Mateusz Bień – composition

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Born in 1968 in Wrocław. He studied composition in the class of professors Marek Stachowski, Anna Zawadzka-Gołosz and Józef Rychlik. Although he has been associated with the Electroacoustic Music Studio since the beginning of his studies, his work is not limited to electronic music only. Following his fascination with acoustic sounds (which developed further as a result of his studies of instrumentation with Professor Krzysztof Penderecki) and the possibilities of synthesis, he is working towards integrating both these sound worlds into one homogenous whole.

Owing to his additional training in the field of sound engineering, he worked for fifteen years as the head of a recording studio and taught sound engineering at the Centre for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Krakow. He also completed a programme in Typhlopedagogy (Education of the Blind and Visually Impaired) at the Academy of Special Education in Warsaw. He spent some time working with vocational training centres (KOWEZiU, CKE). He was an expert, examiner, the author of curricula and advisor to the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Discouraged by the bureaucracy and the endless stream of ideas for improving Polish education, he withdrew from this area of activity in order to focus on creative work.

For several years, he worked, in collaboration with others, on the audio-visual aspect of the Krakow Philharmonic’s educational concerts. This experience gave him an opportunity to test his own programming solutions. For the purposes of his concerts, he not only wrote music and prepared animations but also created a system for controlling the presentation of images, live video, as well as sound and light systems, which allowed him to simultaneously control multiple media on his own. He created several more such systems for other artists to enable them to bring to life their compositional visions. Since 2014, he has been collaborating with the Krakow Festival Office and the Film Music Festival as an expert, lecturer and jury member of the Young Talent Award competition.

His works are performed both in Poland and abroad. He also has several record releases under his belt. He has received scholarships from the Siemens Foundation and the Kaske Foundation. At present, his interests are focused on instrumental work. When exploring contemporary music, he searches for not only serious but also less serious, ironic or satirical elements (Mr Knight, the Girl and Six Other Cellos (Pan Rycerz, dziewczyna i sześć innych wiolonczel)). He is no stranger to working on large forms (family operetta – Pizzicato), chamber pieces (Little Slavic Bestiary (Mały Bestiariusz Słowiański) for cello and piano and Flat Figures (Figury Płaskie) for string quartet) and art activities bordering on instrumental theatre (Theatrum musicum for piano trio). He also collaborates with the National Museum, creating interactive music for exhibitions (Wyspiański’s immense theatre, #heritage). Currently, his concept of the “museum as an instrument” is being implemented as part of the permanent exhibition at the Princes Czartoryski Museum in Krakow.