Param Vir
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the Indian military decoration, see Param Vir Chakra.
Param Vir (born February 6, 1952 in Delhi) is a British composer originally from India.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
His mother was a poet and distinguished vocalist, his father an electronics engineer and mathematician, and Vir's formative years at home were steeped in Indian classical music. Piano lessons began at the age of 9 and composition lessons followed at 14. It was through these avenues that Vir was first introduced to contemporary music in the western idiom - an introduction that immediately kindled a belief and passion in the young composer that has never abated, and continues to inform his entire creative output.
Vir first attracted attention while a student at St. Stephen's College, Delhi from 1969 to 1972. His early compositions attracted the interest of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies who invited him to the Dartington Summer School on a scholarship in 1983. Under Davies' encouragement, in 1984, Param Vir moved to London to study composition. The move was immediately successful – within three years, he had won the Benjamin Britten Composition Prize (Aldeburgh), the Kucyna International Composition Prize (Boston), the Tippett Composition Award (Dartington) and the Performing Right Society Composition Prize (London).
In the 1990s Param Vir distinguished himself as an opera composer of considerable talent and originality. His two one-act operas, Broken Strings and Snatched by the Gods, were commissioned by Hans Werner Henze for the 1992 Munich Biennale, in a production by Pierre Audi and Netherlands Opera. The following year, Param Vir received the Ernst von Siemens composition prize (Munich). As a measure of its success, the double bill has since been performed in numerous productions: by Almeida Opera (1996), Scottish Opera (1998), Berlin State Opera (1999) and Musikwerkstatt Wien (1999). In 2001, the original Pierre Audi production was revived by the Transparent Opera Company and performed in Antwerp, Rotterdam, and Rouen.
Param Vir's first full length opera, Ion, to a libretto by David Lan, was commissioned by Aldeburgh Almeida Opera and received its first performance at the Aldeburgh Festival in 2000. The first full production of the opera was staged in 2003 in a co-production between Music Theatre Wales, the Berliner Festwochen and Opera National du Rhin. The premiere launched the latter’s 2003/4 season with a series of seven performances, before moving on to the Berlin Festival, the Linbury Studio of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and touring around the UK.
Horse Tooth White Rock, a large orchestral work based on the life of the eleventh century Tibetan saint Milarepa, was commissioned and first performed by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies in 1994. Since then, it has been performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the 2005 BBC Proms and by the Flanders Philharmonic at de Singel in Antwerp.
Other notable works include Ultimate Words: Infinite Song, for baritone solo, percussion sextet and piano, which was commissioned by the 1997 Berlin Festival. The piece is inspired by the writings of the Second World War Danish resistance hero Kim Malthe-Bruun. The Theatre of Magical Beings was commissioned by Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in 2003 and described by one critic as a “virtuosic and hugely enjoyable, life-affirming work”. Most recently, the Schönberg Ensemble commissioned and gave the first performance of Hayagriva at the Muziekgebouw aan't IJ in Amsterdam in December 2005.
Vir is currently at work on a new commission for the BBC Symphony Orchestra based on Anish Kapoor's sculpture Cloud Gate. The piece will be premiered in November 2006.
[edit] Career highlights
- 1983 - attended Dartington Summer School on a scholarship.
- 1984 - moved to London to study with Oliver Knussen.
- 1987 - awarded Benjamin Britten Composition Prize.
- 1993 - Pierre Audi production of Broken Strings wins Ernst von Siemens Prize (Munich).
- 2003 - first full production of Ion tours Europe.
- 2005 - Horse Tooth White Rock performed at the BBC Proms.
[edit] Key works
- Before Krishna (1987; string orchestra)
- Broken Strings (1992; one-act chamber opera)
- Horse Tooth White Rock (1994; orchestra)
- Ultimate Words: Infinite Song (1997; baritone, six percussion, piano)
- Ion (2000; chamber opera)
- The Theatre of Magical Beings (2003; large ensemble)
[edit] Selected recordings
- White Light Chorale - Metronome METCD1053
