2026-10-13

We are proud to announce that Joanna Woźny is joining the ranks of composers represented by PWM Edition. This highly regarded composer has been living and working in Graz, Austria, for many years. She composes music that is in high regard among ensembles and orchestras specialising in contemporary music.

The musical language used by Woźny draws on the experiences of her mentors: Nono, Lachenmann, Sciarrino, Furrer and Czernowin. It is characterised by artfully composed timbres, counterbalanced by a distinctive restraint and the ascetic use of only the necessary resources. This music is neither as austere as Lachenmann’s, nor as lyrical as Furrer’s, nor as fragile as Sciarrino’s. Instead, she combines all these characteristics into a new, complex and ambiguous unity.

Monika Pasiecznik on Joanna Woźny’s music in Ruch Muzyczny magazine.

fot. © PWM Edition, fot. Bartek Barczyk

Joanna Woźny, born in Zabrze, Poland, studied composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz under Gerd Kühr and Beata Furrer, as well as philosophy at the University of Silesia in Katowice. She has also taken part in masterclasses with Brian Ferneyhough, Mathias Spahlinger, Younghi Pagh-Paan, Pierluigi Billone and Chaya Czernowin.

She is the recipient of the SKE Publicity Prize and the Erste Bank Composition Prize, the Andrzej Dobrowolski Composition Prize, as well as the City of Graz Prize and the University of Graz Prize.

Her works have been performed at international festivals of contemporary music, including: Warsaw Autumn, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, Musica Polonica Nova, Wien Modern, Ultraschall Berlin, Klangspuren Schwaz, Musikprotokoll Graz, Forum Neuer Musik in Cologne, Eclat Stuttgart and the ISCM World New Music Days.

Woźny has collaborated with many renowned ensembles and orchestras, including: the RSO Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, the DSO Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Mosaik, ensemble recherche, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Kwartludium, Ensemble ascolta, NeoQuartet, Ensemble Courage, PluralEnsemble and Ensemble PHACE.

Since 2013, she has been working as a Senior Lecturer at her alma mater, the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz.

Next Thursday, her latest composition, im Gehäuse des Schlafes die weiszen Vögel, will be performed by the Schallfeld Ensemble. The composer drew inspiration from the work of the Austrian poet Friederike Mayröcker, and in particular from the distinctive form of her texts. The premiere of Joanna Woźny’s piece will take place on 16 October at 7.30 pm in Graz, as part of the Text im Klang #7 project.