BIO

Pierre Bohemond is an orchestral, ballet and chamber music composer.  His style ranges from modern classical to modern romantic with musical influences spanning from Rimsky-Korsakov and Igor Stravinsky to progressive rock. His music inspiration comes mainly from poetic images and travels.

The Lebanese-French-American composer fell in love with music at an early age in France where he started studying the guitar at the age of twelve and immediately began composing original music. In the early 70s, (age 19) he arrived in the US and his goal was to become a rock star guitarist and composer of progressive rock. He had the privilege of studying with Harry Leahey a renown Jazz guitarist and teacher in Plainfield, New Jersey. Pierre formed several bands with talented musicians from the Bedminster, New Jersey, area where he lived at that time. He composed a Rock Opera “Witchcraft” with sonorities that still resonate to this day in his Orchestral and Chamber Music work. To improve his musical knowledge he started studying classical music composition with private teachers. His first teacher was John N. Booth who to this day is a dear friend and his orchestral work proofer (John was affiliated with the Somerset Symphony Orchestra in NJ for many years. He also headed his own String Quartet Group). Pierre’s favorite music study book (among many others) was Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Principles of Orchestration”.  At the same time, he studied songwriting — notably with the famous NYC songwriter and teacher Albert Hague, a Tony award-winning composer. This was the era of demo tapes — writing and recording songs in his bedroom studio and sending them to record companies in NYC hoping to get noticed and get published. In 1976 Pierre was published on the Buddha/Arista label and co-produced his first record with Tony Camillo a record producer, orchestrator, and arranger renowned for his work with Gladys Knight. In the following years through the mid-eighties, he produced additional vinyl records under the pseudonym of Pierre Bohe before deciding to take a break from the pop music scene.

In the late 90s, he began to explore the digital music scene and began studying the growing field of MIDI, computer music composition, and recording. Programs and sound quality were getting better and better. In early 2000 he designed a fully automated music studio with Cubase as a Digital Audio Workstation in his home in Easton, Pennsylvania. His next step was Sibelius notation software and currently Dorico Pro, which made having an entire symphony at a composer’s fingertip both affordable and inspiring.

In 2014 Pierre successfully composed and published a ballet, “Dreams Interrupted”, choreographed by Trinette Singleton, a former Joffrey Ballet star dancer famous for her role in the iconic ballet “Astarte”.  The ballet was premiered by the American Repertory Ballet of Princeton, NJ, and received exceptional reviews (https://www.arballet.org/repertory/dreams-interrupted/).

Wanting more than just studio recordings of his compositions, in 2020 Pierre submitted a composition for the call for scores of the Allentown Symphony Orchestra’s New Chamber Music Series – “Nature & Poetry”. His Clarinet and Piano composition “The Shores of Phoenicia” was selected to be performed live at the concert on April 6, 2021. 

“The Shores of Phoenicia” inspiration emerged while visiting Byblos in Lebanon in 2016. Pierre was touched by the history and local beauty of this ancient Phoenician seaport. Verses from the poem “The Phoenicians” by Arthur Vaso resonated powerfully with him “Byblos ancient city bathed in supple cream soft moonlight, sea winds carry messages ancestors whispered to me”. The chamber music piece “The Shores of Phoenicia” for Clarinet and Piano derives from the orchestral work  “Phoenicia” Symphonic Suite composed to honor his ancestors. “Phoenicia was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon”. 

In 2021-2022 Pierre completed three movements of his orchestral work “Phoenicia” Symphonic Suite Op.35.  He continues studying music privately with Chris Rogerson (Teacher at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and Composer in Residence at the Allentown Symphony Orchestra), who helped take Pierre’s musical vision to the next level.

On April 5, 2022, the Allentown Symphony Orchestra’s New Chamber Music Series – “Food & Flavors” announced that they will be premiering Pierre’s String Duo for Violin and Cello “Moroccan Spices” in their spring Chamber Music Concert. In this String Duo a hint of Middle-Eastern melodies and syncopated rhythms mingle magically with the aromatic Moroccan Spices.

Enjoy two of my newest composition