Vincent Gillioz

Composer

Vincent Gillioz was born in the city of Geneva, Switzerland. With music always present in his life, he grew up shaking his head, playing guitar in heavy metal bands. In pursuit of refinement of his studies, he then moved on to Jazz at Berklee College of Music in Boston, earning a dual bachelor’s degree—summa cum laude—in Film Scoring & Performance (Guitar).

Upon completing his studies, Vincent returned home to Switzerland to pursue his studies in composition and orchestration at the Geneva Conservatory of Music, It was here that he was awarded highest distinctions; the first in his curriculum to receive such an honor in 15 years.

Gillioz moved to Los Angeles during the summer of 2001. Shortly after his arrival, he scored his first feature film, assisted renowned film composer William Goldstein (Fame, Wes Craven’s Shocker) and met one of his favorite composer, Christopher Young (Beauty Shop, The Grudge, Runaway Jury, Shipping News, Species), who was immediately taken by this young, talented artist.

A recipient of many scholarships during his studies, Vincent was the only composer recommended by Golden Globe-nominee Christopher Young for the 2002 Sundance Institute, where he had the opportunity to work under the supervision of noted film composers Edward Shearmur (Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow), Rolfe Kent (Sideways), George S. Clinton (Austin Power’s Trilogy), Mark Isham (Men of Honor), and Thomas Newman (American Beauty) among others. Since then, Vincent’s film composing career has catapulted him into the film community, and he has been working without pause.

Vincent has the chance to be able to collaborate closely with his companion, Opera singer Mashal Arman. She is featured in several of his scores, either in a western operatic style or in a middle east “a la Lisa Gerrard” context.

When a composer has been able to convey the filmmaker’s vision, the collaboration has been successful. And, as film composer Chris Young says, “Successful collaborations are about good communication.” Therefore, a good knowledge and understanding of cinema is essential when scoring a movie and communicating with a director. That, along with his passion for the 7th art, motivated Vincent to attend cinema seminars. He wrote a thesis on film music, sharing his analysis of the different fruitful collaborations between legendary filmmakers and composers (Eisenstein / Prokofiev, Hitchcock / Herrmann, Godard / Duhamel, Marshall / Newman, etc.), and discussing the multiple, and sometimes remote, functions of the music in a movie. This has helped him fulfill the expectations of each director he has collaborated with.

“Knowing and understanding what our elders achieved, is also the best way to go forward and tread new territories. As Stravinsky once said, ‘a work of art should be unpredictable, and at the same time unavoidable.’ In other words, it should be surprising, and at the same time, could not have been done another way; it must be consistent, convincing and organic.”

To follow this motto without forgetting that a project must touch the audience and be successful, is a challenge that Vincent constantly strives for. It also explains his interest in all kinds of projects. Vincent’s attraction for a project is not so much what the story is going to be about, but how it is going to be told. The principle behind Vincent’s work has been to nurture each project with a unique musical identity, distinct to each project.

Vincent is a citizen of Switzerland, with residences in Los Angeles and Geneva.