Bio

Education

Anna Sowa is a Polish, in Basel-based experimental composer and artist, mainly focused on exploring electronic music and fields of performing arts. She is interested in the intersection of movement, gesture and theatricality in relation to electronic and instrumental music.

Born in Tymbark (Poland) in 1987, she studied eurhythmics with Szábolcs Esztényi and Elżbieta Aleksandrowicz at the Academy of Music in Łódź (graduated with distinction in 2011).

She continued her studies in composition under the supervision of Zygmunt Krauze. Between 2014 – 2015 she was an Erasmus+ student with Dietrich Hahne at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen (Germany) as a KAAD scholarship holder. She obtained a Chinese governmental scholarship to study in Shanghai Conservatory of Music (2017 - 2018) and Witold Lutosławski scholarship (2019) - founded by the Lutosławski’s family and Nicati-de Luze Foundation Scholarship (CH). In 2021 she graduated with distinction Master Special Program in Musik Akademie Basel (Switzerland) in prof. Johannes Kreidler and prof. Caspar Johannes Walter at the Music Academy in Basel.

She has taken part in different courses at the International Summer Courses for Composers Synthetis in Radziejowice (2014-2016) and at the Donauechingen Musiktage (2015). In 2017, Anna was an artist-in-residence in Tondela (Portugal).

Work

Her works have been performed at the festivals: Warsaw Autumn (PL), ECLAT Festival in Stuttgart, Transit Festival (BE), Biennale Aktuelle Musik in Bremen, Sacrum Profanum (PL), Ad Libitum (PL), Pergine Festival (IT), Musica Moderna (PL), Musica Privata (PL), Experimental Tuesdays (PL), Polifonie (PL), Neo Arte. Syntezator Sztuki (PL), Controlled Festival (PL), Touch the Theatre Festival (PL), Fru Improvisation Contact Festival (PL), C.A.R. contemporary art ruhr in Essen (DE), BÉTON Brut & Bruits in Cologne (DE), International Festival of Accordion Music in Przemyśl (PL), Bauhaus/Dessau Kurt Weil Festival (DE), Arkady Kubickiego at Royal Castle in Warsaw (PL), Sao Paulo Contemporary Composers Festival (BR), Theather Basel (CH).

In 2021 she won, together with the association Anomalia, the 3rd edition of the Fringe competition of the Foundatione Haydn Stiftung. As part of the prize, Anna Sowa's opera Silenzio/Silence will be premiered in March 2022 as part of the Festival Oper 2022 in Bolzano. She received scholarships such as: Witold Lutosławski Scholarship 2019 (PL) founded by composer’s family members and Nicati-de Luze Foundation Scholarship 2020 and 2021 (CH).

The composer also cooperated with Off Harnam Group and their joint project Roots was presented among others at Harnam’s Anniversary Concert in Łódź and during the FRU Festival: Polish Festival Improvisation Contact in 2012. In November 2012, she took part in the intercollegiate concert of composition students at the Academy of Music in Poznań.

She was a co-organiser of Festiwal Kontrolowany in Radom, which was held within the projects: Lutosławski – Promesa 2013 and Kolberg – Promesa 2014. In February 2013, her piece The quintet was used for making choreographies by participants of the National Competition of Movement Interpretations, which took place during the 3rd Meetings with Eurhythmics (Radom). Moreover, she created music for the spectacle The Maids based on Jean Genet’s drama, which was shown by members of Pro Dance Theatre during the l Touch the Theatre festiva in Łódź.

Anna has collaborated with a visual artist Xiaole Zhang. Their sound installations Dwelling and Erwartung were shown as part of a summer project Künstlerstadt Kalbe, while the installation Receiver not found was presented at C.A.R. contemporary art ruhr in Essen. In 2017, her piece Pizzicato for two performers and electronics was displayed during ChampdAction in Antwerp. Since 2018 she's been cooperating with an italian group ANOMALIA.

She is a member of IAWM (The International Alliance for Women in Music), Young Polish Composer Society as well as the Polish Institute of World Art Studies.

In the years 2011 – 2017 she worked as a teacher at the Oskar Kolberg Music School in Radom. Between 2016-2017 she worked at the Academy of Music in Łódź as a piano improvisation lecturer.