is an Australian/Polish composer born in 1972 (Szczebrzeszyn, Poland). In 2006–07 he studied under Chaya Czernowin at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna. He continued his studies in Perth and Brisbane with Brian Howard and Steven Cronin, and has now completed his PhD in composition at the University of Melbourne.

His music has been performed in Europe, USA and Australia: recent highlights include a substantial exposure of his work by ELISION at the 50th Warsaw Autumn Festival (2007), in concerts throughout Australia in 2006–07, and at the 2006 Huddersfield Festival. Also of significance was the performance of inward by Ensemble SurPlus in July 2005, as part of the International Master Class for Young Composers at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart. Other significant events include his participation in the ISCM World New Music Days Transit 2004 in Switzerland, Gaudeamus Music Week in Amsterdam in 2002 (honourable mention) and 2003, the 2001 Panufnik Competition in Cracow (1st Prize), and Nouvel Ensemble Moderne’s FORUM 2000 and the 2001 Rencontres de Musique Nouvelle in Canada. His music has been recognized in Australia through awards such as the 2003 Albert H. Maggs Composition Award (University of Melbourne) and the 1998 ABC Young Composers’ Award, as well as performances by leading musicians such as violinist Elizabeth Sellars, percussionists Peter Neville and Claire Edwardes, cellist Geoffrey Gartner, flautist Kathleen Gallagher, and ensembles ELISION, Libra, and Offspring.

His music is focused essentially on the search for new sound structures and musical experiences through the exploration of the physicality of performance. His approach is directed at the quality of sound itself, through focusing on the player–instrument relationship as the primary source of the musical substance. Significant recent projects include pre-seed, a major work for solo flute and ensemble commissioned by flautist Richard Craig and supported with a stipend awarded by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, as well as a solo work entitled Superb Imposition for Paetzold contrabass recorder commissioned by Anna Petrini with support from Kulturkontakt Nord, Sweden, and premiered at the 2011 Musica Electronica Nova in Wrocław; this work was released on CD by the Swedish label dB Productions in September 2012; the CD was awarded the “Nutida Sound” Best Contemporary Music CD of 2012. Dominik Karski’s latest work is Certainty’s Flux for solo violin commissioned by Karin Hellqvist and supported by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

 

Selected works: Les éruptions du rêve for 15 musicians (1999– 2000), Beginnings To No End for percussion (1999), Matter of Perspective for off stage piccolo flute / amplified bass flute, bass clarinet, piano, violin and cello (2000), Threads of Fate for violin, cello and piano (2001), Streams of Consciousness for viola and cello (2000), Glimmer for alto flute and bass flute (2002), Inner Stream II for vibraphone and piano (2002), Streams Within for 14 musicians (2003), Streamforms for amplified bass flute (2003), Open Cluster M45 for amplified bass flute (2003), motion+form for percussion, harp and double bass (2003), Streamforms II for amplified cello (2004), Inward for piccolo flute, bass clarinet and piano (2004), The Impulse Within for percussion and string quartet (2004), (e)motion of forms for violin (2005), To Remain in Change for flute and cello (2005), OverFlow for oboe, trumpet, trombone and percussion (2006), RiverBed for flute, guitar, harp and violin (2006), The Source Within for piano solo and three instrumental groups (2006), The Outward Impulse for contrabass clarinet and tam-tam (2007), entangled for trombone and cello (2007), Gates of the Irrational for bass-baritone and piano (2007), fragile for two clarinets (2008), Oscillations of Presence for bass clarinet and contrabass clarinet (2008), pre-seed for flute and ensemble (2009), 112 Iphigenia for amplified flute (2009), Superb Imposition for amplified Paetzold flute (2010), In Search of Certainty, string quartet (2010), Veiled Voice for flute (2012), Certainty’s Extent for cello (2011–13), Certainty’s Flux for violin (2013).