Duchnowski, Cezary

Born in 1971 in Elbląg, composer and pianist. He studied composition with Leszek Wisłocki at the Karol Lipiński Music Academy in Wrocław. He was one of the initiators of the Computer Composition Studio at this Academy, where he currently teaches computer music and composition. 

He has held scholarships from the Friends of the Warsaw Autumn Foundation, Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Experimentalstudio der Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung des SWR in Freiburg i. Br., and the Ernst von Siemens Foundation. He is the winner of numerous awards, including at the International Rostrum of Electroacoustic Music in Rome (2003) and the Gaudeamus Interpreters’ Competition for contemporary music performers in the Netherlands (2005). 

He writes chamber and symphonic works, lm and theatre music. He also creates multimedia projects, interactive improvised and paramusical projects. Since many years, he has focused on electroacoustic music. In the ElettroVoce duo with Agata Zubel he develops projects for voice and electronics. 

As a great promoter of improvised music, he eagerly collaborates with jazz musicians and other artists for whom live music-making is a life’s passion. With Paweł Hendrich and Sławomir Kupczak, he founded Phonos ek Mechanes, an ensemble performing “human electronics,” a special type of improvised electronic music in which computers are controlled by acoustic instruments. “Electroacoustic music is a great field to explore the primeval characteristics of music,” says Duchnowski, “Apart from composing sound into a determined timespace, we can also ‘compose’ the instruments themselves. is allows us to touch the essence of music, shape its output and its conditio sine qua non: timbre in itself, is individual. Timbre constitutes the indivisible substance of which musical entities are composed; it is, like Leibniz’s monad, a closed cosmos.” 

Selected works: Ovinu Malkeinu for tape (2000), Ludus for symphony orchestra (2000), monad 1 for accordion and two violins (2001), Sequences, audiovisual show (2001), Progress for soprano and electronics (2001), The Beginning. Broadcast 1 for reciting voice and electronics (2001), Rufled rough (Wyczochraczone) for computer (2002), Dishevelled Grass for voice and computer (2002), Triads for string orchestra and electronics (2002), The Aim. Broadcast 2 for announcer and electronics (2002), monad 2 for trumpet, voice and computer (2003), Meloodia for Arvo Pärt for four male voices and tape (2003), monad 3 for voice, piano and computer (2003), monad 4 for Baron, Wojtasik and computer (2003), Reality on Braces Stretched from the Window for clarinet, trombone, piano, cello and electronics (2004; version for two pianos, string orchestra and electronics, 2008), no-sky-scrapers for string orchestra and computer (2004), 10 1, 8 2, 6 3, 4 4 for string quartet (2005), The Gate for symphony orchestra and computer (2005), Beard for cello and computer (2005), Martha’s Garden, chamber opera for female voice, actor, electronic media and instruments to a libretto by Piotr Jasek (2006), Sweater. Broadcast 3 for announcer and electronics (2008), Cello_net for cello octet (2009), City Voices for symphony orchestra, choir and computer (2009), row of Dice for three computers (2009), Stazione Termini, music for a Wrocław Pantomime Theatre performance (2010), 1 5 1, 2 4 2, 3 3 3 for violin, cello and electronics (2011), Crossfade for accordion, cello and electronics (2011), i for instrumental groups and electronics (2012), Fere vetus canticum for voice and accordion (2012), The End of Poetry for voice, electric cello, orchestra and electronics (2012), acc++ca for accordion and computer (2012), Stone—River—Rhythm for four violas da gamba and electronics (2013), Music of Spatial Forms for voice, cello, strings and electronics (2013), Parallels for piano, MIDI keyboard, percussion and cello (2014), Drone Music for instruments and electronics (2014), Symphony of Sets for instrumental groups and electronics (2015),Sequenza I. Etude for Another Cymbal Stroke for cymbal and computer (2016), Ball of Spring Full Moon for instruments and electronics (2017), cROSSFAdE 2 for accordion, viola and electronics (2017); lm and theatre music.