Young Polish composer, singer and percussionist Agata Zubel was recently featured in the prestigious New York Times. Read an excerpt from the article by Ginanne Brownell Mitic, entitled “Agata Zubel, Contemporary Music’s Multiple Threat,” below:
The 37-year-old Ms. Zubel has, in a relatively short career so far, become one of Europe’s most accomplished and internationally successful contemporary classical composers and vocalists.
In 2013 her composition “Not I” for chamber ensemble, electronic instruments and voice was deemed the best of the year by the International Music Council’s International Rostrum of Composers. The recorded performance of that piece, with Austria’s Klangforum Wien, was listed as one of the New Yorker’s Top Ten notable performances and recordings for 2014.
She has been commissioned to write pieces for global festivals and orchestras from Seattle to Tel Aviv. Her discography includes over a dozen albums, including “Dream Lake,” with the Finnish pianist Joonas Ahonen, and “Stories Nowhere From,” an album of experimental electronic music with the pianist and composer Cezary Duchnowski that will be released Nov. 6. The duo, who have worked together for years, perform as ElettroVoce.
In October, Ms. Zubel, who is married to a fellow Polish composer, Michal Moc, began a three-month fellowship in Austria, where she will be composing an opera for the Klangforum Wien. The group will also perform “Not I” at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in England in November.
In January, she will perform at New York’s Ferus Festival, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic will premiere her commissioned work “Chapter 13,” based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s “The Little Prince.” Next May the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris will premiere a new instrumental electronic piece by her, and in October the Seattle Symphony will perform an orchestral piece she is writing for the company.
“She will do everything possible to bring the music to life and she is such an incredible stage animal, just to be on stage with her is an experience,” said Mikhail Shmidt, a violinist with both the Seattle Chamber Players and the Seattle Symphony, and a longtime friend.
Read the full article at www.nytimes.com.
[Sources: facebook.com, nytimes.com]