Sebastian Niedziela (born 1975) is a Polish contemporary classical composer, graduated with honors from The Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland. He first became famous in Europe in 1998, when he was awarded the

Assembly of European Regions The Assembly of European Regions (AER) is the largest independent network of regions in wider Europe. Bringing together regions from 35 countries and 15 interregional organisations, AER is a forum for interregional cooperation. Histori ...

Award in the 1st European Union Young Composers Contest held in Strasbourg by the Cercle d'Orchestre. The Jury consisted of more than twenty famous composers representing all European countries, and included Sophia Gubaidulina and

Mauricio Kagel Mauricio Raúl Kagel (; 24 December 1931 – 18 September 2008) was an Argentine-German composer. Biography Kagel was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, into an Ashkenazi Jewish family that had fled from Russia in the 1920s . He studied music, his ...

. The awarded symphonic poem is entitled "Sur l'Esperance". He received official congratulations from the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Bronisław Geremek, and from other members of Polish authorities. He was in the news on every Polish TV channel, some (TVN) broadcasting live from his home. He was not only on the first pages of

Rzeczpospolita () is the official name of Poland and a traditional name for some of its predecessor states. It is a compound of "thing, matter" and "common", a calque of Latin ''rés pública'' ( "thing" + "public, common"), i.e. ''republic'', in Engli ...

and

Dziennik Polski ''Dziennik Polski'' is a Polish newspaper. It was established in 1945 as a regional newspaper for Lesser Poland Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name Małopolska ( la, Polonia Minor), is a historical region situated in southern ...

, but also featured in popular magazines like

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, that rarely (if ever) cover contemporary classical music. The awarded composition, which in its original form is a concerto for electric guitar, was scheduled to be performed in Strasbourg and in Polish cities by one of renowned guitar virtuosos.

Steve Vai Steven Siro Vai (; born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, composer, songwriter, and producer. A three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, Vai started his music career in 1978 at the age of eighteen as a transcriptionist f ...

Yngwie Malmsteen Yngwie Johan Malmsteen ( ; born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck, 30 June 1963) is a Swedish guitarist. He first became known in the 1980s for his neoclassical playing style in heavy metal, and has released 22 studio albums in a career spanning ov ...

and

John Petrucci John Peter Petrucci (born July 12, 1967) is an American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the progressive metal band Dream Theater. He produced or co-produced (often with former member Mike Portnoy before he departed the band in 201 ...

were contacted by organizers of the contest. Because of unknown matters, the premiere performance has been postponed indefinitely. He worked with Polish

Idol Idol or Idols may refer to: Religion and philosophy * Cult image, a neutral term for a man-made object that is worshipped or venerated for the deity, spirit or demon that it embodies or represents * Murti, a point of focus for devotion or medit ...

finalists, including the first season winner, a

World Idol ''World Idol'' (Germany: ''SuperStar Weltweit'', Arab World: ''SuperStar El Alaam'') is a one-off international version of the singing competition television show ''Pop Idol'', featuring winners of the various national ''Idol'' shows around t ...

competitor,

Alicja Janosz Alicja Janosz (born 4 June 1985 in Pszczyna) is a Polish singer. She is the winner of 2002 Polish Idol. She also appeared in ''World Idol'', where she sang "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from ''Jesus Christ Superstar''. In November 2002, her d ...

. In the second season of Polish

he participated as a vocalist, but was rejected by the jury in the first round. He is also an accomplished rock guitar player (in 1994 recorded a TV program about virtuoso techniques for TVP), and is a mixing engineer. He is also the first Polish translator of

Baguazhang Baguazhang or Pakua chang () is one of the three main Chinese martial arts of the Wudang school, the other two being T'ai chi and Xing Yi Quan. It is more broadly grouped as an internal practice (or neijia quan). ''Bāguà zhǎng'' literally ...

gongfu instructional materials. He translated for YMAAPublications, Boston - "Emei Baguazhang" by Liang Shou-Yu, and six other items released by the YMAA publishing house.

Selected works

* "String Quintet" for the string orchestra * "The Virtuoso String Quartet" * "Say" for the SO * "Sur l'Esperance" for the SO (a concerto for electric guitar) * "Missa Brevis" for a chamber choir * "Anhelli" - music for a TV spectacle directed by Grzegorz Królikiewicz

References

*http://www.warsawvoice.pl/cgi/search/search.pl?Terms=Sebastian+Niedziela&imageField2.x=0&imageField2.y=0 - Warsaw Voice note on the results of the Young Composers Contest *http://www.conservatoire-strasbourg.fr/editions-du-conservatoire/partitions.html (The score of "Sur l'Esperance" in a library of the Strasbourg conservatory). *http://www.filmpolski.pl/fp/index.php/513289 FilmPolski database entry for "Anhelli" *http://www.teatry.art.pl/!inne/nagrody/zlotemaski/intryga.htm ("Złote Maski" nomination 1999 for "Anhelli") {{DEFAULTSORT:Niedziela, Sebastian 1975 births Living people Polish classical musicians