Composer, accordionist, teacher. He studied composition with Grażyna Pstrokońska-Nawratil, graduating with distinction from the Karol Lipiński Music Academy in Wrocław, where he also received his PhD in 2008. He has also studied on a scholarship at the Conservatorium Hogeschool Enschede in Holland with David Rowland (2000). His creative output, numbering some 40 works, includes chamber, vocal, vocal-instrumental and orchestral compositions, with particular preference given to the accordion as the solo instrument. As he himself often emphasises, he does not recognise music without emotion.

He has won a number of awards in national composition competitions: on the occasion of the Eucharistic Congress (Opole 1997, two 2nd Prizes for Mass of the Polish People and I Believe in You), 1st Composition and Instrumentation Competition in Wrocław (1998, 1st Prize), Musica Sacra in Częstochowa (1999, 2nd Prize for Hallelujah), Panufnik Competition in Cracow (2000, 1st Prize for Betelgeuse), competition for music of the Świdnica city anthem (2001, main prize), R. Murray Schaffer International Competition in Poznań (1999, distinction), and Franz Josef Reinl-Stiftung Competition in Vienna/Munich (2001, 3rd Prize for Furietta). He has also held scholarships from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, ZAiKS (Polish Authors’ Union), Wrocław City Council, Kiwanis Club Wratislavia (on behalf of Mercedes Benz Poland – Mirosław Wróbel), Leopold Kronenberg Foundation, and the scholarship from Maria Klementyna Tomaszewska. In 2007 he was included in the four-year programme of promoting young composers by the Krzysztof Penderecki European Music Centre.

He is also a concert accordionist, winner of many competitions. He has made recordings for Polish Radio and TV, and for record companies.

He teaches composition as an assistant professor at the Music Academy in Wrocław, and conducts research and teaching in the area of musical ear training; he has authored computer programmes and educational games, and is the initiator of the Auditory Olympics National Competition for senior music schools students, as well as mYear, a festival of musical skills. During the years 1999–2010 he worked as a teacher at the Junior and Senior General Music School in Wrocław (heading its music theory section from 2004); since 2009 he has been co-ordinator for the macroregional Centre for Art School Teachers Education (CENSA). In 2006 he was awarded the Cross of Merit by the President of Poland.

www.moc.composer.pl

 

Selected works: Betelgeuse for accordion and tape (1999), Sinfonietta for string orchestra (1999), Hommage à Piazzolla for accordion and symphony orchestra (2000), Prague Fantasy for symphonic orchestra (2002), Chordalians & Chordaliens for accordion and chamber orchestra (2004), Chipset for symphony orchestra and accordion (2005), Music for orchestra (2007), Stuntmen’s Relay for symphony orchestra (2008), Barbarioso for string orchestra (2009), The Switching Faces for chamber orchestra (2009), Hippocampus for large orchestra and school children (2010), E-motion for string orchestra (2011), S.A.N.D for accordion, two cellos, percussion and video projection (2011).