Szpyrka, Monika International Festival of Contemporary Music Warsaw Autumn

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Born in Cracow in 1993, she obtained an MMus in composition from Anna Zawadzka-Gołosz’s class at Cracow’s Music Academy, and a BMus in music theory. At present she is a DMA student at her alma mater, and is completing a solo programme at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus with Juliana Hodkinson, Niels Rønsholdt, and Simon Steen-Andersen. 

Her works have frequently been performed in concert in Poland and abroad, among others, during the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music, Young Composers’ Meeting in Apeldoorn, Days of Organ Music in Cracow, Musica Electronica Nova in Wrocław, International Festival of Cracow Composers, Ostrava New Music Days, Pulsar Festival in Copenhagen, Panorama and RAMA in Aarhus, Festival Aktuelle Musik in Nuremberg, as well as during Warsaw Autumn fringe events. She has cooperated with ensembles such as Airborne Extended, E-MEX, Orkest de Ereprijs, Kompopolex, Lutosławski Quartet, Ostravská Banda, W/L Duo, and Vocal Federation 6. 

She has taken part in the workshops of the Donaueschinger Musiktage Next Generation (2016) and SYNTHETIS (2016, 2017), as well as taking individual lessons (during courses) with such artists as Mark Andre, Richard Ayres, Marco Blaauw, Zygmunt Krauze, Johannes Kreidler, Bernhard Lang, Martijn Padding, Stefan Prins, Rebecca Saunders, Marco Stroppa, Jennifer Walshe, and Agata Zubel. 

Monika Szpyrka has obtained a scholarship for outstanding students from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (2017), as well as the Sapere Auso scholarship (2017/18). 

Selected works: Raster1 for organ (2014), Engram Disintegrationfor flute, alto saxophone, two percussion and viola (2014), Inert Oscillations for piano trio (2014), Hypnagogic Hallucinations for percussion, piano, violin and bass guitar (2015), Line of Delimitation Between Solid and Void for string orchestra and two percussion (2015), Crepe Weave for string quartet (2015), Reversion Sculpture for organ, two positive organs and percussion (2015), Irradiation for horn, harp, accordion and viola (2015), Pyrochlore Rotation for percussion, eight double basses and electronics (2016), Cityscape Kraków #5, electroacoustic layer (2016), adHuc for female chamber choir (2016), Bug Report for bass clarinet, harp, percussion and cello (2016), Zero Waste Tip 1: Don’t Waste Your Music for sampler (2017), Can You Hear Colours? #1 for bass flute and audio playback (2017), Instrument Spring Ready-To-Wear 2017 for flute, percussion, accordion, audio playback, video and costumes (2017), Count to 10 for two sopranos and 14 instruments (2017), Playing like a... for trumpet (2018), Instrument Fall Ready-To-Wear 2018 v.2 for electric guitar, percussion and costumes (2018),Collect, Consume, Repeat for four percussion and audio playback (2018), Useful Statistics for orchestra (2018), No-body for female voice and sampler (2019), The Problem at Has No Name: 3 for accordion and harpsichord (2019), Are There Hidden Figures? for string quartet, video and electronics (2018–19), The Problem at Has No Name: 2 for harp and harpsichord (2019), The Problem at Has No Name: 1 for harpsichord and audio playback (2019), Zero Waste Tip 1: Don’t Waste Your Music (and Video) for sampler and video (2020), The Sound of Plastic for amplified costume and audio playback (2020), Simple Amplifying Motion for orchestra (2020), Zoom In/ Dolly Out for ensemble and electronics (2020).