Marcin Stańczyk (born November 16, 1977, in

Łęczyca Łęczyca (; in full the Royal Town of Łęczyca, ; ; ) is a town of inhabitants in central Poland. Situated in the Łódź Voivodeship, it is the county seat of the Łęczyca County. Łęczyca is a capital of the historical Łęczyca Land. Or ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

) – Polish composer, lawyer, pedagogue and music theorist. Laureate of numerous awards, the only Pole to receive the Toru Takemitsu Award. Author of symphonic, chamber, stage, electronic and film music. Creator of multimedia and intermedia spectacles.

Biography

Marcin Stańczyk graduated from the

University of Łódź The University of Łódź (, ) is a public research university founded in 1945 in Łódź, Poland, as a continuation of three higher education institutions functioning in Łódź in the interwar period — the Teacher Training Institute (192 ...

(Law in 2001) and the

Academy of Music in Łódź An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

(Music Theory in 2006 and Composition in 2007 as a graduate of

Zygmunt Krauze Zygmunt Krauze (born September 19, 1938) is a Polish composer of contemporary classical music, educator, and pianist. Biography Zygmunt Krauze is an important artist of his generation: a respected composer, valued pianist, educator, organiser of m ...

). He then continued to study in Poland and abroad, i.a. completed a post-graduate degree in the

Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia () is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, founded by the papal bull ''Ratione congruit'', issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints prominent in Western musical history: Gre ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

and CURSUS 1 and 2 at

IRCAM IRCAM (French: ''Ircam, '', English: Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) is a French institute dedicated to the research of music and sound, especially in the fields of Avant-garde music, avant garde and Electroacoustic ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He participated in many workshops and courses, i.a. 13th Young Composers Meeting in Apeldoorn (2007), workshops with

Klangforum Wien The Klangforum Wien is an Austrian chamber orchestra, based in Vienna at the Konzerthaus, which specialises in contemporary classical music. Founded by composer and conductor Beat Furrer in 1985, it is run on collective principles, having no o ...

and

Trilok Gurtu Trilok Gurtu (born 30 October 1951) is an Indian percussionist and composer whose work has blended the music of India with jazz fusion and world music. He has worked with Terje Rypdal, Gary Moore, John McLaughlin, Jan Garbarek, Joe Zawinu ...

during

La Biennale di Venezia The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Architecture Biennale (), which are held in alternating ye ...

(2007, 2008), Voix Nouvelles course with

Brian Ferneyhough Brian John Peter Ferneyhough (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer. Ferneyhough is typically considered the central figure of the New Complexity movement. Ferneyhough has taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and ...

as a part of Royamount Foundation scholarship (2009),

Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik "The Internationale" is an international anthem that has been adopted as the anthem of various anarchist, communist, socialist, democratic socialist, and social democratic movements. It has been a standard of the socialist movement since the la ...

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...

(2010), De Musica ovvero la fabbrica della creatività in Rome with

Beat Furrer Beat Furrer (born 6 December 1954) is a Swiss-born Austrian composer and conductor. He has served as professor of composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz since 1991. He was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2018 ...

(2010) and

Mark Andre Mark Andre (born 10 May 1964) is a French composer living in Germany. He was known as "Marc André", his birth name, until 2007, when he formally revised the spelling. He lives in Berlin. Andre's compositions ''durch'' (2006), ''...auf... III'' (2 ...

(2012) and also Jerwood Opera Writing Programme in Aldeburgh Centre of Music with

Giorgio Battistelli Giorgio Battistelli (born 25 April 1953) is an Italian composer of contemporary classical music. A native of Albano Laziale (province of Rome), he studied at the conservatory in L'Aquila and is a former student of Stockhausen and Kagel. Battistel ...

(2011). His pieces have been commissioned by prestigious festivals and ensembles and performed in Europe, Asia (China, Japan, Israel), North America (USA, Canada), South America (Chile, Cuba) and Australia. He has cooperated with

, Ensemble InterContemporain, Ensemble MusikFabrik, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Ensemble Linea,

Elision Ensemble The ELISION Ensemble (often referred to as simply ELISION) is a chamber ensemble specialising in contemporary classical music, concentrating on the creation and presentation of new works. The ensemble comprises a core of around 20 virtuoso musicia ...

Bang on a Can All Stars The Bang on a Can All-Stars is an amplified ensemble that was formed in 1992 by parent organization Bang on a Can. Called "a flexible and expert sextet" by ''The New York Times'',

Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra The is recognized as the oldest symphony orchestra in Japan. It was founded in 1911 and debuted at the original Matsuzakaya store in Nagoya as the . It relocated to Tokyo in 1938. As of 2024, it has 166 members. The orchestra plays frequently a ...

