Ivan Moody
BIOGRAPHY
Ivan Moody was born in
Eastern liturgical chant has had a
profound influence on his music, as has the spirituality and liturgy of the
Orthodox Church. His music has been performed and broadcast all over
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
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
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.
Subsequent 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 followed
on the Canadian première of Passion and Resurrection under the direction
of Henry Engbrecht in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on 13th April. This year also saw 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 premièred 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
2005 was a year of premières, including
those of two works for the Scottish choir Cappella Nova, He Who Clothed
Himself in Light and Aurora radius, given four performances as part
of a Scottish tour in March; of Arktos, by Singer Pur and the York
Women’s Chamber Chorus in June; of Passione Popolare, a large-scale work
for soloists, chamber choir and ensemble, commissioned by the Antidogma
Festival, given a rapturous reception at the Abbazia di Staffarda; of Clépsidra,
a song cycle on poems by Camillo Pessanha commissioned by the Casa de Música,
Oporto, in November; and, in Mexico, Ossetian Requiem for chamber choir
and eight ‘cellos, commissioned by the extraordinary Amsterdam-based ensemble ‘Cello Octet Conjunto Ibérico – the European première took place in
the Netherlands in March 2006, and was recorded by KRO and the EBU. The wind quintet Zefiro con Uccelli
was also recorded by the Versus Wind Quintet for a new CD.
Works completed subsequently include Ravenna
Sanctus, for the San Franciso-based ensemble Chanticleer (part of a multi-movement work commissioned from five different
composers), recorded on Warner Classics, Te Apostolit..., to be premèred
by Cappella Romana under the composer’s direction in early 2008, Oída es Voz de Tórtola for the Spanish
recorder consort Sforzinda, premièred during the Festival e Música Religiosa de
Almeria under the composer’s direction on 8th April 2006, and The Bird of
Dawning for the Grupo de Música
Contemporânea de Lisboa (premièred at the Palácio Foz, Lisbon, on 25th May
2006). At the request of the Finnish
conductor Petri Nykänen, he also made a Finnish-language setting of the Vigil
Service of the Orthodox Church, parts of which were premièred at the Pyhan
Kosketus Festival in Ilomantsi, Finland, in July 2006 and others at a concert
as part of the Second International Conference on Orthodox Church Music, in
Joensuu, Finland, in June 2007, both under the composer’s direction; an English
version will follow in due course.
November saw the première of Seven Hymns to St Sava by Camerata
Academica under Bogdan Djakovic in
Recently completed works include Morning
of Light, a concertante work for ‘cellist Levon Mouradian, a song cycle on
poems by Anna Akhmatova for Tapestry and the Moscow String Quartet, a harp
concerto, Lacrime d’Ambra for Andreia Marques and the Grupo de Música
Contemporânea de Lisboa (premièred on 23 May 2007) and …l’altre stelle,
for the baroque ensemble of the Palermo Conservatoire under the direction of
Enrico Onofri. More recently, Ivan Moody
has completed projects including a series of sacred concertos (Kleine
Geitliche Konzerte and Symphoniae Sacrae, mirroring works by
Heinrich Schütz) for the ensemble Sete Lágrimas, which were recorded in
September 2007, music for a film directed by Aurora Ribeiro, Valo for
recorder and piano (commissioned by António Carrilho), Trisagion for
baritone and orchestra, premièred by Armando Possante and Orchestrutopica in
Lisbon on 22 September 2007, Pipistrello for solo tuba and brass
ensemble, commissioned by the virtuoso tubist Sérgio Carolino, and Istella
for bass flute and percussion, premièred in May 2008 by the Machina Mundi duo
and recorded by RDP2. Current
commissions include works for the King’s Singers, Ars Nova and the Raschèr
Saxophone Quartet, and the Finnish vocal ensemble Lumen Valo.
Ivan Moody's music has been
broadcast in many countries, and has been featured on the Finnish television
programme Jeesuksen syntymäjuhla and in
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). 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, and conducted them again in 2005 in Lisbon. January 2006 saw a further tour with Cappella
Romana, centred around the composer’s Canon for Theophany and featuring
Orthodox church music from Serbia and Bulgaria, and a concert with the Spanish
ensemble Sforzinda. In 2007 he worked
again with the Orthodox Choir of the University of Joensuu, Finland, and from
September to December 2007 was Resident Guest Conductor of the Odyssea Choir in
Lisbon. January 2008 saw a further,
hugely successful tour with Cappella Romana, this time of Finnish Orthodox
music, and future engagements include concerts in Finland, the USA, Spain and
Serbia.
Formerly a member of the choir of the
Russian Orthodox Cathedral in London, under the direction of Fr Michael
Fortounatto, he served as cantor in both Greek and Bulgarian parishes in Lisbon
until his ordination to the diaconate and then the priesthood in 2007.
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,
Virgin and Harmonia Mundi 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, the
forthcoming Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology and Musik in
Geschichte und Gegenwart, 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 (
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CONTACTS:
IVAN MOODY'S MUSIC IS
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© 2008 Ivan Moody
Last revised 20.05.2008