Zapała, Rafał International Festival of Contemporary Music Warsaw Autumn

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Composer, improviser (piano, percussion, live electronics), sound artist, Associate Professor at the Academy of Music in Poznań. He holds a postdoctoral degree in composition and an MA in choral conducting. He has participated in masterclasses such as the Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt, Stockhausen Concerts and Courses in Kürten, IRCAM’s Acanthes in Metz with Tristan Murail and Beat Furrer, STEIM in Amsterdam with Alvin Lucier, Pauline Oliveros, Zbigniew Karkowski, and many others. 

He does not acknowledge any boundaries between music acquired through academic education, countercultural experiences, and collaborating with artists from other fields of art. His music is featured at contemporary music festivals, jazz clubs, experimental music venues and open public spaces. 

He has been a resident artist notably at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics of the Stanford University (2014), Zamek Culture Centre in Poznań (2014), Kielce Philharmonics (2014/15), ZK/U (Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik) in Berlin (2016), and Vertigo STARTS (IRCAM, Centre Pompidou, 2019). 

He is the founder and director of the an_ARCHE NewMusicFoundation as well as many ensembles and musical initiatives involving composer, improvised, electronic, and experimental contemporary music, including Kołorking Muzyczny. His own concept of Live Electronic Preparation (LEP Technique) was included as a chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Interactive Audio (2014). 

Sound actions and installations embedded in the urban space play a special role in his output, including Sensorium (a monumental sound installation in the belfry of the Castle Culture Centre in Poznań, in cooperation with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute) and Post-Apocalypsis (Gold Medal for the Polish pavilion at the Prague Quadriennale, 2015). 

He plays keyboard and electronic instruments in the POLMUZ, XynThi, and TonyTony ensembles. 

Selected works: Gon for ensemble and electronics (2008), Poster for string quartet and live electronics (2010), Nicolette for flute and live electronics (2010), Splitter for guitar and building wall, sound installation (2011), Scanner for symphony orchestra, electronics and soundscape (2011), Cleaner for double bass and electronics (2013), Where is my mind!?!!, sound installation triptych (2013), Ideograms I–III for symphony orchestra (2013–14), Scherzo for ensemble (2014), Post-Apocalypsis, sound installation (collective work of the Dead Baitz collective, 2014), Sensorium, sound installation (2014), Squares for triangles and live electronics (2016), Concentus apparatus for string quartet and live electronics (2016), Irreversible for string quartet and live electronics (2017), Scrolling to Zero for organ, electronics and interactive audience (2017), No Meaning Detected for violin and electronics (2018), Futility for five instruments, electronics and video (2020).