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Born in Warsaw in 1976, he studied
composition with Marek Stachowski at the Music Academy in
Cracow (diploma with distinction). His works have received
several awards: Second Prize at the National Composers'
Competition for Secondary Music School Students in Tarn-w
(1996), Third Prize at the 6th Adam Didur Composers'
Competition in Sanok (1997) and an honourable mention at the
Tadeusz Baird Competition of the Polish Composers' Union
(1997). His piece Christmas Carol 1942 was performed in the
Philharmonic Hall in Cracow (1997). He took part in the
International Summer Courses for Composers in Radziejowice
(1997), Gdańsk (1998) and Buckow nr. Berlin (1999). He held
a grant from the Ministry of Culture and Art (1999). In 1999
he was elected a member of the Board of the Cracow-based
apeiron Artistic Association. In the academic year 2001/02
he held a grant for postgraduate studies with Peter-Jan
Wagemans at the Conservatory in Rotterman. Thanks to a
'Socrates/Erasmus' grant, he studied composition with
Peter-Jan Wagemans and instrumentation with Klaas de Vries
at the Rotterdam Conservatory (1999).
Selected works: Christmas Carol 1942 for
mezzo-soprano and chamber orchestra with words by Krzysztof
Kamil Baczyński (1997), Epiphanium for trumpet, strings,
harp and celesta (1998), On This and the Other Side, two
songs for dramatic female voice, harpsichord and viola to a
text by Justyna Michałowska (1998), Sonoaudicon for
saxophone quartet (1999), Soliloquium I 'Boiling-hot Mind'
for chamber ensemble (1999), Soliloquium II 'A Landscape of
Frozen Thoughts' for bass clarinet and 20 string instruments
(1999), Des Mädchens Wunderwelt geschlossen for flute,
viola and harp (2000), Mille coqs blessés à mort for
large chamber ensemble (2000), Two Phantasmagoric Narrations
for two harps (2001), Concerto for Alto Saxophone and
Chamber Orchestra (2001), Symphony No. 1 (2001-02), Dutch
Toccata for two bass clarinets and two pianos (2002).
I worked on the piece Symphony No. 1 from
the beginning of July 2001 till the end of January 2002. It
was commissioned by the Friends of the 'Warsaw Autumn'
Foundation with financial assistance from the Ernst von
Siemens Musikstiftung in Munich. It is dedicated to Przemysław
Fiugajski.
Symphony No. 1 falls into two movements: Risoluto senza
fretta and Pi» lento. It lasts 26 minutes and is an attempt
to synthesize my earlier experiences. It is a symphony
because I trust that I was able to contain in the piece my
own musical world, a world that I have been trying to build
for the past few years.
Wojciech Ziemowit Zych |
