Draft:Pierre-Henri Wicomb

Pierre-Henri Wicomb
Birth name	Pierre-Henri Wicomb
Born	(1976-11-24) November 24, 1976 Stellenbosch, South Africa
Occupation(s)	Classical music, film and theatre composer

Pierre-Henri Wicomb (born 1976) is a South African contemporary classical and electroacoustic composer, pianist and film/theatre music composer.

He studied composition at University of Stellenbosch in South Africa under Roelof Temmingh and Theo Herbst. He completed a Masters degree in composition at the University of Cape Town under the supervision of Hendrik Hofmeyr and furthered his studies in The Netherlands completing a post graduate degree at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague studying under Gilius van Bergeijk and Diderik Haakma Wagenaar.

Career

Wicomb's works have been performed in South Africa, Europe and the Americas with notable performances including the 'Festival d'Automne a Paris', Opera Bastille,International Computer Music Conference in Utrecht, TivoliVredenburg, a performance with the Dutch Asko ensemble at Paradiso (Amsterdam) and his curated project Concert To which premiered at the Infecting the City festival in Cape Town with a follow-up two week performance at the Sasol Art Museum, Stellenbosch University.

Awards

Wicomb won the NewMusicSA commission prize for the South African New Music Ensemble (SANME) with his Double Bass Concerto. He received two international awards including the RMN Music (London) electroacoustic prize with his work BlaBlaBlaBlaBlavet and the Ablaze Records prize with his work Role-ing for piano and electronics. A review of the work in the Fanfare Magazine states: "...Wicomb consciously limits the sound he plays with and creates a coherent, individual world. At times, Wicomb flirts with silence, and very effectively..." His electroacoustic work Evenly Hovering received a 'special mention' from the Swiss Ars Electronica Forum Valais.

Career (theatre/film/television)

Notable soundtracks composed by Wicomb include theCanal+ (French TV channel) series Spinners,, which was the first South African television series to premiere at the Canneseries and the acclaimed Walt Disney series Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire which received an Annie Award. The America production company XYZ Films and South African tv channel KykNet ecological horror Gaia (film) premiered at the South by Southwest film festival. Wicomb received ample positive feedback for his (mostly) electronic score with South African newspaper Daily Maverick stating: "the music is haunting and spectacular. You are at times unsure whether what you’re hearing is the score or part of the soundtrack of the world of the narrative. It is technically a high-calibre achievement." The Austin Chronicle called Wicomb's soundtrack an anxiety-inducing score. Wicomb received a South African Film and Television Awards (Saftas) for his original soundtrack.

Wicomb wrote the incidental music for the South African play "Samsa Masjien", which premiered at the Klein Karoo Arts Festival (Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees). The work received theatre awards for best script, actor, set design, director and original music score and sound design bestowing Wicomb with a Fleur du Cap. The work was published together with a compact disc of the soundtrack.

He together with South African composer Michael Blake (composer) founded the Purpur festival, one of the few annual experimental classical music and performance art events in South Africa. The festival located in Cape Town brings together artists, musicians and composers from South Africa and abroad. Musicians and composers that have been part of the event include, Franziska Baumann, Christoph Baumann, Soren Hermansson, the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, Jonny Axelsson, Ivo Nilsson, Joanna Wicherek, X[iksa], Africa Open Improvising, Coila-Leah Enderstein, Joakim Sandgren, Christina Viola Oorebeek, Andile Khumalo, to name a few. He is one of the founding members and pianist for the improvisation group Africa Open Improvising.

Wicomb's music is a combination of a more familiar harmonic sound world in combination with an unpredictable, irregular rhythmic approach akin to that of serial music. He has a special interest in notation and its inherent ambiguities, circumscribing everything from fixed to unidiomatic to open. His music often incorporates theatrical and psychoanalytic theories.

