. He has contributed
insert notes for recordings on the Collins Classics, ECM, Etcetera, Gimell,
Glossa, Hyperion, Ikon, Mà de Guido, Nimbus, Philips, Sony, Stradivarius and
Virgin labels.
As a writer, Ivan Moody contributes
regularly to Gramophone, International Record Review and Goldberg
(of whose editorial panel he is a member), and has published a substantial
number of articles on contemporary and early music in Contact, Composer,
Musical Times, Contemporary Music Review, Anuario Musical,
Revista Portuguesa de Musicologia, Plainsong & Mediaeval Music,
Jacob's Well, Choir and Organ and Tempo. He is a contributor to
the revised edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music, Managing Editor of
Harwood Academic Publishers' series Music Archive Publications and one of the
editors of the De Clavichordio series, published by Musica Antica,
Magnano (Italy). He has collaborated regularly, as programme advisor, writer
and lecturer, with international music festivals including the Tampere and
Turku Festivals (Finland), Juiz de Fora (Brazil), Holland Festival Oude Muziek
(Utrecht, Holland), the Gulbenkian Early Music Series (Lisbon, Portugal),
Hilliard Summer Festival (Cambridge, England) and the Almeida and Spitalfields
Festivals (London, England). Currently
he is collaborating on the construction of a database for the future Portuguese
Contemporary Music Centre, and is a member of the CESEM research unit at the
Universidade Nova in Lisbon.
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© 2005 Ivan Moody
Last revised 18.01.2005