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POLISH COMPOSERS


WOJCIECH BLECHARZ

Agata Zubel

(b. 21 June 1981, Gdynia)


Brief Biography   Selected List of Works   

Blecharz at Polish Music: the New Generation   www.myspace.com/wojtekblecharz

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

Wojciech Blecharz first studied music in his birthplace of Gdynia, Poland and later at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw with Marian Borkowski, graduating with a Masters’ Degree in Composition in 2006. He received a number of scholarships and awards, including Poland’s Ministry of Culture, the Académie Musicale di Villecroze, ZAIKS, the Mickiewicz Institute, and the Gdynia Cultural Center. In 2007 he participated in Stockhausen Courses in Kuerten, and currently is a doctoral student at UC San Diego, working with Phillipe Manoury, Miller Puckette, Roger Reynolds, and Steve Schick.

Mr. Blecharz is also an award-winning oboist, whose ensemble, Pressus, won the Golden Aeolian Harp at the Schola Cantorum Festival, the Ministry of Education Award, Ministry of Culture Award, First Prize in the Past for the Future Competition, Main Prize at the Tarnów Talent Festival 2000, and Rayzacher Foundation Award at the Tenth Festival of Old Music.

During the past decade Mr. Blecharz’s compositions have received prizes at the Musica SacraCompetition, Didur Competition for Composers, Polish Composers’ Union Youth Circle Club Award, Polyphonos-Esoterics Competition, and Tadeusz Baird Competition for Young Composers. His music has been heard at the Warsaw Music Encounters, Gaude Mater International Festival, Laboratory of Contemporary Music, Generations VII, Warsaw Autumn Festival, and other events in Poland, as well as the Bebersee Festival in Germany, Académie Musicale di Villecroze in France, Music Network in Ireland, and Morrison Series in San Francisco, and in other cities in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Holland and Belarus.

Mr. Blecharz has received commissions from the Poznań Music Spring Festival, Polish Composers’ Union, Ensemble Intégrales, Kwartludium Ensemble, clarinetist Michael E. Richards, and Royal String Quartet, among others. He has also written music for the Silesian Dance Theatre, Kokoro Dance Ensemble in Vancouver, City Dance Ensemble in Washington, Fringe Festival for Arts in Philadelphia, Ballet Met in Ohio, Rotterdamse Dansacademie, and theatres throughout Poland. Mr. Blecharz belongs to the Polish Composers’ Union and the ZAIKS Authors’ Society in Poland.

 


SELECTED LIST OF WORKS

Solo Works

Four preludes for piano (1999/2003)

Moments musicaux for piano (2004)

assonance  for tape (2004)

Hypopnea  for accordion (2010)

Composed for Maciej Frąckiewicz and the festival Musica Polonica Nova (Wrocław - Poland)

 

Chamber Works

Vespertinus per violino,violoncello e pianoforte (2005-2006)

Awarded in competition for members of Polish Composers' Union -Youth Circle, 2006

Transphere pour deux pianos (2006)

Composition of this piece was supported by the Académie Musicale de Villecroze stipend, written during a workshop with Noël Lee

Métasphere pour deux pianos (2006)

Commissioned by the Polish Composers' Union for its 60th anniversary

Postromanza 1,2,3 for soprano and piano (2004-2005/06)

Canto per baritono e quartetto d'archi (2005)

Third Prize in the A. Didur's Competition for Composers in Sanok (Poland, 2005)

Nox  for alto saxophone, French horn and orchestra (2005-2006)

Premiered in 2009, Festival of World Premieres - New Polish Music, Katowice (Poland). Performers: National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, conductor: Michał Klauza

dim  for voice, cello, accordion and piano (2006-2007)

"Tadeusz Baird" main award for young, Polish composers, 2007.

De  for two violas and two cellos (2007)

Commissioned by the Bebersee Festival (Germany), composed during Stockhausen Courses in Kuerten (Germany)

AD  for soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, string quartet and organ (2007)

Commissioned by the Polish Composers Union' Youth Circle for the Warsaw Autumn Festival (concert of young composers)

xyz  for violin and piano (2007-2008)

Commissioned by the Festival " Poznańska Wiosna Muzyczna," composed with support from a ZAIKs stipend

Airlines  for recorders (2008)

Composed for "The Modern Recorder Project," 44th International Summer Courses, for New Music in Darmstadt and The Quartet New Generation (recorder quartet) from Germany

Torpor  for violin, bass clarinet, percussion and piano (2008)

Commissioned by Kwartludium Ensemble. The piece is a part of the Polish-German project "Klangnetz" as well as the European project RE:NEW MUSIC

Ivory gate  for tenor saxophone, viola, cello, percussion and piano (2008)

Commissioned by Ensemble INTEGRALES (International Youngstars Project)

Com/m/a  for flute and clarinet (2008)

Commissioned by Michael E. Richard's duo (Baltimore)

Cartography  for 12 instruments (2009)

Composed for Filip Wałcerz and an_ARCHE NewMusicEnsemble

Edge  for clarinet, electric guitar and piano (2009)

Composed for 60th Anniversary of Polish Composer' Union Youth Circle

Engrave yourself erase  for cello, accordion, percussion and piano (2010)

Commissioned by Nadbałtyckie Centrum Kultury, "Tribute to Frederic Chopin"

Choral Works

Psalmus 82 for mixed choir (2003- 2004)

Third Prize winner in the Musica Sacra, competition for composers (Poland 2004)

Incantatus for female choir (2005)

Prize in International Competition for Composers in Jihlava (Czech Republic, 2005).

 

Orchestral Works

Molto for orchestra (2003-2006)

Premiered by the Polish Radio Orchestra, during the Generation VII concert in Witold Lutosławski Polish Radio Concert Studio, conductor: Monika Wolińska

 

Works for Dance or Theater

for Silesian Dance Theater (Bytom, Poland) | Choreography : Jacek Łumiński

  • Wrzaskowisko (2004)
  • Glamour of the Mundane - Dream from a Saint (2005)
  • Only Moments (2007)

for Kokoro Dance (Vancouver, Canada) | Cchoreography: Jacek Łumiński, Jay Hirabayashi, Barbara Bourget

  • Tutaj Tam/From Here to There (2005)

for City Dance Ensemble (Washington, U.S.A) | Choreography: Jacek Łumiński

  • Black Flag 2004

for Coming Back To The Roots (Philadelphia, U.S.A) | Choreography: Jacek Łumiński

  • Where to Put the Blanket (2004)

for Teatr Powszechny (Warsaw, Poland) | Director: Grzegorz Wiśniewski

  • White Marriage Tadeusz Różewicz (2004)

for Theatre of Witness (Philadelphia, U.S.A) | Director: Teya Sepinuck

  • Gravity of Flight (2004)
  • Forbidden Faces (2005)

for BalletMet (Columbus, Ohio, USA) | Choreography: Jacek Łumiński

  • 365-neither fish nor flesh (2006)

for Rotterdamse Danceakademie (Rotterdam, Holland) | Choreography: Anka Majcher

  • lala, la (2006)

for Teatr Wybrzeże (Gdańsk Poland) | Director: Grzegorz Wiśniewski         

  • The Damned Luchino Visconti (2009)
 

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Send your comments and inquiries to: polmusic@thornton.usc.edu
Created February 8, 2011 by K. Close. Updated August 30, 2011.