Composer, piano improviser, teacher, music life organiser and  activist, born in 1959 in Lublin. He studied composition with  Tadeusz Baird and Marian Borkowski at the Chopin Academy of  Music in Warsaw and with Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. As an interdisciplinary artist, he creates  music in many genres. His compositions have been performed  by leading orchestras, ensembles and soloists in several dozen  countries, and released under labels such as BBC Music, Signum  Classic, Polskie Nagrania, Acte Préalable, Rozdroża Centre for  International Creative Initiatives, Polish Music Information Centre, and Anaklasis. His works have received a recommendation  at the International Rostrum of Composers, nominations for  the Opus Music Prize and the Musica Nova award. Kornowicz  was the initiator of Mud Cavaliers improvised music group, with  which he has given performances in many countries.

Jerzy Kornowicz has cocreated and programmed many musical  events, including the Audio-Art festival in Warsaw (main organiser), the Generations concert series and the Academy of Sound,  a cycle of concerts in Warsaw’s schools (initiator and coordinator).

He has authored a programme of music events for SKiE schools  in Warsaw, initiated and organised annual free improvisation  workshops (All-Polish New and Used Sounds Collection Point),  cofounded (until 2024) the KODY Festival of Traditional and  Avant-Garde Music in Lublin. In 2003–15 he served as President of the Polish Composers’ Union. He has initiated legal and  organisational solutions for the social dissemination of music.  He is a founding member of the ECSA European Composer and  Songwriter Alliance in Brussels as well as the Creative Poland  Association of Polish artistic communities and creative industries, of which he is also the president. He has served as director  of the Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary  Music since 2017.

Selected works (since 1995): Puzzler for chamber orchestra  (1995), Things Constantly Spinning for violin (1996; rev. for two  violas, 2013), Rollingsong for saxophone quartet (1997), Metanoia  for harpsichord and tape (1998), Interwoven Figures for chamber orchestra (1998–99), Four Poems to Texts by Cze sław Miłosz  for voice and piano (2000), Shapes of Elements for harpsichord  and sounds of nature (2000), Awaiting for mixed choir (2000),  Accumulations for piano quintet (2001), Renesis for sounds of  nature (2001), Spells for mixed choir (2001), Shine for violin  and piano (2001), Purple Ribbon (In the Claws of the Waltz) for  piano (2002), Four Streams for strings (2003), Dawns I – Prague  for symphony orchestra (2004), Dawns II – Ereprijs for chamber  orchestra (2004–5), Dawns III – Weltblech for brass band and  percussion (2005), Dawns IV – Melos-Ethos for 15 performers  (2006), Scenes from Infinity for vocal and instrumental ensemble and live electronics (2006), Pile-Ups for orchestra (2007), Two  Songs to Texts of Chopin’s Songs for soprano and piano (2010),  Scenes from Bulgakov for chamber orchestra and improvising  computer (2010), Scenes from Bulgakov – Minsk for chamber  orchestra and tape (2011), Bells of Nielisz for two pianos (2011),  Bells of Saint-Acheul for two pianos and sampler (2012), The Hour  of Metamorphoses – Echo, King Midas and the Swans, “musical  expedition” after Ovid’s Metamorphoses (2012), Silence of Sounds  – Towards Sz.E. for piano and electronics (2013), OTO for piano  (2013), The Big Crossing. Icons for Piano and other Concertante  Instruments and Symphony Orchestra (2013), Great Spinning  for big band and soloists (2014), Least Probable Story, opera in  three acts and 11 spaces for young audience (2015), Extremes for  11 performers (2016), Two Pieces for piano quintet (2016), Two  Spaces for two violins and string orchestra (2016), Epigrams for  two flutes and string orchestra (2016–17), Journey to the Centre  of the Earth, musical expedition after Jules Verne (2017), Scenes  from Witkacy for string orchestra, ethnic instruments and spoken  words (2017), Murals for violin and symphony orchestra (2019),  Spindles for harpsichord and chamber orchestra (2019), Window  for string orchestra (2020), Transfigurations – Liturgical Scenes  for ensemble and electronics (2021), Massifs for two flutists and  symphony orchestra (2023), Family Album, chamber opera for  two soloists, string orchestra and video projections, to a libretto  by Michał Rusinek (2023), The Rat and the Tree, eco-opera for  children for soprano, two actors, dancer, string quartet, percussion and sampler (2024), Scenes from Bosch, piano quintet (2024),  Murale IIfor two flutes, organ and symphony orchestra (2025),  The State of Affairs – Eight Years and More audiovisual assemblage  for instrumental ensemble, electronic media and audiovisual projections, to material by Piotr Wójcik (2025), Turmoil for 18 performers, motion, lights and space (2026), music for theatrical  plays, ca. 30 concert projects with the Mud Cavaliers ensemble.