
Composer
Agata Zubel
1 performance · edition 2022
Performance

Edition II (2022)
An aria from the opera Bildbeschreibung for bass flute (2016)
Performers: Vera Fischer
Biography
Composer and singer. Known for her unconventional vocal range and for using it in ways that challenge stereotypes. She performs all over the world and has many world premieres to her credit. In addition to dozens of concert halls, opera houses and festivals, she has collaborated as a singer and composer with leading musical institutions around the world, including: Carnegie Hall in New York, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Musikgebouw in Amsterdam, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Festival Hall in London, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Philharmonie in Berlin, Cologne and Luxembourg, the Casa da Música in Porto, the Seattle Symphony, the Chicago Symphony and the Baltimore Symphony. She has also appeared at festivals including the BBC Proms, Wien Modern, Donaueschingen Musiktage, Festival d’Automne à Paris, März Musik, the Darmstadt Summer Course, Ultraschall, the Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Trans Art, Warsaw Autumn, the Beethoven Festival in Bonn and Musikprotokoll.
She has collaborated with ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, Ensemble InterContemporain, musikFabrik, London Sinfonietta, Ictus, Eighth Blackbird, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Neue Vocalsolisten, Remix Ensemble, 2e2m Ensemble, Seattle Chamber Players, as well as the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutschlandfunk, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, the Hanover State Opera, the Grand Theatre – National Opera in Warsaw and other ensembles.
She has won over a dozen competitions – both vocal and composition-based. Among her most significant honours are the „Paszport Polityki” (2005), the „Fryderyk” award for her solo album Cascando (2010) and for her vocal recital Apparition (2020), victory at the International Composers’ Tribune for her composition Not I (2013), the „Polonica Nova” award (2014), the Koryfeusz Muzyki Polskiej award (2016), the European Composition Prize (2018), the Erste Bank Composition Prize (2018), the „Meritorious for Polish Culture” badge of honour, and the Gloria Artis medal. She is based in Wrocław, where she is a professor at her alma mater. Together with Cezary Duchnowski, she forms the duo ElettroVoce.
Her dozen or so recordings include, amongst others, the following albums of her own compositions: Cascando (CD Accord), Not I and Cleopatra’s Songs (KAIROS), Bildbeschreibung (Anaklasis), as well as vocal albums: Poemsfeaturing interpretations of songs by Copland, Berg and Szymanowski; Derwid – Plamy na słońcu; Dream Lake, featuring vocal cycles by Witold Lutosławski and Andrzej Czajkowski; and the latest release, Apparition, with songs by Ravel, Barber, Szymanowski, Crumb and Obradors (CD Accord).
Source: zubel.pl · Photo: Łukasz Rajchert