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Born in 1970 in Gdynia, she studied composition at the
Music Academies in GdaYsk (with Eugeniusz G1owski) and Warsaw (with
W1odzimierz KotoYski and Zbigniew BagiYski). She continued her studies at
the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Lyon (the Department
of Acoustic, Electroacoustic and Computer Music,
sonus, with Philippe Manoury and D. Lorrain. She subsequently undertook
doctoral studies in 20th-century music and musicology at ircam.
She has participated in numerous courses in instrumental and electronic
music, including workshops given by George Benjamin, Magnus Lindberg,
Tristan Murail, Harrison Birtwistle, Gérard Grisey, Goerges Arpeghis,
Pascal Dusapin, Krzysztof Penderecki, PierreLaurent Aimard, György Ligeti,
Pierre Boulez, Henri Dutilleux, and Iannis Xenakis. She received one of
Witold Lutos1awski1s private scholarships as well as grants from the Music
Academy in Warsaw, the Witold Lutos1awski Foundation and the Nadia and
Lili Boulanger Foundation in France. She was also composer-in-residence of
the Cité Internationale des Arts Foundation in Paris.
In 1996 she was a nominee for the OPassport1 Award, granted by the weekly
Polityka. She is the recipient of many prizes awarded for composition: at
the International Competition for Piano Composition OManuel Valcárcel1 in
Santander (Spain), the OEnsemble Orchestral Contemporain1 and OGrame1
Competitions in Lyon and the Tola Korian Competition in London. She has
received commissions from festivals, performers and, most recently, the
French Government, as well as from the OWarsaw Autumn Friends1 Foundation
financed with funds from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. She is
also
a laureate of the prestigous music award given by the Villa Kujoyama in
Kyoto, thanks to which she currently lives and works in Japan as
a composer-in-residence.
Her pieces have been featured at numerous prestigious festivals including
the OWarsaw Autumn1, the GdaYsk Young Composers1 Meetings, the
International Review of Contemporary Music in Belgrade, Oppianissimo1 in
Sofia, OMusica1 in Strasbourg, ORendez-vous Musique Nouvelle1 in Forbach
(France), OAujourd1hui Musique1 in Perpignan, the Youth Music Forum in
Kiev, and have been broadcast on Polish Radio 2, as well as foreign radio
stations.
Selected works: Oberek for piano (1988), Nobody Knows
the Day for mixed choir (1989), Five Miniatures for piano (1990),
Gryzaczek (Baby1s dummy) for twelve brass instruments (1990), Kirp for
string quartet (1990), ho-yi-a for violin and harpsichord, both amplified
(1991), To Unwanted Prometheuses for large symphony orchestra (1991), Hard
Day for three percussionists (1992), Agmen for chamber orchestra (1993),
Oqivian for tape (1993), Brun for violin (1994),... tu sais? for flute,
percussion and harpsichord, all three amplified, small orchestra, tape and
electronic system in real time (1995), lFdlC (le F de la C) for one piano
and three pianists (1996), A toi, mon amour une piece cruelle for piano
(1997/98), Ô! dans l1ombre for clarinet, soprano, percussion, violin
and cello (2000), Primaire... humain for harpsichord (2000), Nuit/Portrait
for small sinfonietta (2001); works in progress: Explosif/Passion
interactive piece for cello and electroacoustic real-time system (commissioned
by the French Government for Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain and
OGrame1), a piece for chamber ensemble (commissioned by Festival OMusica1
in Strasbourg for OAccroche Note1), Journal en rafales for sextet (2001),
Pensées, seven short pieces for vibraphone (2002).
Nuit/Portrait
At the roots of the piece is my intention to highlight the relationships
bet-ween various art forms, particularly music and painting. Night/Portrait
was inspired by two paintings from the Fine Arts Museum in Rennes:
Ouverture de la nuit (Overture of the Night) by Genevieve Asse (1973) and
Les paysans surpris par un orage (The Peasants Overtaken by a Thunderstorm)
by Francesco Casanova (ca. 1770).
These paintings present two different types of light: a violent and brutal
flash (Casanova) and a Omeditative1 light (Genevieve Asse). At the same
time they refer to the motif of the night; the former in a realistic way
and the latter in a poetic manner. The motifs of light and night
fascinated me with the energy they radiated. My intention was to express
in music what I sensed in my contact with the two paintings: subtlety and
vehemence side by side.
As I continued to contemplate the paintings, another canvas started to
emerge unexpectedly from Ouverture de la nuit; a canvas which I neither
wanted nor sought but one which forced itself upon me in an irresistible
fashion. It was a man1s head, sculpted by the play of surrounding light,
half-tones and shadows. Yet, I hardly wanted to seek inspiration in a
figurative painting, let alone in a portrait!
The discovery profoundly changed my appreciation of the beauty of the
painting. I noticed that the bright glimmer just above the man1s eyes
absorbs our attention so much that we fail to notice the portrait itself,
seeing nothing but this white streak of light and the surrounding shadow.
This luminosity, and the title of the picture (Oouverture1 means also
Oopening1) directed my thoughts to one more reflection: how many times,
under the influence of the night, our mind opens, lit up by an idea that
comes upon it.
In Nuit/Portrait, as in the painting, the listener1s attention is
initially drawn by the timbre of bright, distinct instruments (oboe, flute).
Towards the end of the piece, the shadow, too, makes its presence
gradually felt, emerging from the low register of the melodic line of the
baritone saxophone. The violent character of the flare-up of light (which
is an almost white patch), put side by side with the depth of the dark
night from Casanova1s painting, is reflected in the intensity of sound and
dynamic contrasts in the middle section of the work.
Nuit/Portrait was commissioned by Rhizo1Instrumental,
which gave its premiere on 24 April 2001 at the Museum of Fine Arts in
Rennes. The second performance of the piece took place on 22 January 2002
in Cesson-Sévigné.
Marzena Komsta
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