Vladimir Cosma - Career

Career

After receiving first prizes for violin and composition at the Bucharest Conservatoire of Music, he arrived in Paris in 1963 and continued his studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, working with Nadia Boulanger. As well as for classical music, he discovered early on a passion for jazz, film music and all forms of popular music.

From 1964 he made a number of international tours as a concert violinist and began to devote himself more and more to composing. He wrote various compositions including: « Trois mouvements d’été » for symphony orchestra, « Oblique » for violoncello and string orchestra, music for theatre and ballet (« Volpone » for the Comédie Française, the opera « Fantômas»…).

In 1968, Yves Robert entrusted him with his first film music for « Alexandre le Bienheureux ».

Vladimir Cosma has since composed more than three hundred scores for feature films and TV series. His numerous successes in the cinema have notably been in collaboration with Yves Robert, Gérard Oury, Francis Veber, Claude Pinoteau, Jean-Jacques Beineix, Claude Zidi, Ettore Scola, Pascal Thomas, Pierre Richard, Yves Boisset, André Cayatte, Jean-Pierre Mocky, Edouard Molinaro, Jean-Marie Poiré… and among which: Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire, Diva, Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob, La Boum, le Bal, l’As des As, la Chèvre, Les Fugitifs, Les Zozos, Pleure pas la bouche pleine, Dupont Lajoie, Un éléphant ça trompe énormément, La Dérobade, Le Père Noël est une ordure, L'Étudiante, La Gloire de mon père, Le Château de ma mère, Le dîner de cons …

Vladimir Cosma also featured in major French and American television productions: Michel Strogoff, Kidnapped, Mistral’s Daughter, Châteauvallon, Les Mystères de Paris, Les Cœurs Brûlés…

Film music allowed him to approach and develop many different musical styles: jazz (with music written for famous soloists such as Chet Baker, Toots Thielemans, Don Byas, Stéphane Grappelli, Jean-Luc Ponty, Philip Catherine, Tony Coe, Pepper Adams, la chanson (pour Nana Mouskouri, Marie Laforêt, Richard Sanderson, Diane Dufresne, Herbert Léonard, Mireille Mathieu, Nicole Croisille, Lara Fabian, Guy Marchand, original compositions inspired by folk-music (for Gheorghe Zamfir, Stanciu Simion « Syrinx », pan-flute, Liam O'Flynn- pipes, Romane-guitar), as well as classical music (Berlin Concerto for violin and orchestra, Concerto for Euphonium and orchestra, Concerto Ibérique for trumpet and orchestra, Courts Métrages for brass quintet…)

In 2006 he conducted the world premier of his composition « Eh bien ! Dansez maintenant», divertissement for narrator and symphony orchestra, from the Fables of Jean de la Fontaine, at the Victoria Hall in Geneva, with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Lambert Wilson as narrator. Conducting the Orchestre National de France he gave a first performance in Paris of this work in December 2010 at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, featuring Eric Génovèse of the Comédie Française.

Vladimir Cosma wrote the opera “Marius et Fanny”, adapted from Marcel Pagnol, for which the first production took place in September 2007 at the Opéra de Marseille with Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu in the title roles, as well as Jean-Philippe Lafont in the role of César. The performances were repeated several times on television on the channels ARTE and FR3.

In 2008 he composed the music for the musical comedy « Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob » performed at the Palais des Congrès in Paris, with Eric Metayer, Marianne James, Spike, Julie Victor…

In June 2009, Vladimir Cosma conducted the world premier in the Eglise Sainte-Madeleine de Béziers, of his cantata «1209», for soprano, narrator, children's choir and orchestra, written especially for the 8th centenary of the Sac de Béziers.

He is dedicated to re-writing his film music with the intention of conducting performances in symphonic concerts, thus approaching a wider audience than at the cinema. Among others, he gave a concert in Geneva in 2003 with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, a series of concerts in 2003 with the Orchestre National de Lyon, three concerts in 2005 in Paris at the Grand Rex, a concert in 2010 with the Orchestre de l'Ile-de-France in the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.

He has also appeared in many countries with major symphony orchestras and such prestigious soloists as Ivry Gitlis, Vadim Repin, Wilhelmenia Fernandez, Patrice Fontanarosa, Jean-Luc Ponty, Didier Lockwood, Stanciu Simion « Syrinx», Philip Catherine and others. A book of interviews with Vincent Perrot entitled « Vladimir Cosma comme au cinéma » was published in 2009 in the Editions Hors Collection and an anthology of his film music regrouping 91 complete original soundtracks in two volumes has just come out. Two evenings were devoted to him by FR3 in 2010, airing his concert at the Théâtre du Châtelet and a documentary «Vladimir Cosma intime ».

Vladimir Cosma received two Césars for the best movie score, for Diva (1982) and Le Bal (1984), two Golden Sevens for the best music for television, as well as a number of prizes and awards in France and other countries.

He has also obtained numerous gold and platinum records all over the world (France, Germany, Japan, England, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Holland, Scandinavia).

Vladimir Cosma is Chevalier de l'ordre National la Légion d’Honneur, Grand Officier du Mérite Culturel Roumain, as well as Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres.