Episode #151: Patrick Soluri

Improv Exchange Podcast

With an international background, PATRICK SOLURI is a New York City based composer of music for ballet, opera and film/TV. His love of telling stories through music is evident in a large body of work for the stage, screen and concert hall.

Mr. Soluri has had 11 ballet scores performed internationally. This includes a commission and eight sold out performances of JUST BEFORE NOW (2017) at Ballet de l'Opéra National de Bordeaux (France). The same creative team, led by German choreographer Xenia Wiest and costume designer Melanie Frost, first collaborated on TO BE CONTINUED (aka “Continuum” 2009) which was commissioned and performed 18 times over two seasons to great acclaim by Staatsballett Berlin. In 2016 this ballet won the Grande Prixe (1st prize) at the Berritz International Choreographic Competition, and the music was a finalist/winner of the Kaleidescope 2020 international composers competition (with over 8,000 submissions). The latest production is in the 2022/23 season by Ballet X Schwerin in Germany.

During the pandemic the same creative team featuring Xenia Wiest collaborated on “Nacht Ohne Morgen” with Xenia also as the ballet director of Ballett X Schwerin (Germany), receiving rave reviews and 13 performances in the 2021/22 season, plus 4 additional performances in the 2022/23 season. Other notable ballet works include three productions of MADAME X (1999, 2003, 2019), featuring American Ballet Theater principal Marcelo Gomes, and NY City Ballet principals Abi Stafford and Ask La Cour; FIRE & AIR, premiered at The Kennedy Center with Mr. Soluri conducting; and FANCY NANCY, based on the hit children’s books. Mr. Soluri’s ballets have been performed by STAATSBALLETT BERLIN (Germany), BALLET DE L'OPÉRA NATIONAL DE BORDEAUX (France), BALLETT X SCHWERIN (Germany), INTERMEZZO DANCE CO (New York City), DANCES PATRELLE (New York City), BOWEN McCAULEY DANCE (DC), and CUYAHOGA VALLEY YOUTH BALLET (OH).

In opera, Mr. Soluri was a finalist with librettist Deborah Brevoort for ALBERT NOBBS in the 2018 Pellicciotti Opera Composition Prize who then commissioned and work-shopped a 20-minute excerpt in September 2016. In January 2018 ALBERT NOBBS was showcased as part of Opera America's "New Works Forum," with two new scenes added, and won the 2019 Frontiers Competition at FORT WORTH OPERA (FWO). His one-act opera EMBEDDED, commissioned by AMERICAN LYRIC THEATER, also won the 2013 Frontiers Competition at FWO, and had its fully staged world premiere in March 2014 at FARGO-MOORHEAD OPERA, followed by six performances at FWO in their Spring 2016 season where the NY Times praised "Mr. Soluri’s skillfully scored music…” Mr. Soluri is also known for his series of 10 minute comic operas which have performed around the world, four of which have premiered at CARNEGIE HALL. With nearly a dozen productions, his most performed short opera is the dark comedy FIGARO’s LAST HANGOVER. The sequel, FIGARO & THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE was commissioned & premiered by FWO in 2013. His opera INFERNO was featured in the prestigious ‘2003 VOX Showcasing American Composers’ by NEW YORK CITY OPERA. In addition, Mr. Soluri’s operas have been performed by VIENNE EN VOIX FESTIVAL, NEVADA OPERA, CENTER CITY OPERA THEATER, URBAN ARIAS, OPERA ON TAP, UNIVERSITY OF ALBANY, RTB, JUVENTAS, and L'ARIETTA SINGAPORE.

Mr. Soluri has also composed numerous film scores, has a vast library of music for film/TV, and a film trailer that showed on 19,000 film screens in the US. Other projects include orchestrating and arranging for the EMMY AWARD winning WONDERPETS, with Sean Lennon on the film score for ALTER EGOS, and scoring the indie short HOSTILE TAKEOVER (2018). Additionally, he has hundreds of cues in various film/tv music production libraries (including SONY/ATV, ReelTracks, and ScoreKeepers), which has been featured worldwide on various TV shows and networks, such as TLC, LOGO and DISCOVERY - including hit shows like NBC's "World of Adventure Sports" and "America's Got Talent."

Other works include various chamber and orchestral commissions, including an orchestral overture commissioned by GULF COAST SYMPHONY with multiple performances in their 2014/15 season.

Holding dual citizenship in the US and Portugal, Mr. Soluri was born in Brazil, and raised in NYC attending a Montessori School (in Milan & NYC) and later Rudolf Steiner (a Waldorf School). At Bennington College Mr. Soluri studied composition with Tobias Picker and Alan Shawn, then received a BM in classical composition from Manhattan School of Music as a scholarship recipient studying with Aaron J. Kernis and Nils Vigeland. He received a MM in composition from Univ. of Louisville where he held the Moritz von Bomhard Fellowship for Opera Composition. Additionally, he was selected for various prestigious programs including the first “class” of the Composer Librettist Development Program by ALT, the ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop in Hollywood, and VOX Showcasing American Composer by New York City Opera.

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