Kornowicz, Jerzy

Composer, piano improviser, music animator, born in 1959 in Lublin. He studied composition with Tadeusz Baird and Marian Borkowski at the Music Academy in Warsaw, and with Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. As an interdisciplinary artist, he writes in many genres.

Recordings of his works have been released on labels such as BBC Music, Signum Classic, Polskie Nagrania, Acte Préalable, the Rozdroża Centre for International Creative Initiatives, and Polish Music Information Centre.

In 2000 his Interwoven Figures received a recommendation at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers; he has also received nominations for the Opus Music Prize and Musica Nova award. In 2001 he founded Mud Cavaliers, an improvised music group with which he has played in many countries.

Jerzy Kornowicz has been active as a creator and programmer of many musical events, including the Audio-Art festival in Warsaw, the Generations series of concerts for Polish Radio, and The Academy of Sound, a series of educational concerts featuring new music at Warsaw schools. He has authored a programme of music animation in Warsaw high schools, organised yearly free improvisation workshops, and has founded and directed the Kody Festival of Music Tradition and Avantgarde in Lublin. Between 2003 and 2015, he has served as President of the Polish Composers’ Union. He has campaigned for the social dissemination of music, and is a founding member of the ECSA Composer Alliance in Brussels as well as the Creative Poland Association of Polish artistic communities and creative industries, of which he is the President.

Major works (since 1995): Puzzler for chamber orchestra (1995), Things Constantly Spinning for violin (1996; version for two violas, 2013), Rollingsong for saxophone quartet (1997), Metanoia for harpsichord and tape (1998), Interwoven Figures for chamber orchestra (1998–99), Four Poems to Texts by Czesław Miłosz for voice and piano (2000), Shapes of Elements for harpsichord and sounds of nature (2000), Awaiting for mixed choir (2000), Accumulations for piano quintet (2001), Renesis for sounds of nature (2001), Spells for mixed choir (2001), Shine for violin and piano (2001), Purple Ribbon (In the Claws of the Waltz) for piano (2002), Four Streams for strings (2003), Dawns I–Prague for symphony orchestra (2004), Dawns II–Ereprijs for chamber orchestra (2004–5), Dawns III–Weltblech for brass band and percussion (2005), Dawns IV–Melos-Ethos for 15 performers (2006), Scenes from Infinity for vocal and instrumental ensemble and live electronics (2006), Pile-Ups for orchestra (2007), Two Songs to Texts of Chopin’s Songs for soprano and piano (2010), Scenes from Bulgakov for chamber orchestra and improvising computer (2010), Scenes from Bulgakov – Minsk for chamber orchestra and tape (2011), Bells of Nielisz for two pianos (2011), Bells of SaintAcheul for two pianos and sampler (2012), The Hour of Metamorphoses–Echo, King Midas and the Swans, “musical expedition” after Ovid’s Metamorphoses (2012), Silence of Sounds–Towards Sz.E. for piano and electronics (2013), OTO for piano (2013), The Big Crossing. Icons for Piano and other Concertante Instruments and Symphony Orchestra (2013), Great Spinning for big band and soloists (2014), ca. 30 concert projects with the Mud Cavaliers ensemble.