Oslo Sinfonietta Oslo Sinfonietta is a Norwegian contemporary classical orchestra. It was founded by composer Asbjørn Schaatun in 1986. The current artistic director is Christian Eggen. Oslo Sinfonietta grew out of contemporary music circles at the Norwegian Aca ...

, Ensemble Nikel, Algoritmo, Zone Expérimentale Basel, Meitar, E-MEX Ensemble, Divertimento, Orkest de ereprijs, Ensemble Nostri Temporis,

Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra The Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra (SPO; Chinese: 上海爱乐乐团; pinyin: Shànghǎi Àiyuè Yuètuán) is a professional symphony orchestra based in Shanghai, China. It is under the administration of the Shanghai Municipal Administration of C ...

Sinfonia Varsovia The Sinfonia Varsovia is a Polish orchestra and musical institution based in Warsaw. The orchestra gives its concerts principally at its eponymous institution, located on Grochowska Street, Warsaw. History Waldemar Dąbrowski and Franciszek W ...

, NOSPR and many others. He has also cooperated with popular music artists, such as

Aphex Twin Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), known professionally as Aphex Twin, is a British musician, composer and DJ active in electronic music since 1988. His idiosyncratic work has drawn on many styles, including techno, ambient music, ambi ...

, Zamilska and Pianohooligan (Piotr Orzechowski). Stańczyk's pieces have been showcased i.a. at Gaudeamus Musik Week in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, Biennale Musica during

, Manifeste and Season IRCAM in

, Bang On a Can Marathon, Noise Non-ferenc and MATA in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, Les Espaces Sonores in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

, Rondò in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, Review of Composers in

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

, Images sonores in

Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...

, Nuova Consonanza in

Warsaw Autumn Warsaw Autumn () is the largest international Polish festival of contemporary music. It was established in 1956 by two composers, Tadeusz Baird and Kazimierz Serocki, and officially established by the Head Board of the Polish Composers' Union ...

, Sacrum Profanum in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

, Festival of Premieres NOSPR in

Katowice Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...

. In 2018 he was chosen to become the first composer-in-residence at Musica Polonica Nova festival in

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

. He has been a guest lecturer at universities in France, Germany, Italy, USA, Great Britain, Israel, China, Norway and Poland.
As a composer he won over a dozen international competitions in Poland, France, Italy, Germany, US, Netherland, Romania, Japan and China, including the prestigious Tōru Takemitsu Award in Tokyo (2013) with the piece ''SIGHS'' described by the chairman

Sir Harrison Birtwistle Sir Harrison Birtwistle (15 July 1934 – 18 April 2022) was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include ''The ...

as "a virtuoso piece of musical awareness". In 2012, Bang on a Can All-Stars dedicated to him a monographic concert in Krakow.
Stańczyk is a laureate of numerous scholarships, including "Młoda Polska" ("Young Poland", 2007), ones founded by

ZAIKS The Society of Authors ZAiKS (, where the acronym stands for the Society′s original founding name, ''Society of Authors and Stage Composers'', or ''ZAiKS''), established 1918, was for many years the sole legal Polish copyright collective, and ...

(2007),

Ministry of Culture and National Heritage The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage () is a ministry within Polish government led by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage responsible for national heritage preservation and Polish culture promotion. Ministry oversees state o ...

(2007, 2014), Marshal of Lodz Voivodeship (2008, 2009, 2010) and the Witold Lutosławski scholarship (2011, 2013), as well as double Coryphaeus of Polish Music Nominee (2013, 2015, Personality of the Year), an award bestowed by the Polish music community. He was a participant of scholarship programmes and residencies:

Bang on a Can Bang on a Can is a multi-faceted contemporary classical music organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1987 by three American composers who remain its artistic directors: Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon. Called "the c ...

Summer Music Festival fellowship in

(2009), the Italian Government scholarship (2009, 2010), Royamount Foundation scholarship (2009), Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt Stipendenpreis (2010), Aldeburgh Center of Music fellowship (2010),

SACEM The Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music or SACEM () is a French professional association collecting payments of artists’ rights and distributing the rights to the original songwriters, composers, and music publisher A mus ...

scholarship (2013); and residencies: the artistic residence of the city of Paris and

Institut Français The Institut Français (; French capitalization, Institut français; "French institute") is a French public industrial and commercial organization (EPIC). Started in 1907 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for promoting French, francophone as ...

