Stéphane Orlando

Biography

Winner of the SABAM for culture prize for contemporary music in 2020, composer Stéphane Orlando collaborate regularly with several musicians, ensembles and orchestras, for films, operas and performances.
In 2022, he became composer in residence at the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège.
Since 2001, as a pianist-improviser for the the Royal Film Archive of Belgium (Cinematek), Stéphane Orlando has provided accompaniment for over 500 silent films. He was thus able to experiment with the important principles of sound creation for the image, meeting the dramaturgical needs of films that can sometimes last more than three hours.
Today, he composes and conduct his music for long and short features or documentaries, alone, all in the box, or with the OST Ensemble, a cluster of Belgian ensembles dedicated to film music.
Stéphane Orlando draws his inspiration from classical, jazz, traditional and electronic music, and he enjoys using all the expressive possibilities of the instruments in refined orchestrations.
He likes equally to compose for a single instrument or in chamber music, with or without electronics, as well as for a variety of orchestras, but above all he likes to place his music in a rich narrative context with a strong sensitivity for images, words and movements. This is borne out by the two film operas he has composed and directed, which have won several awards at international festivals.

Working Title of Research Project

Musical Creation and Concept Design: How to stimulate the imagination for applied music using the tools of concept design?

Abstract

This research project aims to examine creation in applied music through the tools and methodologies of design. Music can play a decisive role in the dramaturgical and emotional construction of images, words, or gestures. Often it must fulfill external intentions — those of the stage or film director, screenwriter or librettist, producer or audience — and the goal is to propose an approach that goes beyond intuitive or strictly illustrative conception.
It is possible to establish many parallels between the domains of conception in music and in design. In both cases, we find:
• the creation of commissioned works that meet needs defined according to specifications (Project Brief);
• a way of thinking combining functionality and aesthetics oriented towards the user;
• a sustained dialogue between different disciplines;
• a poetic relationship between the concept and the realization (storytelling);
• a structured methodology often involving the creation of prototypes.
This is why it seems relevant to us to identify different tools commonly used by designers and consider how they are or can be transposed for composers. From there, we can reflect on how to establish a methodology that favors the work of musical conception in a coherent, structured, and no less sensitive manner.
Ultimately, this work will offer a number of keys based on a specific analysis grid that will help stimulate the imagination of musical creators in a multidisciplinary context.

Supervisors

Prof. Dr. Cristina Urchueguía, Insitute of Musicology, University of Bern

Prof. Dr. Leo Dick, Institute Interpretation, Bern Academy of the Arts