Sylvie Bodorová

Sylvie Bodorová (born 1954) is a Czech composer.

Biography

Bodorová studied composition at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno and as a post-graduate later on at the Music Academy in Prague. She continued her studies in Gdansk and Siena (with Professor Franco Donatoni at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana) and from 1987 she regularly attended Professor Ton de Leeuw´s composition courses in Amsterdam. She taught at the Janáček Academy in Brno and, in the 90s, at the CCM Cincinnati, Ohio (Composer in Residence 1994-95, 1995-96). Her works have since the early 80s been performed in all the continents, even in the Antarctic where her "Homage to Columbus" for guitar was heard in 1997. She has received several competition prizes (Mannheim, Czech Radio Prague) and many prestigious commissions from the Warwick Festival in the 90th "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.

She wrote also compositions for Buenos Aires –"Concierto de Estío" for Guitar and Orchestra – 1999 and for Bochum in Germany - "Saturnalia for Orchestra" – 1999. After the great success of "Terezín Ghetto Requiem" the Prague Spring International Music Festival commissioned oratorio "Juda Maccabeus" for the performance in St. Vitus Cathedral in May 2002 and then in Litomyšl International Festival in June 2002. "Concerto dei fiori for Violin and Strings" was premiered at Prague Spring Festival 1997, then performed in United States /1998/ and in PONTES Festival Prague /1998/.

"Terezin Ghetto Requiem" for Baritone and String Quartet was performed at 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 8.XI. 1999, in dn|Halle, Terezín, at the Prague Spring Festival 2000, Coventry and Huddersfield /UK, November 2000/. In 2003 Sylvie Bodorová finished the commission of Tucson Chamber Music Festival /USA/ - composition for Harp and Strings "Mysterium druidum".

She finished the commission for Camerata Bern (Bern Concerto, Silberwolke) - "Concerto for Violin, Viola and Strings", which has been performed in Bern and Germany in August /September 2005. She wrote Piano concerto "Come d´accordo" for Prague Philhamonia and pianist Martin Kasík, premiered in February 2006, Song Cycle "Slovak Songs" for Štefan Margita and Gabriela Beňačková /the cycle was recorded in 2006/ and "Amor tenet omnia" – cycle of choruses on the texts from Carmina Burana premiered in Luxembourg and France in August 2007.At the moment she has finished working on the oratorio "Mose" for the Smetana's Litomyšl Festival jubilee in July 2008.

Sylvie Bodorová was member of "Quattro" (Group of prestigious Czech composers) – Otmar Mácha (1922 – 2006), Luboš Fišer (1935 – 1999) and Zdeněk Lukáš (1928 – 2007), she is involved in the project of Gustav Mahler birthplace restoration in Kaliště near Humpolec in the Czech Republic, she has also composed and arranged many compositions for children. Her attention is often drawn by Johann Sebastian Bach´s music (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), by Gypsy and East European Rhythms (ancestors from Hungary).

External links

* [http://www.bodorova.cz Sylvie Bodorová English Website]
* [http://www.arcodiva.cz The agency of the composer]
* [http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Mar04/Bodorova_Maccabeus.htm Review CD Juda Maccabeus]
* [http://www.musicweb.uk.net/classrev/2003/Nov03/Bodorova_Stevenson.htm Recording of the Month Terezín Ghetto Requeim]
* [http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Oct03/Prague_String_Quartetsarcojw.htm Recording of the Month Shofarot]
* [http://www.klassika.info/Komponisten/Bodorova_Sylvie/wv_gattung.html Klassika]
* [http://www.dvorak-society.org/introduction.html Antonín Dvořák Society London]