

Monika Szpyrka
born in Cracow in 1993, she studied composition and music theory at The Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Cracow. At present she is a DMA student at the same Academy. She also completed the soloist programme at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus under a tutor of Juliana Hodkinson, Niels Rønsholdt, and Simon Steen-Andersen.
Her works have been frequently performed in Poland and internationally, including International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt, Young Composers’ Meeting in Apeldoorn, Days of Organ Music in Cracow, Musica Electronica Nova in WrocÅ‚aw, International Festival of Cracow Composers, Ostrava New Music Days, Pulsar Festival in Copenhagen, Panorama and RAMA in Aarhus, Festival Aktuelle Musik in Nuremberg, as well as during Warsaw Autumn. She has cooperated with ensembles such as Aarhus Sinfonietta, Airborne Extended, E-MEX, Ensemble Modern, Kompopolex, LutosÅ‚awski Quartet, Orkest de Ereprijs, Ostravská Banda, SpóÅ‚dzielnia Muzyczna. Szpyrka’s works have been broadcasted on Sveriges Radio, SWR and Polish Radio Program II.
She has taken part in the workshops of the Donaueschinger Musiktage Next Generation (2016) and SYNTHETIS (2016, 2017), and has pursued individual tuition with artists such as Mark Andre, Richard Ayres, Marco Blaauw, Zygmunt Krauze, Johannes Kreidler, Bernhard Lang, Martijn Padding, Stefan Prins, Rebecca Saunders, Marco Stroppa, Jennifer Walshe, and Agata Zubel. Monika Szpyrka has obtained a 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 the ”young composers” category.