Additional Composer
Born in Poznan (Poland) in 1981, Szymon Brzóska started playing piano at age seven. From 2000 until 2005 he studied at the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Music Academy in Poznan where he was taught composition by Mirosław Bukowski and from where he graduated as a Master in Arts. In 2007 Szymon completed his postgraduate degree in composition at the Royal Flemish Conservatory in Antwerp (Belgium) under the guidance of composer Luc Van Hove. During his studies in Antwerp, he was selected for the competition for composition of the music @venture 2007 festival in Antwerp, which commissioned him to create a piece for the prestigious Belgian ensemble I Solisti del Vento. In 2008, he wrote the soundtrack for the French film, Le bruit des gens autour, directed by Diastème, which was premiered at the Festival D’Avignon in 2008.
September 2009 saw the premiere of his concerto for piano, strings and percussion Hommage à Schnittke, played by pianist Barbara Drazkowska during the 42nd edition of the Festival of Polish Piano Music in Słupsk. In May 2010, Drazkowska also performed the World Premiere of Septem – seven miniatures written especially for her by Brzóska - at the Sounds New Contemporary Music Festival in Canterbury.
Szymon has a particular interest in the synergy between music and other arts. He composed the score for Sutra, a Sadler’s Wells’ production, made in collaboration with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, sculptor Antony Gormley and monks from the Shaolin Temple. Sutra premiered in London in May 2008 and continues to tour across the globe today to great acclaim. After the success of Sutra, Szymon collaborated again with Cherkaoui by writing the score for Orbo Novo, performed by the New York based Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. Orbo Novo premiered at the Jacob’s Pillow dance festival in July 2009 before touring through the United States and Europe. His next collaboration with Larbi was with the score for Dunas, a duet between Cherkaoui and flamenco danseuse Maria Pagès. His orchestral score for Labyrinth, a full-length ballet commissioned by Het Nationale Ballet in Amsterdam and premiered in June 2011 in Het Muziektheater in Amsterdam, is his most recent collaboration with Larbi.
His connection with modern dance continued when he composed a cello piece for I will, the solo by Małgorzata Dzier_on of Rambert Dance Company and with a new score for choreographer Joost Vrouenraets’ (S)NOW in October 2010 in Tilburg, Netherlands. November 2011 saw Szymon back in his home town, Poznañ, for the premiere of his new score for Desert – a dance performance choreographed by Paulina Wycichowska (Polish Dance Theatre in Poznan).