, Centre International d'Accueil et d'Échanges des Récollets (2014), Cité Internationale des Arts (2014), The Bogliasco Foundation (2018) and Civitella Ranieri Foundation (2019). In 2017 he was awarded the 'Distinguished for Polish Culture' distinction by the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage. Since 2016 Marcin Stańczyk has been a Polish representative in the cultural cooperation programme between China and 16 European countries "16+1". He works in the Provincial

Administrative Court An administrative court is a type of specialized court on administrative law, particularly disputes concerning the exercise of public power. Their role is to ascertain that official acts are consistent with the law. Such courts are usually co ...

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

. He is a professor in the

where he received a

D.M.A. The doctor of musical arts (DMA) is a doctoral academic degree in music. The DMA combines advanced studies in an applied area of specialization (usually music performance, music composition, or conducting) with graduate-level academic study in su ...

degree in 2013 and a Habilitation in 2016. In 2020, he became a full professor. In the term 2020–2024, he held the position of Rector's Proxy for Equal Treatment. Stańczyk is a member of

Polish Composers' Union The Polish Composers' Union (, ZKP) is a society of Polish composers and musicologists. History The association was founded in Kraków on August 29 or September 1, 1945 by the All-Polish Composers' Congress, as a continuation of the Association of ...

(ZKP),

ZAiKS The Society of Authors ZAiKS (, where the acronym stands for the Society′s original founding name, ''Society of Authors and Stage Composers'', or ''ZAiKS''), established 1918, was for many years the sole legal Polish copyright collective, and ...

and Polish Society for Contemporary Music.
His scores are published by

PWM Edition The PWM Edition (, abbreviated as PWM) is a music publishing house based in Kraków, Poland. It was founded in 1945 and was the only music publisher in Poland for several years. In 2012 it released the twelfth volume of ''Encyclopedia of Music'', ...

Music

Marcin Stańczyk is the creator of the idea of "aftersounds", inspired by the optical phenomenon of "

afterimage An afterimage, or after-image, is an image that continues to appear in the eyes after a period of exposure to the original image. An afterimage may be a normal phenomenon (physiological afterimage) or may be pathological (palinopsia). Illusory ...

" explored in the 1940s by the avant-gardist Polish painter

Władysław Strzemiński Władysław Strzemiński (Polish pronunciation: ; ; 21 November 1893 – 26 December 1952) was a Polish painter, art theoretician, pedagogue, and soldier. He is regarded as a pioneer of Constructivist avant-garde of the 1920s and 1930s and the ...

. With aftersounds, music comes not only from morfological ‘reflections’ of sound, various "noises, resonances and echoes", but also some psychological aspects of the listening and seeing – something which is not there yet, but will be in a moment, which precede the sound or has remained afterwards. As Marta Tabakiernik states:

The concept of aftersounds can be considered on the level of music material (resonances and reflections of various kinds, contrasts on the sound level) as well as metaphorically (when the composition becomes an afterimage of an external phenomenon).

Stańczyk is also the author of the concept of ''musique acousmatique instrumentale'', defined as "acoustic music that may be experienced as electronic acousmatic music, that is, as sound moving in space without simultaneous observation of moving musicians". The ''musique acoustique instrumentale'' genre is represented by such pieces as ''Blind Walk'' (2014–15), ''Some Drops'' (2016), ''Sursounds'' (2018) and ''Unseen'' (2017-18). All of these pieces are recommended to be listened to with blindfolds covering the eyes in order to intensify the auditory experience by cancelling visual stimuli. In his compositions he often uses theatrical expressions associated with his idea of a "total performance", earlier described as "theatralization of performance", which engages the musician's entire body to perform a piece (''full-body experience''). As Anna Wójcikowska describes:

..in line with his concept of ‘total performance’, according to which the composer requires from performers their total involvement in the performance (or, some- times, even co-creation) of a work, different types of non-harmonic sounds are of vocal provenance or they are derived from the gestures of a choreographic character. In his scores, Stańczyk often provides one performer with notation on a few staves (e.g. in ''Three Afterimages'' for double bass, 2008, or ''Mosaïque'' for cello and live electronics, 2011–12) and the notation itself is characterized by unusual meticulousness.