Orchestral works

• Roads to and fro (2010)

Opera

• Melody-Malady-Melody-Malady (MMMM) (2024, narrator, soprano, piano, electronics, soundtrack) for duo InterZones

Chamber music

• Polaroid (2006, clarinet, bass clarinet, viola, cello, double bass, tuba and percussion) for Schönberg ensemble
• A line for Rachael Whiteread (2007, trumpet, viola, double bass, piano and percussion) for EJNCP
• Violence made easy (2008, clarinet, viola, double bass, percussion, piano body and strings and piano) for EJNCP
• Trio (2009, viola, double bass and piano)
• Emergence (2010, saxophone, viola, double bass, piano and percussion)
• My love is trying (2010, piano, viola, double bass, percussion and narrator)
• A sound briefing: Introducing Silence (2010, flute, oboe, saxophone, cello, guitar and piano)
• ...in October (2010, mezzo soprano and piano)
• Domicilium (2011, for any instrument adhering to the range of the music and piano)
• A[we]-struc[k]-ture (2011, counter tenor, recorder, electronics and soundtrack) for Ums 'n Jip
• And so began (2013, viola, cello, piano, percussion and narrator) for L'Instant Donne
• Sing you! la-re-ti (2013, voice, saxophone, piano and soundtrack) for Potage du Jour,
• Your mother's molecules (2014, bass flute, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, violin, viola, cello and piano) for Ensemble Reconsil
• [Com]poser (2014, voice, electronics and piano)
• Ever after (2014, flute, clarinet, viola, double bass and piano) for Ensemble DissonArt
• Four real (2015, string quartet)
• Pat[i]ent (2015, piano with 2 musicians)
• Pool (2015, trombone and percussion, incl. vibraphone) for duo Axilsson Nilsson
• Double bass Concerto (2016, double bass, flute, clarinet, violin, viola, violoncello and piano) for SANME
• Three milieus (2016, voice and piano) for duo InterZones
• Game for less than two (2016, alto saxophone, clarinet in b flat and double bass)
• Automation (2018, trombone and percussion)
• Sue-hm Kwee (2018, saxophone quartet) for the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet
• ...Juliet is the sun (2019, flute, clarinet in B flat, violin, violoncello, piano and percussion.)
• Lightning lessons (2019, xylophone and piano)
• Catch! culture (2024, eight voices) for Aurum Cantores

Solo music (with or without electronics)

• To Pulse II (2006, piano)
• Solving Solo (2006, violin)
• Karaoke later (2009, saxophone and Midi soundtrack)
• Where music is.... (2010, piano)
• Earthed (2010, piano, electronics and soundtrack) for Petra Ronner
• Eavesdrop (2013, piano and soundtrack) for Petra Ronner
• Me [An]D (2015, piano, Midi soundtrack)
• Solicism (2015, French horn in F and soundtrack)
• Self-portrait (2016, piano) for Coila-Leah Enderstein
• Spelling and sound (2016, violin) for Lieva Starker
• Quaver left (2016, piano)
• It'll be a thing... (2018, clarinet in B flat) for Visser Liebenberg
• [S]kin-ship (2020, piano and soundtrack) for Joanna Wicherek
• Role-ing (2021, piano, electronics and soundtrack)
• Love.Lock.Nestle. (2024, flute and soundtrack) for Liesl Stoltz

Works with a theatrical component

• 3x3x3 (2016, city centre installation piece for 3–4 performers)
• On air (2016, 7 speakers/actors on different levels)
• The gathering (2018, actor, soundtrack and participants present) for Africa Open Institute inauguration
• Trees B (2020, for violin, harp and video) for X[iksa]

Electronic/Electroacoustic works)

• Play.playable.playing (2005, electronic-visual piece for the notation program Sibelius)
• Bird's birds (2013, electroacoustic piece) for Concert Too
• Mozart oooh! (2013, electroacoustic piece) for Willem Anker's 'Samsa Masjien'
• An aesthetics of rat bites (2018, electroacoustic piece) for short, This Country is Lonely of Jaco Bouwer
• Now for triads (2018, for the robot toy piano of Ranjit Bhatnagar and MIDI soundtrack)
• Composition machine (2020, interactive online electroacoustic piece) for Herri
• BlaBlaBlaBlaBlavet (2021, electroacoustic piece)
• Evenly-hovering (2021, electroacoustic piece)
• Hommage mirage (2022, electroacoustic piece)

External links

• WorldCat [1]
• IMDB [2]
• University of California Music Collection [3]
• Africa Magazine [4]
• MusicBrainz[5]
• Herri online Arts Journal [6]
• South African Saxophone Catalogue [7]
• Dimitri Voudouris