Sylvie Bodorová Explained

Sylvie Bodorová (born 31 December 1954, České Budějovice) is a Czech composer. During a career spanning from the late 1970s to the present day she has composed a large number of works for various instruments, both solo and orchestral pieces, and produced commissions for cities, festivals and organisations around the world. She was a founder (and only surviving) member of the Czech classical group Quattro, formed in 1996.

Biography

Bodorová studied composition at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts (JAMU) in Brno and later as a post-graduate at the Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.[1] She continued her studies in Gdańsk and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena (with Professor Franco Donatoni) and from 1987 she attended Professor Ton de Leeuw's composition courses in Amsterdam.[2] She taught at JAMU in Brno and, in the 1990s, at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music,[1] where she was visiting professor for the 1994–95 and 1995–96 academic years.[2] In 1993 she had made her first visit to the United States for a week-long residency in the School of Fine Arts at Miami University, Ohio. The music library at the University of Cincinnati contains several of Bodorová's published scores, as well as copies of manuscript scores of her works.

Bodorová's works have been performed on every continent, including the Antarctic, where there was a performance of her "Homage to Columbus" for guitar in 1997.[2] She has received several competition prizes (Mannheim, Czech Radio Prague) and several commissions from the Warwick Festival: Megiddo - Piano Trio - 2001, for the same festival -Terezin Ghetto Requiem - Škampa Quartet - 1998, "Ama me" for baritone and piano - 1999 and Vertumnus - Brass Quintet in 2005.[2]

In 1999 she also wrote compositions for Buenos Aires – Concierto de Estío for Guitar and Orchestra – and for Bochum in Germany – Saturnalia for Orchestra.[2] After the success of Terezín Ghetto Requiem, the Prague Spring International Music Festival commissioned the oratorio Juda Maccabeus for a performance in St. Vitus Cathedral (with Gabriela Beňačková,, Ivan Kusnjer and the Prague Philharmonic Choir) in May 2002 and then at the Litomyšl International Festival in June 2002.[2] [1] Concerto dei fiori for Violin and Strings was premiered at the Prague Spring Festival 1997, then performed in the United States in 1998 and the PONTES Festival in Prague.[2]

Terezin Ghetto Requiem for Baritone and String Quartet was performed at the Warwick and Leamington Festival in July 1998, Wigmore Hall in London in October 1998, again in Warwick in July 1999, other festivals in UK, in Berlin (November 1999), in Halle (Saale), Terezín, at the Prague Spring Festival 2000, Coventry and Huddersfield (November 2000).[2] In 2003 Bodorová finished a commission by the Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival – a composition for Harp and Strings Mysterium druidum. She composed Rotationes for clarinet, violin, viola and cello for the same festival in 2012.[2]

She finished the commission for Camerata Bern (Bern Concerto, Silberwolke) – Concerto for Violin, Viola and Strings, which was performed in Bern and Germany in August and September 2005. She wrote the piano concerto Come d'accordo for Prague Philharmonia and pianist, premiered in February 2006, the song cycle Slovak Songs for Štefan Margita and Gabriela Beňačková – the cycle was recorded in 2006 – and Amor tenet omnia – a cycle of choruses on the texts from Carmina Burana premiered in Luxembourg and France in August 2007.[2]

The oratorio Moses was commissioned by the International Litomyšl Smetana Festival and premiered in 2008. In 2009 she wrote Carmina lucemburgiana for strings. It was commissioned by the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and its embassy in Prague. In May 2012 Bodorová finished Lingua angelorum – a song cycle for baritone and large symphony orchestra inspired by Rudolf II. The composition was commissioned by and was dedicated to Thomas Hampson. She wrote the orchestral version of Dvořák's Gypsy Melodies, Op. 55, for Thomas Hampson and Wiener Virtuosen, which premiered at the Musikverein in Vienna in February 2013.

Bodorová was a member of Quattro, a group of Czech composers formed in 1996, also featuring Otmar Mácha (1922–2006), Luboš Fišer (1935–1999) and Zdeněk Lukáš (1928–2007).[2] [1] She is also involved in the restoration of Gustav Mahler's birthplace in Kaliště near Humpolec in the Czech Republic.[2] She has also composed and arranged many compositions for children.[2] Her music often features references to Johann Sebastian Bach's music (such as a quotation of his choral "Schmücke dich o liebe Seele" at the end of Concerto dei fiori and transcriptions of Preludium C moll from Wohl Temperiertes Klavier, Toccata D minor), and to Roma and Eastern European rhythms (her ancestors are from Hungary).[2]

List of compositions

Operas

Orchestral and concerto works

Chamber music

Strings:

Solo:

Duets:

Trios:

Quartets and Quintets:

More than five performers:

Winds:

Solo:

Duets:

More performers:

Vocal and vocal-instrumental works

Choir works

Guitar works

Harp, piano, organ

Music for children

Arrangements or orchestrations of other composers

commissioned by Thomas Hampson with Wiener Virtuosi

Selected discography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Sylvie Bodorová. bodorova.cz. 16 May 2017.
  2. Web site: Štilec. Jiri. Sylvia Bodorová - a compact biography. MusicWeb International. 16 May 2017.
  3. Sbornik slovenských národnich piesni, povestí, prísloví Matica slovenská - 1870 "Sadaj slnko, sadaj, za ker malinový, Povedz že mu, povedz, že sa ja dobre mám' Povedz dobrý večer môjmu šuhajovi; Že sa každý večer slzami umývam, Slzami umývam, ručníkom utieram; Povedz že mu, povedz, že sa ja dobre mám."

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