A composer and singer, Agata Zubel is known for her remarkable vocal range and for using it in ways that defy convention. She performs worldwide and has given numerous world premieres. As both singer and composer, she has worked with leading music institutions around the globe, including Carnegie Hall in New York, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Vienna and Berlin Konzerthäuser, Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, Musikverein in Vienna, Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall in London, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the philharmonic halls of Berlin, Cologne, and Luxembourg, Casa da Música in Porto, and the Seattle, Chicago, and Baltimore symphony orchestras.
Her festival appearances include the BBC Proms, Wien Modern, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Festival d’Automne in Paris, MaerzMusik, Ultraschall, Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Trans Art, Beethovenfest Bonn, musikprotokoll, Warsaw Autumn, Wratislavia Cantans, and the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt.
She has worked with Klangforum Wien, Ensemble intercontemporain, Musikfabrik, London Sinfonietta, Ictus, Eighth Blackbird, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Münchener Kammerorchester, Neue Vocalsolisten, Remix Ensemble, Ensemble 2e2m, Seattle Chamber Players, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, SWR Symphony Orchestra, Deutschlandfunk, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, State Opera in Hanover, and Grand Theatre – Polish National Opera.
A winner of numerous vocal and composition competitions, she received the grand prix at the International Rostrum of Composers for Not I, the European Composer Award, and the Erste Bank Composition Prize. Her Fryderyk Awards were for the monographic album Cascando, the vocal recital Apparition, and the music drama Oresteia. Other distinctions include the Polityka Passport, the Coryphaeus of Polish Music Award, and the SWR Symphony Orchestra Prize at Donaueschinger Musiktage 2022 for Outside the Realm of Time. The same work was nominated in 2024 for the Prix de Composition Musicale of the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco.
Based in Wrocław, where she teaches at the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music, Zubel was awarded the title of Professor of Arts in 2020. Her honours include the Meritorious for Polish Culture, Gloria Artis Medal for Merit to Culture, and City of Wrocław’s Polonica Nova Award. She has held scholarships from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, and KulturKontakt Austria, and is a member of the Polish Composers’ Union.
Her recordings include the composer albums Cascando (CD Accord), Not I and Cleopatra’s Songs (KAIROS), Bildbeschreibung and Oresteia(Anaklasis), as well as vocal interpretations of songs by Maurice Ravel, Samuel Barber, Karol Szymanowski, George Crumb, Witold Lutosławski, Fernando Obradors, Aaron Copland, Alban Berg, Paweł Szymański, and André Tchaikowsky.