Samuel Bordoli is a British composer whose music has been heard widely throughout the UK and Europe. Recent projects include the award-winning animated opera-film, Josefine, produced by Scottish Opera, with screenings at the Vienna Filmfestival Rathausplatz, Venice & Cannes Film Festivals, The Narcissistic Fish, an opera-film set in a restaurant kitchen (available on Marquee TV/Amazon Prime), Reflections On Liberty for solo piano, commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music for its bicentenary, and music and lyrics for The Man In The Moon, a musical produced by Charles Court Opera at If Opera.
Bordoli was Scottish Opera’s Composer-in-Residence between 2017-2020 where he composed a wide variety of work including scenes for Opera Highlights tours, Grace Notes, Le trésor des humbles and Hermia’s Nightmare. In 2018 he co-produced The Planets 2018 with SoundUK, the latest project in his Live Music Sculpture series. Described in a four-star review by The Guardian as "...a dizzying and smartly staged show", this was a new suite of pieces inspired by planetary science by eight contemporary composers and leading scientists performed by the Ligeti Quartet in planetariums across the UK.
Tête à Tête and Sound Scotland commissioned Belongings in 2017, which was performed live on the Caledonian sleeper train, in London during Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival and in Aberdeen for soundfestival. In 2016, Bordoli’s anthem The Great Silence was premiered at Windsor Festival by The Children and Gentlemen of Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace, The Choir of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, The Choir of Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace, and The Choir of The Queen’s Chapel of the Savoy in a concert celebrating the 90th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II, at Windsor Castle. It was composed to commemorate choristers who lost their lives in the First World War and raise funds for charity. His fourth Live Music Sculpture, a site-specific work composed for the GLA City Hall building in a collaboration with Foster + Partners, was premiered in Open House London; and Crux fidelis was performed by the choir of St Paul’s Cathedral.
Bordoli was a featured composer in the 2012 City of London Festival where he became the first composer to create site-specific compositions for iconic landmarks Monument and Tower Bridge. They were described by the Observer as “working wonders with public acoustics” and “beautiful and ethereal”. His site-specific work for St Paul’s Cathedral, Live Music Sculpture 3, was performed five times during one day and subsequently shortlisted for a 2014 BASCA British Composer Award in the Choral category.
Other recent premieres have included GRIND, a major commission from Tête à Tête and PRS for Music Foundation, performed at the Southbank Centre and the Glasgow UNESCO Commonwealth Games, released on NMC Records, and shortlisted for a BASCA British Composer Award; Fire, Silver, Gold commissioned for the United Guilds Service at St Paul’s Cathedral to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the grant of a royal charter to The Worshipful Company of Founders; As I Lay Dying for the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Music of Today Series at the Royal Festival Hall; a chamber opera Amerika, based on the novel by Kafka; and New World, a short opera, co-written with dramatist Mark Ravenhill.
Born in 1987 in England, Samuel Bordoli began composing and conducting at an early age. His first orchestral work was performed at the Bedford Corn Exchange when he was sixteen. He was mentored by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies for nine years and awarded the Mendelssohn Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music where he studied for a MMus with Philip Cashian and Simon Bainbridge. He gained a BMus (Hons) at Birmingham Conservatoire, studying with Edwin Roxburgh and Philip Martin.
Bordoli’s work has won numerous awards and prizes, including the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize, Charles Lucas Prize, the Alan Bush Prize, The Mendelssohn Foundation, the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, the AHRC and the RVW Trust. He has appeared on BBC Radio 3 and 4, London Live, Classic FM, BBC World Service and ITV News.
In addition to composing, Samuel has also been highly active as a conductor in numerous contemporary music performances in London and Birmingham including concerts and workshops with The Swift Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra and Thallein Ensemble. As a student, he conducted over thirty premieres of his colleagues’ work.
Samuel was awarded an ARAM by the Royal Academy of Music in 2018. A selection of his choral music is published by Stainer & Bell.
Bordoli was Scottish Opera’s Composer-in-Residence between 2017-2020 where he composed a wide variety of work including scenes for Opera Highlights tours, Grace Notes, Le trésor des humbles and Hermia’s Nightmare. In 2018 he co-produced The Planets 2018 with SoundUK, the latest project in his Live Music Sculpture series. Described in a four-star review by The Guardian as "...a dizzying and smartly staged show", this was a new suite of pieces inspired by planetary science by eight contemporary composers and leading scientists performed by the Ligeti Quartet in planetariums across the UK.
Tête à Tête and Sound Scotland commissioned Belongings in 2017, which was performed live on the Caledonian sleeper train, in London during Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival and in Aberdeen for soundfestival. In 2016, Bordoli’s anthem The Great Silence was premiered at Windsor Festival by The Children and Gentlemen of Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace, The Choir of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, The Choir of Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace, and The Choir of The Queen’s Chapel of the Savoy in a concert celebrating the 90th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II, at Windsor Castle. It was composed to commemorate choristers who lost their lives in the First World War and raise funds for charity. His fourth Live Music Sculpture, a site-specific work composed for the GLA City Hall building in a collaboration with Foster + Partners, was premiered in Open House London; and Crux fidelis was performed by the choir of St Paul’s Cathedral.
Bordoli was a featured composer in the 2012 City of London Festival where he became the first composer to create site-specific compositions for iconic landmarks Monument and Tower Bridge. They were described by the Observer as “working wonders with public acoustics” and “beautiful and ethereal”. His site-specific work for St Paul’s Cathedral, Live Music Sculpture 3, was performed five times during one day and subsequently shortlisted for a 2014 BASCA British Composer Award in the Choral category.
Other recent premieres have included GRIND, a major commission from Tête à Tête and PRS for Music Foundation, performed at the Southbank Centre and the Glasgow UNESCO Commonwealth Games, released on NMC Records, and shortlisted for a BASCA British Composer Award; Fire, Silver, Gold commissioned for the United Guilds Service at St Paul’s Cathedral to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the grant of a royal charter to The Worshipful Company of Founders; As I Lay Dying for the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Music of Today Series at the Royal Festival Hall; a chamber opera Amerika, based on the novel by Kafka; and New World, a short opera, co-written with dramatist Mark Ravenhill.
Born in 1987 in England, Samuel Bordoli began composing and conducting at an early age. His first orchestral work was performed at the Bedford Corn Exchange when he was sixteen. He was mentored by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies for nine years and awarded the Mendelssohn Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music where he studied for a MMus with Philip Cashian and Simon Bainbridge. He gained a BMus (Hons) at Birmingham Conservatoire, studying with Edwin Roxburgh and Philip Martin.
Bordoli’s work has won numerous awards and prizes, including the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize, Charles Lucas Prize, the Alan Bush Prize, The Mendelssohn Foundation, the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, the AHRC and the RVW Trust. He has appeared on BBC Radio 3 and 4, London Live, Classic FM, BBC World Service and ITV News.
In addition to composing, Samuel has also been highly active as a conductor in numerous contemporary music performances in London and Birmingham including concerts and workshops with The Swift Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra and Thallein Ensemble. As a student, he conducted over thirty premieres of his colleagues’ work.
Samuel was awarded an ARAM by the Royal Academy of Music in 2018. A selection of his choral music is published by Stainer & Bell.
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