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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ivan Moody, British composer, was born in London in 1964, and studied composition with Brian Dennis at London University, William Brooks at York University and privately with John Tavener. He also studied Orthodox theology at the University of Joensuu, Finland. Moody is active as a conductor, having directed ensembles such as Voces Angelicae, the Kastalsky Chamber Choir (Britain), Capilla Peña Florida (Spain), Cappella Romana (USA), the Choir of the Cathedral of St George, Novi Sad, (Serbia) the KotorArt Festival Choir (Montenegro), the Orthodox Choir of the University of Joensuu (Finland) and Ensemble Alpha (Portugal); and as a widely-published musicologist.
Moody's compositions show the influences of Eastern liturgical chant and the Orthodox Church, of which he is a member and priest (of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople). His Canticum Canticorum I, written for the Hilliard Ensemble, was a great success in 1987 and remains his most frequently-performed work, and in 1990 he won the Arts for the Earth Festival Prize for Prayer for the Forests, subsequently premièred by the renowned Tapiola Choir of Finland. One of his most important works is the oratorio Passion and Resurrection (1992), based on Orthodox liturgical texts, premièred in 1993 by Red Byrd and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir under Tõnu Kaljuste at the Tampere Festival. In 1996 it was given its North American premiere by Cappella Romana. The Akáthistos Hymn (1998), the composer’s largest work to date, was written for Cappella Romana following these performances.
As of 1990, he has lived near Lisbon, Portugal, where he was until 1998 Professor of Composition at the Academia de Artes e Tecnologias, Lisbon. He has been involved in the construction of a database for the Portuguese Contemporary Music Centre, is currently a Research Fellow of the CESEM research unit at the Universidade Nova in Lisbon and collaborates regularly with the Department of Orthodox Theology at the University of Joensuu, Finland. In 2005 he was elected the first Chairman of the International Society for Orthodox Church Music (ISOCM).
Ivan Moody’s music is recorded on the Hyperion, ECM, Sony, Telarc, Gothic and Oehms labels.
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