KIRSTEN VOLNESS - USA
BORN 09 SEPTEMBER
Kirsten Volness is a composer, pianist and educator who grew up outside a small town in southern Minnesota — a place that fostered in her a keen interest in the outdoors and the wonders of nature. The magic to be found in the natural world informs and inspires her creative work as do various spiritual philosophies, social and environmental issues.
She was 2017 Composer-in-Residence at the Music Mansion and curated a monthly chamber music series called First Fridays. She collaborates often: as co-founder/director and pianist of new music ensemble/concert series Verdant Vibes (Providence), as pianist/multi-instrumentalist for Hotel Elefant (NYC), as co-director of homeless advocacy group Tenderloin Opera Company, as composer/performer in Meridian Project, a multimedia performance/lecture series exploring astrophysics and cosmology, and as an affiliated artist of Sleeping Weazel.
She was awarded the 2017 MacColl Johnson Fellowship and received the Fellowship in Music Composition from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts three times (2018, 2014, 2010). Her electroacoustic work has been performed at numerous festivals including Illuminus Boston, Bourges, SEAMUS, NYCEMF and the Montréal and Edinburgh Fringe.
Kirsten is Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Reed College (2019–21), and previously taught privately and at the University of Rhode Island. She served as Secretary of Friends of the Music Mansion's board of directors and is dedicated to fostering the creation, production, and promotion of new music and multimedia performance. With composition degrees from the University of Michigan (D.M.A., M.M.) and the University of Minnesota (B.A., summa cum laude), past teachers include Evan Chambers, William Bolcom, Betsy Jolas, Bright Sheng, Michael Daugherty, Karen Tanaka, and Judith Lang Zaimont.
♫ LISTEN
Complancency Will Kill You by Kisten Volness
WERONIKA RATUSINSKA - POLAND
BORN 09 SEPTEMBER
BORN 09 SEPTEMBER
Weronika Ratusińska-Zamuszko studied composition with Włodzimierz Kotoński and Stanisław Moryto at the Fryderyk Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw (diploma with distinction in 2001). In 2001/2002 she was a postgraduate student of Louis Andriessen and Martijn Padding at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. In 2009 she gained her MusD and is appointed as an assistant-professor at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music (FCUM) at the Faculty of Instrumental Music and Music Education in Białystok. In 2018 at FCUM she gained her MusD of 2nd degree (habilitation).
She held grants from the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, the Minister of Culture in Poland, the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the ZAiKS Artists and Composers Association. Her honours include First Prize at the 4th "Musica Sacra" Young Composers' Competition in Częstochowa, Second Prize at the 1st National Composers' Competition in Łódź and Third Prize at the "Msza Bogucka" National Composers' Competition in Katowice. She is a member of the ZAiKS Artists and Composers Association and Polish Composers' Union.
Several of her works were nominated to The Phonographic Academy Award "Fryderyk" in the Album of the Year - Contemporary Music category and in 2014 the CD "Saxophone Varie" with her composition Nymphs II interpreted by Paweł Gusnar (soprano saxophone) and Alina Ratkowska (harpsichord) was awarded by "Fryderyk" in the Album of the Year - Chamber Music category. Autumn 2007 the label DUX released her first monographic CD "Chamber Music", which in the year 2009 received one of the most prestigious awards in Europe: the Pizzicato Supersonic Award in Luxembourg. In 2010 was issued her second monographic CD "Weronika Ratusińska - Works for Orchestra" recorded by Silesian Philharmonic under the baton of Mirosław Jacek Błaszczyk.
♫ LISTEN
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, 1st Movement by Weronika Ratusinska
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, 1st Movement by Weronika Ratusinska
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