Lorent, Leszek

graduated with honours from the percussion class at the Fryderyk Chopin Music University in 2008 and subsequently studied with Jean Geoffroy at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse in Lyon. In 2006–9 he followed new music interpretation courses in Tallinn.

His awards include the 1st Prize at the Wrocław Percussion Competition in 2003, 1st Prize at the AES Student Recording Competition in Amsterdam (for his recording of Stanisław Moryto’s Per Uno Solo), and 2nd Prize at the Chamber Music Competition in Cracow in 2010 (with Maciej Nerkowski, with whom he created the Scontri Duo).

He regularly appears at festivals such as Warsaw Autumn, Aujourd’hui Musiques in Perpignan, Flâneries Musicales in Reims, Novelum in Toulouse, Warsaw Music Meetings, Codes Tradition and Avant-Garde Festival, and Musica Polonica Nova. As a soloist, he has appeared notably with the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Grand Theatre – National Opera Orchestra in Warsaw, Kielce Philharmonic, Sinfonia Iuventus, Orchestre Perpignan Méditerranée, and National Forum of Music in Wrocław.

He has received scholarships from the Prime Minister of Poland, Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Société Générale, Society of Authors – ZAiKS, and Young Poland programme. He has given many first performances of works by modern composers including Marcin Błażewicz, Dariusz Przybylski, Ignacy Zalewski, Tomasz Opałka, and Aleksandra Gryka. He specialises in works for multipercussion and instrumental theatre, and serves in the juries of modern music competitions. He also holds a PhD as a scholar, and had published books on multipercussion: Percussion Sketches. Philosophical and Performance Issues of Multipercussion Treatises by Selected Composers (2014) and Ineffabilis. The Percussion Works of Marcin Błażewicz (2015). He researches the philosophy of music, the stochastic music of Iannis Xenakis, and Polish sonorism. In 2015 he received the Fryderyk Chopin Music University’s Chancellor Award for his scholarly achievements. Currently he is junior lecturer at that University where he cochairs the New Music Faculty. His articles on music and philosophy have been published in magazines including Aspiracje and the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Zagadnienia Naukoznawstwa, among others. He has published two CDs: Eidos with the works of Dariusz Przybylski, Miłosz Bembinow, Ignacy Zalewski, and Iannis Xenakis (For Tune, 2013), and Kundalini. Lorent Plays Błażewicz (Requiem Records, 2015). He is a member of the #ART and Euforis artists’ associations.