Authors
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Alek Nowak
Born in 1979 in Gliwice, he studied composition with Aleksander Lasoń at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice and with Steve Rouse at the University of Louisville School of Music. His accolades include scholarships from the ‘Young Poland’ programme of the National Centre for Culture Poland as well as the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, the ‘Guarantees of Culture’ award of TVP Kultura state television channel (2011), the ‘Passport’ Award of the ‘Polityka’ weekly (2018), and the ‘Coryphaeus of Polish Music’ award of the National Institute of Music and Dance (2021).
Since 2008 Nowak has worked at the Chair of Composition and Music Theory of Katowice’s Academy of Music, where he obtained his doctoral (2010) and postdoctoral (2016) degrees, as well as a professor’s title in 2022. In 2020–2024 he held the post of Head of the Chair of Composition and Music Theory. In 2011–2020 he presided over the Katowice branch of the Polish Composers’ Union.
Nowak’s compositions have been presented at many prestigious festivals (such as the Warsaw Autumn, Sacrum Profanum, Festival of Premieres ‘Polish Modern Music’ in Katowice, Festival of Polish Music in Kraków, and others), as well as during concerts in the United States and a number of European countries (including the 54th International Rostrum of Composers in Paris). They have been commissioned and performed by London Sinfonietta, the Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw, Alarm Will Sound, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, AUKSO – Chamber Orchestra of the City of Tychy, Ensemble OMN, and the Silesian String Quartet.
The vocal-instrumental compositions occupy an important place in his output. He wrote to texts by such writers Georgi Gospodinov (Space Opera), Olga Tokarczuk (ahat-ilī – Sister of Gods – album won the Fryderyk Award of the Polish Phonographic Society), Radek Rak (The Tale of the Heart. Favola in musica), Stanisław Lem (Lo firgai – The Mask), Szczepan Twardoch (Drach. Dramma per musica – awarded with the ‘Coryphaeus of Polish Music’ and the O!Lśnienia prize, Siren. Melodrama aeterna – won the Fryderyk Award, and Pokora. Dramma giocoso, which crowns the triptych), Orhan Pamuk (I, Şeküre), Marcin Wicha (Things), Stanisław Wyspiański (The Wedding).
The composer's works are published by PWM Edition.
Since 2008 Nowak has worked at the Chair of Composition and Music Theory of Katowice’s Academy of Music, where he obtained his doctoral (2010) and postdoctoral (2016) degrees, as well as a professor’s title in 2022. In 2020–2024 he held the post of Head of the Chair of Composition and Music Theory. In 2011–2020 he presided over the Katowice branch of the Polish Composers’ Union.
Nowak’s compositions have been presented at many prestigious festivals (such as the Warsaw Autumn, Sacrum Profanum, Festival of Premieres ‘Polish Modern Music’ in Katowice, Festival of Polish Music in Kraków, and others), as well as during concerts in the United States and a number of European countries (including the 54th International Rostrum of Composers in Paris). They have been commissioned and performed by London Sinfonietta, the Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw, Alarm Will Sound, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, AUKSO – Chamber Orchestra of the City of Tychy, Ensemble OMN, and the Silesian String Quartet.
The vocal-instrumental compositions occupy an important place in his output. He wrote to texts by such writers Georgi Gospodinov (Space Opera), Olga Tokarczuk (ahat-ilī – Sister of Gods – album won the Fryderyk Award of the Polish Phonographic Society), Radek Rak (The Tale of the Heart. Favola in musica), Stanisław Lem (Lo firgai – The Mask), Szczepan Twardoch (Drach. Dramma per musica – awarded with the ‘Coryphaeus of Polish Music’ and the O!Lśnienia prize, Siren. Melodrama aeterna – won the Fryderyk Award, and Pokora. Dramma giocoso, which crowns the triptych), Orhan Pamuk (I, Şeküre), Marcin Wicha (Things), Stanisław Wyspiański (The Wedding).
The composer's works are published by PWM Edition.
