Zalech, Rafał

Violist, composer, inventor. Born in 1988 in Wrocław, he graduated from the Music Academy in his home city before studying viola playing with Wolfgang Klos and electroacoustic composition with Karlheinz Essl at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, graduating in 2015. He also studied chamber music on a scholarship at Yale University. He appeared in concert with leading contemporary music ensembles including Klangforum Wien and Scenatet, and as a chamber musician and soloists at festivals including Huddersfield, New Directions, 8 Brücken, MaerzMusik, Wien Modern, Warsaw Autumn, and others. Since 2012, he has developed a platform for augmented string instruments by using custom sensors to track the finger positions on the fingerboard as well as the amplitude of the instrument itself. He has also authored RZ.library, a Max/MSP abstraction package for live processing of the augmented string instruments.