Rafał Zalech

Polish violist, composer and inventor Rafał Dominik Zalech was born in Wrocław in 1988. He studied viola and electroacoustic composition at the University of Music in Vienna, which he graduated with honors, as well as at Yale University (USA) and in Wrocław. In the years 2012-2021 he worked with one of the most leading Contemporary Music Ensembles – Klangforum Wien, with which he took part in many album productions, as well as in countless concerts around the world. He is currently a member of the Vienna-based Black Page Orchestra, and is a co-member of the Duo Nimikry and the Duo van Vliet.

Intensive research on the technology of digitization of gestures on string instruments resulted in the receipt of an international patent. This advanced technology is being currently used by the DigitAize Smart Music Instruments company he co-founded.

As a violist (and composer) he regularly appears at the most important festivals of new music, incl. Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Wien Modern, Ultrasonic Berlin, Transameriques Montreal. His active concert activity in recent years has included numerous performances, guest lectures and workshops at the invitation of academic institutions – Teatro Colon Academy in Buenos Aires, Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Electronic Music Collective in New York, National Music Conservatory in Beijing and the Vienna University of Music.

His solo debut at the Vienna Konzerthaus with G. Grisey’s Les espaces Acoustiques for viola solo and orchestra (Wien Modern Festival 2017) received very good reviews in the main Austrian daily press (Die Presse, Der Standard). The performance of the same piece during the Warsaw Autumn opening concert (2022) with OMN and Sinfonia Varsovia conducted by Sz. Bywalec was also the first Polish performance of a huge work by a French composer.

Zalech’s scientific work focuses on research on the electronic support of classical acoustic instruments and their use in the artistic field. Both in training and working with new music ensembles in the context of concert, theatre and opera projects, Rafał Zalech strives to combine compositions and interpretations, classical and other musical styles. In doing so, he consciously relies on the internal musical discourse in composition and sound, and in his works, he develops his own way of communicating with the audience beyond the usual sonicity and structures.

Rafał Zalech is a scholarship holder of, among others Ministry of Culture in Austria, J. Windisch scholarship, The Thyll-Dürr Foundation, Mica Austria and a member of the «Sylff» program of the Tokyo Foundation. In 2017, Zalech received a scholarship from the Austrian Federal Chancellery (Arts and Culture) for outstanding graduates of art universities throughout Austria. In 2022 Zalech received the prestigious Erste Bank Komposition Preis for his lifetime artistic achievements.