Hanna Kulenty facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Hanna Kulenty (born March 18, 1961, in Białystok) is a Polish composer who writes contemporary classical music. Since 1992, she has lived and worked in both Warsaw (Poland) and Arnhem (Netherlands).

Learning About Music
What a Composer Does
Hanna Kulenty's Music Style
Awards and Honors
Where Her Music is Played
List of Hanna Kulenty's Music
See also

Learning About Music

Hanna Kulenty started her musical journey by studying piano at the Karol Szymanowski School of Music in Warsaw from 1976 to 1980. After that, she focused on composition with Włodzimierz Kotoński at the Fryderyk Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw.

From 1986 to 1988, she continued her composition studies with Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Netherlands. She also attended special courses for new music in Darmstadt in 1984 and 1988. In 1983 and 1990, she took part in courses for young composers in Kazimierz. There, she learned from famous composers like Iannis Xenakis and Witold Lutosławski.

What a Composer Does

Since 1989, Hanna Kulenty has been a full-time composer. She has received many requests to write music and has earned scholarships. She has created two operas and twelve pieces for large orchestras. She has also written many works for single instruments and smaller groups of musicians. Since 2007, she has also composed music for TV shows and movies.

In 1990, she was a guest composer in Berlin, Germany, for a year. In 1998, she was invited to teach at three universities near Los Angeles. From 1999 to 2000, she was the main composer for Het Gelders Orkest in the Netherlands. In 2000, a special concert of her music was held in Cologne, Germany. She has also given talks at music festivals in San Francisco and Toronto. In 2007, she was a guest professor at the ESMUC Music Academy in Barcelona, Spain.

Hanna Kulenty has also been a judge for several music competitions. These include the Munich Biennale in 1995 and the Gaudeamus International Composers Award in Amsterdam in 2002. She also judged competitions in Warsaw, Spoleto, and Cracow.

Hanna Kulenty's Music Style

Hanna Kulenty's music often sounds like things growing and changing in nature. She has a special way of composing called 'the polyphony of arches' or 'arcs'. Imagine many musical lines, like arches, starting at different times and moving at different speeds. This creates a rich and detailed sound.

Her early orchestral piece, Ad Unum, was powerful and dramatic. It showed her skill in bringing different musical parts together. She often writes for a full symphony orchestra.

In the 1990s, she developed a simpler style, which she called 'European trance music'. In this style, her pieces often build up slowly, becoming more intense over time. She avoids sudden changes, letting the music flow and grow.

Hanna Kulenty's love for musical drama is clear in her stage music, like operas. Her ability to build up musical tension makes her pieces exciting and perfect for dramatic stories. Her latest technique, 'polyphony of time dimensions', explores how different musical events can happen at the same time, giving a feeling of time moving in circles.

Awards and Honors

Hanna Kulenty has won many awards for her music:

In 1985, she won second prize at the European Young Composers’ Competition in Amsterdam for her orchestra piece Ad Unum.
In 1987, she received the Stanislaw Wyspianski Award (2nd class).
Also in 1987, she won second prize at the Young Composers’ Competition of the Polish Composers' Union for Ride for six percussionists.
She won several prizes from the Warsaw branch of the Polish Composers’ Union:
- First prize for Quinto (1986) for two pianos.
- First prize for Breathe (1987) for string orchestra.
- Third prize for Cannon (1988) for violin and piano.
- Second prize for aaa TRE (1988) for viola, cello, and double bass.
In 2003, her Trumpet Concerto (2002) won first prize at the 50th International Rostrum of Composers. For this, she received the UNESCO Mozart Medal.
Her pieces Preludium, Postludium and Psalm (2007) and String Quartet No. 3 – Tell me about it (2008) were chosen among the top ten Dutch compositions in their respective years.

Where Her Music is Played

Hanna Kulenty's music has been performed for the first time at many major festivals around the world. These include the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Munich Biennale, and Warsaw Autumn.

Her orchestral pieces have been played by famous orchestras in the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, and Germany. Well-known conductors like David Porcelijn and Peter Eötvös have led these performances. Solo artists such as Isabelle van Keulen and Elisabeth Chojnacka have also performed her works. The Dutch group De Ereprijs has asked her to write pieces for them many times. In 2008, the Kronos Quartet performed her String Quartet No. 4.

After her opera The Mother of Black-Winged Dreams was a success in 1996, Hanna Kulenty became known as "one of the leading figures on the Polish composers’ scene."

Her compositions are published by Donemus in Amsterdam and by PWM Edition in Cracow.

List of Hanna Kulenty's Music

Here is a list of some of the musical pieces Hanna Kulenty has composed, grouped by the type of music:

Operas and Other Stage Works

These are pieces meant for the stage, like plays with music.

Hoffmanniana (2003) – an opera in two parts.
The Mother of Black-Winged Dreams (1995) – an opera in one part.
Przypowieść o ziarnie [Parable on grain] (1985) – a small opera or a solo drama.
Island (2006) – a stage piece for trumpet, voice, a group of musicians, and recorded sounds.
Lost & Found twenty-five (2008) – a music-dance show for a group of musicians and recorded sounds.

Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra

These are pieces written for a large group of musicians (symphony orchestra) or a smaller group (chamber orchestra).

Ad unum (1985) – for symphony orchestra.
Breathe (1987) – for chamber orchestra.
Certus (1997) – for chamber orchestra.
Part One (1998) – for symphony orchestra.
Passacaglia (1992) – for chamber orchestra.
Piano Concerto No. 2 (1991) – for piano and symphony orchestra.
Piano Concerto No. 3 (2003) – for piano and symphony orchestra.
Quatro (1986) – for chamber orchestra.
Trigon (1989) – for chamber orchestra.
Sinequan Forte A (1994) – for solo amplified cello with delay, and symphony orchestra.
Sinequan Forte B (1994) – for solo amplified cello with delay, and chamber orchestra.
Symphony No. 1 (1986) – for symphony orchestra.
Symphony No. 2 (1987) – for symphony orchestra and mixed choir.
Symphony No. 3 (2000) – for symphony orchestra.
Trumpet Concerto (2002) – for trumpet and symphony orchestra.
Violin Concerto No. 1 (1993) – for violin and symphony orchestra.
Violin Concerto No. 2 (1996) – for violin and symphony orchestra.

Large Ensemble

These pieces are for a group of musicians that is larger than a chamber group but smaller than a full orchestra.

A few minutes for Ereprijs (1992) – for ensemble.
Air (1991) – for ensemble.
Elfen (1997) – ballet music for ensemble.
Flute Concerto no. 1 (2001) – for amplified flute with delay and chamber orchestra.
Going Up 2 (1995) – for ensemble.
Mezzo Tango (2004) – for brass band.
Mezzo Tango 2 (2005) – for ensemble.
Piano Concerto No. 1 (1990) – for piano and ensemble.
Perpetuus (1989) – for ensemble.
Postcard from Europe (2004) – for ensemble.
Violin Concerto No. 1 (1992) – for violin and ensemble.

Chamber Groups

These are pieces for a small group of musicians, usually two to ten.

Arcus (1988) – for three percussionists.
aaa TRE (1988) – for viola, cello, and double bass.
A Cradle Song (1993) – for violin, cello, and piano.
A Fourth Circle (1994) – for violin (or viola/cello) and piano.
A Sixth Circle (1995) – for trumpet and piano.
Asjaawaa (2001) – for mezzo-soprano, flute, harp, piano, percussion, and electronics.
Blattinus (1996) – for saxophone quartet.
Brass No. 2 (2005) – for horn and trumpet.
Cannon (1988) – for violin and piano.
Crossing Lines (2001) – for violin, clarinet, and piano.
Decimo (2000) – for choir, six voices.
Going Up 1 (1995) – for violin and double bass.
Kisses & Crosses (2007) – for piano and percussion.
Lysanxia (1994) – for gamelan and tape.
MM-blues (1999) – for two pianos and two percussions.
Preludium, Postludium and Psalm (2007) – for cello and accordion.
Quinto (1986) – for two pianos.
Rainbow 3 (2003) – for flute, bass clarinet, and piano.
Rapidus (1998) – for saxophone quartet.
Ride (1987) – for six percussionists.
Run (2004) – for flute and piano.
Sierra (1996) – for violin and cello.
Stretto (1998) – for flute, clarinet, cello, and guitar.
String Quartet no. 1 (1984).
String Quartet No. 2 (1990).
String Quartet No. 3 – Tell me about it (2007).
String Quartet No. 4 (A Cradle Song) (2007).
Tap-Blow-Dance4* (2020) – for 2 bass clarinets, violoncello, and vibraphone.
Sugar-Fela Tango (2009) – for piano and four instruments.
Tell me about it 1 (2006) – for clarinet, cello, trombone, and piano.
Tell me about it 2 (2006) – for bass clarinet, cello, trombone, and contra bass.
Waiting for… (1997) – for voice and piano.

Solo Instruments

These are pieces written for just one instrument.

Arci (1986) – for percussion solo.
A Fifth Circle (1994) – for alto flute with delay.
A Third Circle (1996) – for piano solo.
Brass No. 1 (2004) – for trumpet solo.
Brass No. 2 (2004) – for horn and trumpet.
Brass No. 3 (2005) – for horn solo or trumpet solo.
Brass No. 4 (2007) – for tuba solo.
Cadenza (1992) – for violin solo with delay.
Drive Blues (2000) – for piano solo.
E for E (1991) – for harpsichord solo.
Harmonium (1999) – for harmonium solo.
One by One (1988) – for marimba solo.
Preludium and Psalm (2007) – for harmonium solo or another keyboard instrument.
Sesto (1985) – for piano solo.
Sinequan (1993) – for cello solo with optional delay.
Sinequan (rev. 1993) – for cello solo with delay.
Still Life with a Cello (1993) – for cello solo.
Still Life with a Violin (1985) – for violin solo.
Three Minutes for the Double Bass (1983) – for double bass solo.

Electroacoustic Music

This music uses electronic sounds or computers.

Prośba o Słońce [Request for the Sun] (1984) – electroacoustic tape.
Souvenir from a Sanatorium (1988) – computer music.