b. 21 June 1981, Gdynia
Biography
Wojciech Blecharz first studied music in Gdynia and later at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw with Marian Borkowski, graduating with a Masters’ Degree in Composition in 2006. He received a number of scholarships and awards, including Poland’s Ministry of Culture, the Académie Musicale di Villecroze, ZAIKS, the Mickiewicz Institute, and the Gdynia Cultural Center. In 2007 he participated in Stockhausen Courses in Kuerten, and currently is a doctoral student at UC San Diego, working with Phillipe Manoury, Miller Puckette, Roger Reynolds, and Steve Schick.
Mr. Blecharz is also an award-winning oboist, whose ensemble, Pressus, won the Golden Aeolian Harp at the Schola Cantorum Festival, the Ministry of Education Award, Ministry of Culture Award, First Prize in the Past for the Future Competition, Main Prize at the Tarnów Talent Festival 2000, and Rayzacher Foundation Award at the Tenth Festival of Old Music.
During the past decade Mr. Blecharz’s compositions have received prizes at the Musica SacraCompetition, Didur Competition for Composers, Polish Composers’ Union Youth Circle Club Award, Polyphonos-Esoterics Competition, and Tadeusz Baird Competition for Young Composers. His music has been heard at the Warsaw Music Encounters, Gaude Mater International Festival, Laboratory of Contemporary Music, Generations VII, Warsaw Autumn Festival, and other events in Poland, as well as the Bebersee Festival in Germany, Académie Musicale di Villecroze in France, Music Network in Ireland, and Morrison Series in San Francisco, and in other cities in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Holland and Belarus.
Mr. Blecharz has received commissions from the Poznań Music Spring Festival, Polish Composers’ Union, Ensemble Intégrales, Kwartludium Ensemble, clarinetist Michael E. Richards, and Royal String Quartet, among others. He has also written music for the Silesian Dance Theatre, Kokoro Dance Ensemble in Vancouver, City Dance Ensemble in Washington, Fringe Festival for Arts in Philadelphia, Ballet Met in Ohio, Rotterdamse Dansacademie, and theatres throughout Poland. Mr. Blecharz belongs to the Polish Composers’ Union and the ZAIKS Authors’ Society in Poland.
SELECTED WORKS
Solo Compositions
Four preludes for piano — (1999/2003)
Moments musicaux for piano — (2004)
assonance for tape — (2004)
Hypopnea for accordion, composed for Maciej Frąckiewicz and the festival Musica Polonica Nova (Wrocław – Poland) — (2010)
Chamber Works
Vespertinus for violin, cello and piano — (2005-2006) [Awarded in competition for members of Polish Composers’ Union Youth Circle, 2006]
Transphere for two pianos — (2006) [Supported by the Académie Musicale de Villecroze stipend, written during a workshop with Noël Lee]
Métasphere for two pianos — (2006) [Commissioned by the Polish Composers’ Union for its 60th anniversary]
Postromanza 1,2,3 for soprano and piano — (2004-2005/06)
Canto for baritone and string quartet — (2005) [Third Prize in the A. Didur’s Competition for Composers in Sanok, Poland, 2005]
Nox for alto saxophone, French horn and orchestra — (2005-2006) [Premiered at the 2009 Festival of World Premieres in Katowice by the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Michał Klauza]
dim for voice, cello, accordion and piano — (2006-2007) [2007 Tadeusz Baird Award for Young, Polish Composers]
De for two violas and two cellos — (2007) [Bebersee Festival commission, composed during Stockhausen Courses in Kuerten]
AD for soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, string quartet and organ — (2007) [Polish Composers Union’ Youth Circle Warsaw Autumn Festival commission]
xyz for violin and piano — (2007-2008) [Poznańska Wiosna Muzyczna Festival commission with support from ZAIKs]
Airlines for recorders (2008) [Composed for “The Modern Recorder Project,” 44th International Summer Courses, for New Music in Darmstadt and The Quartet New Generation]
Torpor for violin, bass clarinet, percussion and piano — (2008) [Kwartludium Ensemble commission under the Polish-German project “Klangnetz” and the European project RE:NEW MUSIC]
Ivory gate for tenor saxophone, viola, cello, percussion and piano — (2008) [ Ensemble INTEGRALES commission]
Com/m/a for flute and clarinet — (2008) [Commissioned by Michael E. Richard’s Duo
Cartography for 12 instruments — (2009) [Composed for Filip Wałcerz and an_ARCHE NewMusicEnsemble]
Edge for clarinet, electric guitar and piano — (2009) [Composed for 60th Anniversary of Polish Composer’ Union Youth Circle]
Engrave yourself erase for cello, accordion, percussion and piano — (2010) [Nadbałtyckie Centrum Kultury commission]
Choral Works
Psalmus 82 for mixed choir — (2003- 2004) [Third Prize, Musica Sacra Festival competition for composers, 2004]
Incantatus for female choir — (2005) [Prize in International Competition for Composers in Jihlava, 2005]
Orchestral Works
Molto for orchestra — (2003-2006) [Premiered by the Polish Radio Orchestra with Monika Wolińska]
Dance or Theater Works
For Silesian Dance Theater and choreographer: Jacek Łumiński, Bytom, Poland:
Wrzaskowisko — (2004)
Glamour of the Mundane – Dream from a Saint — (2005)
Only Moments — (2007)
For Kokoro Dance and choreographers Jacek Łumiński, Jay Hirabayashi, Barbara Bourget, Vancouver, Canada:
Tutaj Tam/From Here to There — (2005)
For City Dance Ensemble and choreographer Jacek Łumiński, Washington, DC:
Black Flag — (2004)
For Coming Back To The Roots and choreographer Jacek Łumiński, Philadelphia, PA:
Where to Put the Blanket — (2004)
For Teatr Powszechny and choreographer Grzegorz Wiśniewski, Warsaw, Poland:
White Marriage by Tadeusz Różewicz — (2004)
For Theatre of Witness and director Teya Sepinuck, Philadelphia, PA:
Gravity of Flight — (2004)
Forbidden Faces — (2005)
For BalletMet and choreographer Jacek Łumiński, Columbus, OH:
365-neither fish nor flesh — (2006)
For Rotterdamse Danceakademie and choreographer Anka Majcher, Rotterdam, Holland:
lala, la — (2006)
For Teatr Wybrzeże and director Grzegorz Wiśniewski, Gdańsk Poland:
The Damned by Luchino Visconti — (2009)
Manuscripts at USC
None
Links
Myspace Page
Polish Music: the New Generation
Page updated on 21 February 2018