Aleksander Wnuk

Multi-percussionist, performer, improviser, sound artist and PhD in Arts based in Krakow, Poland. He specializes in performing Contemporary, New, and Experimental Music as a soloist and chamber musician. His interests mostly revolve around multi-percussion and intermedia genres. His repertoire covers newly commissioned works, pieces of the last two decades, as well as classical and modern literature. He often focuses on post-instrumental issues, working with objects and on the corporeality of the performance. Aleksander is interested in breaking traditional/academic practices and the experiment itself. He creates his own music combining musical genres – Lupnik, Komentarz eufemistyczny, Seeking Mother. His activity includes free improvisation, instrumental performance art, composing and performing music for dance performance (Manhattan, MISSPIECE) and dramatic theater (Art of Living, Unmanly, in which productions he also performs stage roles). Writings of his have been published in the magazines Glissando and Ruch Muzyczny. He collaborated, among others, with Pierre Jodlowski, Sara Nemtsov, Trond Reinholdtsen, Matthew Shlomowitz, Wojtek Blecharz. Among the most significant achievements is the World Premiere of Sarah Nemtsov’s concerto for solo percussionist, narrator, and large orchestra En Face, own transcription of Zbigniew Karkowski’s noise composition for percussion and live-electronics Form and Disposition (together with Piotr Peszat), numerous solo recitals and chamber performances at most prominent festivals for New Music (MaerzMusik Berlin, Darmstadt, Warsaw Autumn, Unsound, Musica Electronica Nova, Sacrum Profanum). Currently, he is a member of Spółdzielnia Muzyczna Contemporary Ensemble (holder of Ernst von Siemens Ensemble Prize 2021-22 and ensemble in residence at Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt 2023), Krakow Improvisers Orchestra, duos: with Paulina Owczarek and with Michał Lazar (Surreal Voyagers). As a guest artist, he cooperated with Hashtag Ensemble and New Music Orchestra. He is collaborating with The Helena Modrzejewska National Stary Theatre in Krakow and was also doing so with The Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Krakow. He was a member of Percurama Percussion Ensemble for many years. He obtained education in Denmark, Poland, Austria, and Germany. This includes Academy of Music in Gdansk and Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen (reputable class led by Prof. Gert Mortensen where he also completed prestigious Soloist Class), Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, impuls Academy in Graz, Ensemble Recherche Akademie in Freiburg and IEMA. He defended his doctoral thesis at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow where he currently teaches in the Department of Percussion and Contemporary Music.

aleksanderwnuk.bandcamp.com