Wojciech Błażejczyk

Wojciech Błażejczyk (b. 1981) – composer, guitarist, and sound designer. He graduated from the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music (UMFC) in Warsaw in composition (under Prof. Zygmunt Krauze) and sound engineering (under Prof. Andrzej Lupa), as well as from the Faculty of Journalism and Political Science at the University of Warsaw. He is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Composition, Conducting, and Music Theory at UMFC and the head of the Electronic and Computer Music Studio.

His works have been performed at numerous festivals in Poland and abroad, including New Music Concerts (Toronto), Warsaw Autumn, Polish Modern: New Directions in Polish Music Since 1945 (New York), Visegrad Portraits, Musica Moderna, Musica Electronica Nova, Musica Polonica Nova, Poznań Musical Spring, Warsaw Music Meetings, AudioArt, and Afekt Festival. He has collaborated with ensembles such as MusikFabrik, the Polish Radio Orchestra, Lucilin, Gorzów Philharmonic, New Music Concerts Ensemble, Orkiestra Wratislavia, Radom Chamber Orchestra, Kwadrofonik, Sinfonia Iuventus, and Hashtag Ensemble. In the 2014/15 season, he was the composer-in-residence with the Prof. Jan Szyrocki Academic Choir of ZUT in Szczecin (IMIT program). He creates both acoustic and electroacoustic music, including scores for 18 theatrical plays, 12 documentaries and short films, the video game Hard Reset, and 2 audiobooks.

He is a laureate of many composition competitions, notably winning 1st Prize at the 52nd Tadeusz Baird Competition for Young Composers (2011) and 3rd Prize at the 1st Krzysztof Penderecki International Composition Competition “Arboretum”. In 2016, his piece Warsaw Music reached the finals of the EBU Palm Ars Acustica. He has released four monographic albums: String Music (2022), General Theory of Relativity (2021, KAIROS), Trash Music (2018), and Loopovisations (2013).

As a guitarist, he performs new and improvised music on electric guitar and objectophones – instruments of his own creation made from everyday objects whose sound is processed live. He performs with the new music ensemble Hashtag Ensemble and has improvised alongside artists such as Agata Zubel, Joëlle Léandre, and Krzysztof Knittel. He is a co-founder of the improvising trio Sonofrenia and the group Niemy Movie, which performs live scores for silent films.

As a sound engineer, he specializes in sound projection for new music concerts and sound design for films. He has conducted electroacoustic music workshops at the Synthesis International Summer Course for Composers in Radziejowice and educational workshops for children.

Selected Awards:

• 3rd Prize – 1st K. Penderecki International Composition Competition “Arboretum” for Introjection (2012)
• 1st Prize – 52nd Tadeusz Baird Competition for Young Composers for Exhorta (2011)
• 2nd Prize – 51st Tadeusz Baird Competition for Young Composers for Apnea (2010)
• 1st Prize – 124th Audio Engineering Society Convention for stereo classical music recording (2008)
• Scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (2006, 2008)