Monika Szpyrka
Composer born in Cracow in 1993. Her interests revolve around themes of concealment, the 'acoustic microscope' and the ways in which simplicity and complexity intersect.
Her works have been frequently performed in Poland and internationally, including: Klang Festival in Copenhagen, Spor, New Music for Strings in Aarhus, Maerz Musik and Heroines of Sound in Berlin, Frequenz Festival in Kiel, PRISM in Vienna, NEOARTE in Gdansk, Warsaw Autumn, Sacrum Profanum, Musica Electronica Nova, Musica Polonica Nova, Festival Aktuelle Musik in Nuremberg, YCM in Apeldoorn.
She has cooperated with ensembles such as Aarhus Sinfonietta, Airborne Extended, Duo van Vliet, E-MEX, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Kompopolex, KNM Berlin, Lutosławski Quartet, NJYD Quartet, Orkest de Ereprijs, Orkiestra Muzyki Nowej, Ostravská Banda, Spółdzielnia Muzyczna Contemporary Ensemble.
Monika Szpyrka has obtained a Creative Scholarship of the City of Krakow (2023), Creative Grant of Koda Kultur and Dansk Komponistforenging (2018, 2022), scholarship for outstanding students from the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage (2017), as well as the Sapere Auso scholarship (2017/18). In 2022 her piece Part among Parts represented Polish Radio on 68. International Rostrum of Composers
in Palermo and gained first place in ”young composers” category.
Szpyrka completed the soloist programme at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus under the tutelage of Juliana Hodkinson, Niels Rønsholdt, and Simon Steen-Andersen. She also studied composition and music theory at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow, where she defended her doctoral thesis with distinction in 2023 under the supervision of Anna Zawadzka-Gołosz. Since 2024 she has been working at the composition department of the AMKP.
