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PETER BANNISTER

BIOGRAPHY

Born in London in 1966 but resident in Paris since 1989, PETER BANNISTER holds graduate degrees in musicology (King's College Cambridge) and systematic/philosophical theology (University of Wales). His awards at national and international level as a composer and performer include the Prix André Caplet for composition from the Institut de France as well as prizes at the Chartres and Nuremberg international organ competitions and three awards at the International Composition Competition in San Sebastian (Spain) in 2007.

His catalogue comprises orchestral, choral, chamber and solo vocal and instrumental music, with performances in Europe (London South Bank Centre, St John's Smith Square, Festival Klangbogen Wien, Berlin, Paris, Festival J.S. Bach St Donat, Bourges, Chartres, Chichester, Münster, Oliwa, Trieste, Ulm Cathedrals, Würzburger Bachtage) and North America (Ann Arbor, Boston, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York) as well as broadcasts on Italian and American public radio. In 2002 he was a featured composer at the Rencontres Musicales de La Prée chamber music festival. In March 2004 John Nelson and the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris gave the first performance of his Nuages de Magellan at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, followed in 2006 by Pursued by Bronze Horsemen in memory of Shostakovich. In December 2008 he conducted his oratorio Et iterum venturus est,with the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, the Maîtrise de Paris and the French Army Choir in the closing concert of the centenary Messiaen cycle at the church of La Trinité in Paris. In 2009 his symphonic work Darum trauert das Land received a series of performances by the Niederrheinische Sinfoniker under Graham Jackson, opening the Mönchengladbach ENSEMBLIA Festival, while the cycle Abendempfindung for the Polish soprano Aleksandra Zamojska and Kammerorchester Ricercare was conducted by Alexander Mayer at the Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR2); in 2010 his orchestral song-cycle on words of St Teresa of Avila Hermosura de Dios was given its first performance at the Zemplen Festival in Hungary by mezzo-soprano Andrea Melath conducted by Delta David Gier. In 2011 John Nelson premièred his Psalm 96 in Grand Rapids, Michigan; current projects include the choral cycle Spiritus divinae lucis gloriae to be performed at the 2012 Vale of Glamorgan Festival by Ars Nova Copenhagen, an organ concerto in memory of Albert Schweitzer and a second oratorio dedicated to the Holy Spirit entitled The River of Life.

As a solo pianist and organist, he has been invited to give concerto performances (Händel, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninov ...) and recitals in Britain, Austria (Wiener Stephansdom), Croatia, Denmark, France (Notre-Dame de Paris, Bourges and Chartres Cathedrals), Germany (Baden-Baden, Bayreuth, Bochumer Orgeltage, Hannover, Stuttgart), Holland, Italy (Arezzo, Chiusi, Padova, Ravenna, Udine), Poland, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and the USA. In the field of opera has worked as a coach with the Festival International Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence, the Opéra National de Paris, and the Théâtre du Châtelet with conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, James Conlon and Gennadi Rozhdestvensky. He has given masterclasses, conference papers and lectures with a particular focus on the relationship between music and theology in Britain (St Andrews University, Royal Musical Association, Vale of Glamorgan Festival), France (Institut Catholique de Paris), Sweden (Gothenburg Organ Art Academy), Croatia (Organnum Histriae) and the USA (Boston University, Southern Methodist University, Calvin, Carthage and Wheaton Colleges).

Peter Bannister is currently Associate Artistic Director and Composer-in-Association with SOLI DEO GLORIA Inc., a Chicago-based organization devoted to furthering classical sacred music in the Biblical tradition, who also host his music and theology blog Da stand das Meer.