ABOUT
Olivier
Depierre
BIOGRAPHY
Olivier started to study solfege and piano at the age of 7 at the Geneva Conservatory of Music, Switzerland. As a child, he also studied recorder and singing in various classical choirs, performing Carmina Burana and Mozart requiem with Michel Corboz at the time he finished high school. After studies exclusively dedicated to the classical genre (solfege, recorder and piano), he started to write pop music. In 1997, he obtained a degree (BA) in songwriting cum laude after two years and a half at Berklee College of Music, Boston USA, with options in orchestration and music production.
Back in Switzerland, Olivier studied orchestration in the Geneva Conservatory of Music with the late Jean Balissat. During a conducting masterclass in Kromeriz, Czech Republic, he conducted Beethoven's Overtures Coriolan and Egmont with the Bohuslav Martinu Symphony Orchestra.
As from 2001, Olivier specialized in MIDI programming with virtual instruments in his own studio environment and produced his own album of songs, under the name Pierre d’Oly, notably with the four first string chairs of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (Abdel-Hamid El Shwekh, violin solo, Medhat Abdel-Salam, 1st chair 2n violins, Elçim Özdemir, viola solo, and Cheryl House, cello solo (some song may be listened to here: https://mx3.ch/pierredoly).
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In the beginning of 2019, Olivier came back to the classical and film music genres and created this website, dedicated to the creation of orchestral music. His classical and film music influences are mainly G. Mahler, M. Ravel, O. Respighi, G. Holst, J. Williams, A. Silvestri, J. Goldsmith, H. Zimmer, D. Elfman, J.N. Howard, T. Folmann and J. Everingham.
In September 2019, Olivier finished 2nd of the 5 finalists (out of 321 contestants from 46 countries) at the 8th International Film Music Competition of the 15th Zurich Film Festival (see https://www.filmmusikwettbewerb.ch/en/archive/) for his original score and composition of the film "Danny and the wild bunch" of American film director Robert Rugan). Olivier's piece was performed live by the Zurich Tonhalle Orchester on 28th September 2019 at the Tonhalle Maag concert hall in Zurich, Switzerland. The President of the Jury was Academy award winner Don Davis.
In March 2021, he was one of the 20 finalists of the Oticons Faculty International Film Music Competition. In March, 2023, he is again one of the 20 finalists of the Oticons Faculty International Film Music Competition.
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In April 2023, he wins 2nd prize in category Composition and also 2nd prize in category Film Music at the International Léopold Bellan Music Competition, in Paris.