For many years the composer has been underlining the role of imagination – not only of composer or performers, but most importantly of the listeners. The result of his belief is a separate genre of Stańczyk's conceptual pieces, including ''4’34’’ – short piece against John Cage'' (2011) and triptych: ''Possible Music I'' (2012), ''Possible Music II'' (2015) and ''Impossible Music (24.02.2022)'', created on the day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In these instances, Stańczyk sees the recipient's imagination as a complement to his compositional ideas, realizing the idea of true freedom of art. His early musical style was described by composer

Ivan Fedele Ivan Fedele (born 6 May 1953 in Lecce) is an Italian composer. He studied at the Milan Conservatory. Fedele's compositions are published by Edizioni Suvini Zerboni, and many of his works are recorded on Stradivarius Records. Selected works ; ...

in ''Il Giornale'' as “distorsionismo”. In reference to his later works, connections with spectralism or new complexity were pointed out.

Selected works

* ''Laterna'' for ensemble and tape (2008) * ''Three afterimages'' for double-bass (2008) * ''Afterimages – rosso'' for piano (2009) * ''Nibiru – La rivoluzione della terra sconosciuta'' for ensemble (2009) * ''Analessi Rotte'' for cello, 2 voices and trombone (2009) * ''Sospiri'' for ensemble (2009) * ''Westchnienia'' (''Sighs'') for chamber orchestra (2009) * ''Il riverbero della malinconia'' for ensemble (2010) * ''Tajemnica Chopina (The Mystery of Chopin)'' - musical sculpture (cooperation with Łukasz Leszczyński) (2010) * ''OPERA 3'' for female singer, accompanist and composer (cooperation with Peter Cant) (2010) * ''Archeopteryx'' - ballet music (2011) * ''In case of rapture'' - mini-opera (2011) * ''Mosaïque'' for cello and live electronics (2012) * ''Esercizi'' for students (2006 rev. 2012) * ''Geysir – Grisey'' for ensemble (2005 rev. 2012) * ''Muzyka Możliwa I'' ''(Possible Music I)'' (2012, rev. 2015) * ''4'34'''' ''– short piece against J.Cage'' (2012) * ''Le teste scambiate'' - opera for chamber orchestra and 3 characters (2010 - 2012) * ''Attorno'' for alto flute, cello and piano (2013) * ''Muzyka tkana (Woven Music)'' for orchestra (2013) * ''Solarize'' - chamber opera (2013-2014) * ''Aftersounds'' for 2 percussionists and live electronics (2013-2014) * ''Aftersounds'' for guitar (2014) * ''A(pol)ogia'' - multimedia performance (cooperation with Peter Cant and Alex Eisenberg) (2014) * ''Blind walk'' for ensemble (2014-2015) * ''Posłuchy (Afterhearings)'' for ensemble (2015) * ''Powiodki'' ''(Afterimages)'' for voice, string quartet and audio-video live electronics (2015) * ''muzyka tkana – powidoki'' ''(woven music - afterimages)'' - audiovisual interactive installation (2016) * ''Some Drops'' for double-bell trumpet and ensemble (2016) * ''A due'' for Fender Rhodes, string orchestra and electronics (2017) * ''Dancing Dune'' for chamber orchestra of Chinese traditional instruments (2017) * ''Sursounds'' for string quartet, wind quintet and electronics (2018) * ''Kobro/ Strzemiński. Opowieść fantastyczna (Kobro/ Strzemiński. Fantastic story)'' - film music, dir. by Borys Lankosz (2018) * ''Ciemno, prawie noc (Dark, almost night)'' - film music, dir. by Borys Lankosz (2018) * ''Afterthoughts'' - multimedia spectacle (2018) * ''Unseen'' for female voice, ensemble and electronics (2017-2018) * ''Western Whiffs I'' for guzheng, vibraphone and yangqin (2019) * ''Muzyka Możliwa II'' ''(Possible Music II)'' (2020) * ''Aftersounds'' for flute solo (2020–21) * ''Aftersounds II'' for guitar solo (2021) * ''Live'' for saxophones, symphonic orchestra and electronics (2021) * ''Impossible Music (24.02.2022)'' (2022) * ''Quatre chants sur ce qui n’existe plus'' for flute (alto flute), tuba, guitar, cello and tape (2023) * ''After'' for female voice, ensemble, video and electronics (2024)

Monographic Albums

* ''Chamber Music'', DUX (DUX0757), 2015 * ''Acousmatic Music'', double CD, Anaklasis/PWM (ANA 015), 2021 * ''Mosaïque'', Kairos (0015108KAI), 2021 * ''Dark, Almost Night'', DUX (DUX1818), 2021 * ''Chamber Works'' (re-edition), DUX (DUX1117), 2023

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stanczyk, Marcin Living people 1977 births Polish composers Polish lawyers University of Łódź alumni Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia alumni