Agata Zubel gets European Composer Award

The award is presented annually during the Young Euro Classic Festival in Berlin.

Zubel received the accolade for her latest composition Fireworks for large orchestra which was premiered by the European Union Youth Orchestra under Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda in Warsaw on 13 August.

It was since performed in Berlin’s Konzerthaus and at the BBC Proms in London.

Commissioned by the Warsaw-based Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the international cultural programme POLSKA 100 and the European Union Youth Orchestra for the European Year of Cultural Heritage, the work is a celebration of the centenary of Polish independence regained after over 120 years of foreign rule.

Zubel told the PAP news agency said: “I am very happy. It is a great honour for a composer to have a new work presented in such prestigious concert halls. I wanted my piece marking Poland’s grand jubilee to be a musical firework. It’s difficult to describe sounds in words but it seems to me that Fireworks is a true explosion of energy and joy”.

Forty-year-old Agata Zubel was born in Wrocław, in Poland’s southwest. She graduated with distinction from the city’s Music Academy where she studied both composition and voice. She continued her studies in the Netherlands and at numerous masterclasses. In 2004, she gained a doctorate in music and is currently a member of faculty at her Alma Mater.

She has held grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ernst von Siemens Foundation, the Wrocław City Council and the International Foundation for Education.

She has received numerous awards both as a composer and vocalist. (mk/vb)