General
Katarzyna Glowicka was born in 1978 in Poland.
Education
Glowicka studied composition at the Wroclaw Academy of Music in Poland and graduated with honors in 2001 under her mentor, Grazyna Pstrokonska-Nawratil. Afterwards, she pursued postgraduate studies at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague under Louis Andriessen, and at the Strasbourg Conservatory under Ivan Fedele. In 2008, she received a doctorate degree (PhD) at Queen’s University of Belfast.
Career
At the beginning of her musical career, her orchestral composition, Gindry, won a prestigious national orchestral competition, “Adam Didur.” Since then, her works have been awarded prizes at many competitions, including The Genesis Prize for the Opera in London, Holland Symphony Competition, Musica Sacra, and the International Competition of Electronic Music BMW Crash in 2006. In 2007, the composition Opalescence was in the final of the prestigious Bourges Competition in France and in 2009, Turbulence was in the final of the International Competition for Live-Electronics Music Projects.
In 2008, she settled permanently in the Netherlands, where she composes and performs contemporary music. She is a lecturer in electronic music and composition at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels. She is also the co-founder of the foundation ARTEK (www.artekholland.org) that supports multimedia activities.
Compositions
Katarina Glowicka’s music explores the stylistic points of a possible junctions between classical, ambient, folk and minimalism. Her projects cover a wide range of musical activities. Dubbed “the next star from the East” (“Junge Welt”), she came into the international spotlight with the album “Red Sun” (Bolt Records, 2014).
Katarina Glowicka’s artistic output embraces musical media of every kind, as she collaborates with leading artists, both classical and avant-garde, including with French turntablist Philppe Petit. She collaborates with stage directors, choreographers, visual artists, musicians and conductors on original works for opera, dance, and symphonic orchestra. What makes the music of Katarina Głowicka special is the feeling of space and often haunting, melodic qualities. Her music has been described as complex yet approachable.
Her works are distinguishable by the power of expression and color. They have been premiered by renowned international ensembles and soloists such as Scottish Ensemble, Ensemble Recherche, Holland Symfonia, the Vocal Lab, European Contemporary Orchestra, British countertenor Jonathan Peter Kenny and saxophonist Ties Mellema, among many others. The chamber piece Microgalaxies was commissioned and performed at the Wien Modern Festival in Austria, while other compositions have been performed during renowned festivals such as the Biennale di Venezia, Warsaw Autumn, De Suite at IJsbreker, Musica Electronica Nova in Wroclaw, Suite Amsterdam, Yo! Utrecht, Wien Modern in Vienna, Steve Reich Festival in The Hague, International Women in New Music Festival in California, the International Computer Music Conference in Barcelona, ISCM World Music Days in Gothenburg, 2006 Festival in Santiago de Chile, Gaudeamus Music Week, and World New Music Days. In May 2015, the Warsaw National Opera staged a critically acclaimed opera Głowicki, “Requiem for Icons” under the “Project P.” Recent projects include orders for the Warsaw team Kwadrofonik and the Belgian opera De Munt.
Autumn Concerto for alto saxophone and orchestra was chosen in April 2004 for the Young Composers Project and performed by Holland Symphonia.
Newest engagements are commissions for the Warsaw National Theatre (2015) for an opera based on the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Fuel Theatre in London for a piece with Melanie Wilson, Opera for the Unknown Woman (2016) and a new work for the Rogier Sapiro Foundation, New York (2017). Her newest CD, “Seven Sonnets” (Bolt records, ARTEK Sounds, DUX) was debuted in January 2015.
Awards
Katarina Glowicka has received several grants and awards by the Ministry of Education, the European Commission, the Polish Society of Contemporary Music and Musica Sacra Competition, among others.