(photo: Jonathan Blair)

Pierre-Henri Wicomb completed a Masters Degree in composition at the University of CapeTown and Post Graduate studies at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and is currently working on his PhD at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Africa Open.

Wicomb’s music has featured at the Festival D’Automne (Paris 2013), New York City Electronic Music Festival (2016, 2018), International Computer Music Conference (Utrecht 2016), Festivalen for Svensk Konstmusik (Stockholm 2019), Forum Wallis (Leuk, Switzerland 2013, 2014, 2021), Wilde Bloesem series (Amsterdam 2006), ISCM’s World New Music Days (2023), Infecting the City,  Bowed Electron (2020-2024) and Unyazi Festivals (Cape Town) to name a few. He has worked with groups/ensembles including Ums ‘n Jip, Ensemble Reconsil, Potage du Jour, Duo Axelsson Nilsson, L’Instant Donne, Soren Hermansson, Ensemble Insomnia, Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, [X] iksa, KZN Philharmonic Orchestra and Duo InterZones.

Wicomb has been a recipient of the  Fleur du Cap award for best original soundtrack or score and received commission prizes for the Asko ensemble, ensemble DissonArt and South African New Music Ensemble (SANME). He was recently selected, receiving a ‘highly commended’ for the Ars Electronica Forum Wallis call for works 2021. His work for fixed media, acoustic piano and electronics was chosen for the international call for electronic works for the Ablaze Records cd project 2022/2023. Wicomb won a Safta (Golden Horn) for original soundtrack for a drama series and received a veertjie from the ATKV. His (predominantly) electronic soundtrack for the eco horror film Gaia (Neon/Decal), now enjoying worldwide distribution, was published by the Swedish record label MovieScore Media. He won the RMN Music (UK) call for work with his work electronic work BLABLABLABLABLAVET, based on the work of Michel Blavet. His audio-visual work Trees B was chosen in 2024 by the international composers’ society NO SUCCESS as the prize winner for their quarterly call for works. His  music is also available on record labels Leo Records, PEER Music Records,  RMN Music, Unexplained Sounds Group (USG), Orlando Records and Lieva Starker’s Weerspieelings. His works are published by Universal Edition.

He has been the recipient of a few composition residencies to Switzerland, sponsored by Pro Helvetia, and Sweden, sponsored by New MusicSA residing at the Visby International Centre for Composition (VICC). He was a guest lecturer here at the Gotland School of Music Composition, the South Africa School of Music (University of Cape Town) ‘Tech Talk’, at the Sterkfontein Composers Meeting and a part-time lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch.

Wicomb is currently working on an opera merging the fields psychoanalysis, improvisation and composition together with the Swiss duo InterZones (previously Potage du Jour).

He co-founded the Purpur Festival for transgressive arts (2015) hosted annually at the Young Blood gallery in Cape Town.