UE composers from Poland

Polish composer, the author of symphonic, chamber, and solo works. She is specializing in vocal, operatic, and theater music. The winner of numerous international awards, including the Capital Fringe Festival Audience Award for the Best Musical Theatre & Opera (Washington, 2013), Opera Vista Artistic Director’s Prize (Houston, 2010), Grand Prize in the chamber division of 2008 David Walter/ISB International Composition Competition; Special Commendation at the 2008 Nancy Van de Vate International Composition Prize for Opera, Vienna. Brochocka received a Certificate of merit and a Special Mention at Italian Femfestival Women Composers Competition (Siena, 2022). Katarzyna Brochocka was also the finalist of the Douglas Moore Fund for American Opera Competition (New York, 2010) and a runner-up in the Flourish Opera Competition (London, 2012) and the 2010 I.C.A. Composition Competition. She was a grant holder of the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage Creativity Promotion Fund (2010).

Her works have been performed in Poland (Warsaw Chamber Opera, Kalisz Philharmonic, Sudeten Philharmonic, Warmian-Masurian Philharmonic, Wrocław Chamber Orchestra Leopoldinum, etc.), and abroad (OperaUpClose, London; Microscopic Opera, Pittsburgh; Opera Vista, Houston; Opera in the Ozarks, Arkansas), including numerous music festivals, such as Audio Stage 2013 (Warsaw, Poland); 2013 Artscape Festival (Baltimore); 2013 Capital Fringe Festival (Washington); 2009 Society of Composers, Inc. Conference (Oklahoma); 2015, 2009 and 2007 International Society of Bassist Conventions (Colorado, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma); 2006 Musik Unsere Zeit (Muenster, Germany); among others. She has written incidental music for numerous theater plays performed at dramatic and puppet theaters across Poland. 

Katarzyna Brochocka holds a doctoral degree in Music Theory and Composition (DMA, Chopin University of Music, Warsaw 2021). She studied composition with Jan Antoni Wichrowski at the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław (Poland), Edward Knight at Wanda L. Bass School of Music, Oklahoma City University (USA), Aleksander Kościów at the Chopin University of Music, Warsaw, and Doina Rotaru at the University of Music in Bucharest (Romania, “Socrates-Erasmus” scholarship).

Roman Czura studied composition in Darmstadt, Kraków, Rīga and Katowice. After graduating with the highest marks, he obtained in 2019 a PhD in music composition at at his Silesian Alma mater. He teaches since 2014 at the Karol Syzmanowski Music Academy in Katowice and founded a composition class at the Mieczysław Karłowicz Music School.

Writing in a moderately contemporary style – not breaking with European tradition, whilst not excluding the new – his main artistic focus is on orchestral and other instrumental music. His fields of interest include exploring extended techniques, polyrythmical and polymeterical structures, instrumentation and most recently the incorporation of microtonal elements into his musical language.

His music has been awarded several prizes at national and international composition competitions in Europe, Asia and the United States.

Szymon Wieczorek was born on 27 November 2001.Since 2020 he is studying composition in Paweł Mykietyn class at Stanisław Moniuszko Academy in Gdańsk.

His works was performed many times on festivals (like "Clarimania" in Wrocław, or "Chopin over waters of Motlava" in Baltic Philharmony in Gdańsk) and conferences ("Flute Days" in Frankfurt am Main).

Walicki-Popiolek Duo is an extraordinary guitar and piano duo. Aleksandra and Jakub have been working with each other since 2014. In 2020 they were awarded with a prestigious scholarship given by Narodowe Centrum Kultury to the most talented young artists in Poland. They won several prizes in International Chamber Music Competitions. They are searching for new sounds in XVIII century music as well as looking for sparkling rhythms in Spanish melodies. This ensemble is also focusing on contemporary music, cooperating with composers such as D. Bogdanovic, W. Bland, A. Chmielewska, E. Fabianska-Jelinska, J. Oleszkowicz and many others. They perform and record works never introduced before. Musicians promoted their first album “Iberico” in 2019 and immediately started working on the newest project “Made in Poland”. Walicki-Popiolek Duo is actively performing, playing concerts in Poland and other European countries.

Polish composer and pianist Zygmunt Krauze,studied composition and piano at the Frederic Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. He is known as a composer of unistic music, based on the theory of unistic art adopted from the painting of Wladyslaw Strzeminski (1893-1952). Unistic music lacks contrasts, tension and climaxes in the traditional sense and its form is as homogenous as possible. He is an author of three operas, several instrumental concertos, symphonic and chamber works. Together with architects he also composed spatial music, which was presented in Poland, Austria and France. Krauze won the First Prize of the Gaudeamus Competition in Holland in 1966. Since then he has continued his carrier as a pianist performing mostly 20th century music. In 1967 he founded The Warsaw Music Workshop ensemble, which commissioned works from over 100 composers. He served as its artistic director and pianist for over 20 years.

Since 1965 he has given seminars as well as master classes of composition and contemporary music performance both in Poland and abroad, including prestigious centers of new music like: Darmstadt, Basle, Stockholm, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Jerusalem and Hong Kong. In 1982 he served as a visiting professor at Yale University. In 1996 he was nominated as an Eminent Corresponding Professor at Keimyung University, Daegu, South Korea. From 2002 he is professor of composition at the Music Academy in Lodz, and from 2006 at the Frederic Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw.

Many of his artistic activities took place outside Poland. Between 1973-74 he was an artist in residence in Berlin at the invitation of DAAD (Deutsche Akademischer Austauschdienst). In 1982 he was invited by Pierre Boulez to become a musical advisor to IRCAM in Paris. Apart from that he was a member of the repertoire committee of the Warsaw Autumn festival for ten years and in 1987-90 served as president of the International Society for Contemporary Music. He also served as president of the Witold Lutoslawski Society and president of the Polish Section of the ISCM.

Among his honours and awards are: Silver Cross of Merit of Poland (1975), the Medal of
Distinction from Jeunesses Musicales in Poland (1979) and the title of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France (1984). In addition he received the Prize of the Ministry of Culture in Poland 1989 and 2005. In 1999 he became an honorary member of ISCM. In 2004 he received the Golden Cross of Merit and in 2005 the UNESCO Heritage of the Humanity Award in Valparaiso, Chile. In 2008 he was appointed by the President of the French Republic Officer dans l'Ordre National de la Legion d'Honneur. In 2010, he was appointed by the Polish Ministry of Culture and Heritage gold medal "Gloria Artis". In 2011 he became Honorary Member of the Polish Composers Union.

Zygmunt Krauze's works have been recorded on such labels as: Muza, Dux, ORF, Nonesuch, Thesis, Musical Observations (CP2), Collins Classics, Recommended Records and EMI.

www.zygmuntkrauze.com