Draft:Pierre-Henri Wicomb

Pierre-Henri Wicomb is a South African composer. He is the son of the famous South African folk duo Randall and Koba Wicomb. His environment when growing up was one of constant musical interaction nurturing an interest and future aesthetics drawing from jazz, Afrikaans folk music, theatre music and classical music.

Wicomb completed composition studies in South Africa under Roelof Temmingh, Hendrik Hofmeyr and Theo Herbst. He 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. It is here that he founded the experimental group WOOF together with two fellow composition students. He was the co-founder and pianist of the contemporary classical music group EJNCP and he is currently the pianist for the improvisation group Africa Open Improvising.

Wicomb's works has been performed in festivals including the Festival d'Automne,International Computer Music Conference, ISCM World New music Days 2023,New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival,to name a few.

Wicomb was a prizewinner for the NewMusicSA call for works with his Double Bass Concerto, the RMN electroacoustic music competition with his work BlaBlaBlaBlaBlavet and the Ablaze Records electroacoustic music competition. Wicomb also works as a film and theatre composer creating soundtracks for productions including the winning Canal+ series Spinners, the Disney series Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire and the widely praised ecological horror Gaia. Wicomb has won two South African Film and Television Awards (Saftas) and a Fleur du Cap award for his original music for the theatre production 'Samsa masjien'.

He founded the Purpur Festival for contemporary classical music and arts together with South African composer Michael Blake (composer). The festival happening annually 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.

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. 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)