| Country | Switzerland |
|---|
| Occupation | Composer |
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| Categories | Contemporary |
|---|
Valentin Villard was born in 1985 in Lausanne, Switzerland. He studied piano privately with Hélène Uldry, who also taught him the rudiments of harmony,
counterpoint and conducting. He received his school education under the teaching methods of the Rudolf Steiner School in Lausanne which was, as he says himself, “a determining factor in his artistic development”.
From 1996 to 2003 he studied clarinet with Michel Descloux. In 2000, at the age of fifteen, he gave his first performance on the organ, an instrument he has always been attracted to. Since then, he has worked intensively as an organist, regularly participating in concerts as an accompanist and holding the position of auxiliary organist in the Catholic parish of Morges.
In 2004, he was appointed musical director of Morges parish choir, and was admitted to the Conservatoire de Musique in Geneva to study the Teaching of Music Theory and Composition. His tutors included Nicolas Bolens and Michael Jarrell for composition, Luis Naon for electro-acoustics, and Eric Daubresse for analogue and digital audio technologies. In other subjects, for which he obtained respective professional certificates between 2006 and 2008, he was taught harmony by Jean-Claude Schlaepfer, solfeggio by Didier Godel, counterpoint by Nicolas Bolens, and orchestration by Xavier Dayer and Nicolas Bacri. He has also taken courses in acoustics and music production with Jean Keraudren and Thierry Simonot.
Valentin Villard now regularly works with conductors and choirmasters such as Renaud Bouvier, Christophe Gesseney, Dominique Tille, François Bataillard, and organist-composer Gaël Liardon. He obtained his BA in Composition in 2009 and is
completing a diploma in Teaching Music Theory in Geneva. He is also preparing to undertake a Master of Arts in Composition, which would involve studying in Amsterdam (NL) with Willem Jeths, Wim Henderickx and Richard Ayres.
He has received commissions from numerous festivals and vocal and instrumental ensembles, including the European Festival of Youth Choirs (Basel, 2010), the Swiss Youth Choir, the female vocal ensemble Callirhoé, Lausanne Youth Choir, and Da Chiesa String Orchestra (Montreux, Switzerland). His musical catalogue notably includes accompanying music (his favoured field between 2001 and 2005), symphonic orchestral music and religious music.
Valentin Villard won the first price of the "Choir & Organ Composition Competition 2011" and will represent the french speaking part of Switzerland in a project being part of the European Festival of Youth Choirs Basel 2012, "Swiss composers meet Europe".
