Vándor Iván

Ivan Vandor was born in Pécs, Hungary, on October 13th, 1932. He moved to Italy in 1938 and began first to study violin, then two years later piano and composition. In his teens he was one of the most popular jazz saxophone players in Italy.He continued his composition studies, first with Guido Turchi, and later under Goffredo Petrassi at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome. After receiving his diploma in 1959, he moved to Paris where he studied with Max Deutsch, one of Schönberg's pupils. Once back in Rome, he followed the Advanced Course in Composition taught by Petrassi and gained his diploma in 1962. The same year he won 1st prize at the International Competition of the Italian Society for Contemporary Music with his Quartetto for strings in the chamber music category. In the same competition two years later (1st prize Ligeti, 2nd prize Kagel), his composition, Canti Sacri, received a mention. In 1963, his  Moti for orchestra gained 2nd prize (the 1st prize was not awarded) at the International Competition of AIDEM (the Italian Association for Music Education). He was a member of improvisation groups such as Nuova Consonanza and Musica Elettronica Viva, with the latter doing a series of concerts and recordings throughout Europe. In 1969, after moving to the United States, he was awarded the 'Taormina' Prize for his composition for orchestra, Dance Music.

After graduating in Ethnomusicology from the University of California in Los Angeles in 1970, he carried out research on the music of Tibetan Buddhism among the monastic communities in Nepal and Northern India. The results of this research are presented in his book, La Musique du Bouddhisme Tibétain (Buchet/Chastel, Paris 1976, published in German by Heinrichshofen Verlag in 1978). From 1974 to 1983 he was vice-director and then director of the International Institute for Comparative Studies of West Berlin, founded by Alain Daniélou. In 1983 he returned to Italy to teach composition at the Music Conservatory of Bologna and later at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome.

The author of many articles, he has been Vice-President of the Italian Society for Ethnomusicology and Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His compositions are performed in several festivals and concert seasons and broadcast on both national and international radio. He is an Italian citizen and lives and works in Rome.