ALEXANDER COMITAS

Alexander Comitas (pseudonym for Ed de Boer, born 1957) studied piano with Thom Bollen, composition with Hans Kox at the Utrecht Conservatory, and orchestral conducting with Anton Kersjes at the Maastricht Conservatory. From 1981 to 1990 he worked as a freelance pianist for the Dutch radio orchestras and choir. Then he decided to dedicate himself entirely to composing.

Since 1981 Comitas has been writing his music almost exclusively on commission. He composed an orchestral overture on the occasion of the opening of the Enschede Music Centre in 1988 (which he later reworked for wind orchestra); for the opening season of the Eindhoven Frits Philips Music Centre (1992) he wrote the cantata The Wedding of the Moon and Sun; and he composed his first violin concerto for the opening of the Tilburg Concert Hall, in 1996. He has written three operas, three symphonies, two ballets, two string quartets and many other works, including many compositions for choir, symphony orchestra and wind orchestra.

Several of his compositions for wind orchestra served as test pieces for the concert department during World Music Contests WMC in Kerkrade: in 1995 his Armenian Rhapsody Nr. 1 for symphonic wind orchestra, in 2001 A Night on Culbin Sands, also for symphonic wind orchestra, and in 2009 Brass for fanfare orchestra. His Vita Aeterna Variations served as an A section test piece during the 2012 European Brass Band Competition EBBC in Rotterdam. During the WMC 2013, his Vita Aeterna for fanfare orchestra will serve as a test piece for the first division and his Armenia inspired third symphony, A Tribute to Komitas, will be premiered.

In addition to his composing activities, Comitas has been active as as a pianist and conductor of his own works. He also gives courses and lectures on composing all over Europe and teaches basics of composition at the Leopold Mozart Centre of Augsburg University.