Ivan Moody

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.

Other significant works include the ‘cello concerto Epitaphios (1993), the cantata Revelation (1995), Endechas y Canciones (1996), the recorder concerto Pnevma (1998), Lamentations of the Myrrhbearer (2001) for string quartet, Lumière sans déclin (2000) for string orchestra, and the choral triptych written for Trio Mediaeval - Words of the Angel (1998), Troparion of Kassiani (1999), A Lion’s Sleep (2002), and Chalice of Wisdom, Matins of the Feast of St Thomas, written in 2002 for the ensemble amarcord.

Later compositions include a large-scale BBC commission, The Dormition of the Virgin (2003), and concertos for double-bass (The Morning Star, 2003), piano (Linnunlaulu, 2003) and bassoon (Arise, 2004). Amongst recent works are Passione Popolare, premièred at the Antidogma Festival in Italy in June 2005, and Ossetian Requiem, written for the Amsterdam-based ‘Cello Octet Conjunto Ibérico. In 2008, he completed a new work for the King's Singers and a large-scale setting of the Stabat Mater for the Oslo International Festival of Church Music. His 2009 Hymn to St Nicholas for eight voices was commissioned for the KotorArt Festival in Montenegro, and received its American premiere in November of that year.

Works completed in 2010 include Canticum Canticorum IV, a commission from Seattle Pro Musica, Angelus Domini descendit, a commission from the Choir of Royal Holloway, University of London and Sub tuum praesidium, a commission from the English Chamber Choir. 2011 has seen the completion of a sequence of music for Byzantine-rite vespers for the Children's Choir of St Vladmir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in New York and Ode 8 of the Paschal Canon, part of a multi-composer work commissioned by Cappella Romana. Moody has recently finished a new work, "Simeron", for the Goeyvaerts Trio, and is currently working on a bass clarinet concerto for the Grupo de Música Contemporânea de Lisboa. Future projects include a marimba concerto and a work for female choir.

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 Eastern 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.