Donemus Webwinkel — Kulenty, Hanna

Hanna Kulenty was born on March 18, 1961 in Białystok (Poland).

Education: From 1980 to 1986, she studied composition with Włodzimierz Kotoński at the Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw. From 1986 to 1988, she studied composition with Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague. She participated in several summer courses in contemporary music composition in Kazimierz and Darmstadt - where she visited lectures by lannis Xenakis, Witold Lutosławski, Thomas Kessler and François Bernard Mâche.

Career: From 1989, Hanna Kulenty works as a freelance composer, recipient of numerous commissions and scholarships. After being guest composer at DAAD 1990 in Berlin, she was composer-in-residence in 1999/2000 with Het Gelders Orkest in The Netherlands. She lectured at the Other Minds 10 festival (San Francisco) and at Soundstreams Canada 2005. In that same year she was guest professor at the Conservatory of Zwolle and in 2007 at the ESMuC, Music Academy in Barcelona.

Also, she was a jury member during Munich Biennale in 1995, during the International Gaudeamus Music Week 2002, during the International New Chamber Opera Competition “Orpheus-Luciano Berio 2003-2004”, and in 2005 and 2007 during the International Competition of Contemporary Chamber Music in Cracow.

Compositions: In her early works, Kulenty had some sort of emotional structure in mind, an arc design as a way of expressing the intensity curve or energy of a particular structure. In recent years she calls her compositional technique “polyphony of time dimensions”, emphasizing the circularity of time and the simultaneity of time-events occurring on different temporal planes.

Since the succes of her opera ‘The Mother of Black-Winged Dreams’ at the Münchener Biennale 1996 she is considered one of the leading figures on the Polish composers’ scene.

Hanna Kulenty writes for solo instruments, chamber groups, large orchestra’s, opera, television plays and film music. Soloists like Isabelle van Keulen, Elźbieta Chojnacka, Krzystof Bąkowski, Marco Blaauw and Frank Peters performed her work, as did the Dutch ensemble ‘de ereprijs’, who commissioned her to write a piece on several occassions. Recently, she was commissioned by Kronos Quartet for whom she wrote her 4th and 5th string quartet.

Awards: In 1985, Kulenty was awarded the Second Prize of the European Young Composers’ Competition with ‘Ad Unum’ (1985). Two years later, she was awarded the Stanislaw Wyspianski Award (Second Class) and the Second Prize by the Young Composers’ Competition of the Polish Composers’ Union with ‘Ride’ (1987).

She was also awarded prizes in the Composers’ Competition from the Warsaw branche of the Polish Composers’ Union. First Prize: ’Quinto’ (1986), ‘Breathe’ (1987); ‘aaa TRE’ (1988) Second Prize 1989; ‘Cannon’ (1988) Third Prize.

In 2003, her composition ‘Trumpet Concerto’ (2002) won the First Prize at UNESCO’s 50th International Rostrum of Composers, for which she received the UNESCO Mozart Medal from the International Music Council. Her compositions ‘Preludium, Postludium and Psalm’ (2007) and ‘String Quartet No. 3 - Tel me about it’ (2008), were chosen among the ten best Dutch compositions of 2007 and 2008 during the ‘Toonzetters’ contest in Amsterdam.

Hanna Kulenty werd op 18 maart 1961 geboren in Bialystok (Polen).

Opleiding
Zij studeerde van 1980-1986 compositie aan de Chopin Muziekacademie in Warschau bij Wlodzimierz Kotonski. Van 1986 tot 1988 studeerde zij compositie bij Louis Andriessen aan het Koninklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag. Voorts nam zij deel aan de International Courses for Young Composers, georganiseerd door de Poolse sectie van de ISCM, en aan de internationale zomercursussen in Darmstadt.

Activiteiten
Sinds 1989 werkt ze als componiste, veelal in opdracht. Als gastdocent gaf zij lezingen bij diverse muziekinstellingen in binnen- en buitenland.

Composities
Haar werken gaan, naar eigen zeggen, uit van een boogtechniek: een manier van uitdrukken d.m.v. een intensiteitscurve in een van tevoren vastgelegde structuur.

Prijzen
In 1985 won zij met Ad unum voor orkest (1985) de tweede prijs tijdens de European Young Composers' Competition in Amsterdam. In 1987 ontving zij de Stanislaw Wyspiánski Award (2de klasse) en de tweede prijs van de Poolse Componisten Unie competitie voor Ride voor 6 slagwerkers (1987). Verder won zij van de afdeling Warschau van de Poolse Componisten Unie: in 1986 de eerste prijs met Quinto voor 2 piano's (1986), in 1987 de eerste prijs met Breathe voor strijkorkest (1987), in 1988 de derde prijs met Cannon voor viool en piano (1988) en in 1989 de tweede prijs met aaa TRE voor altviool, cello en contrabas (1988). In 2003 won zij met het Trumpet Concerto de 50ste aflevering van het Unesco International Rostrum of Composers.