She studied composition under Bogusław Schaeffer at the Kraków Academy of Music (from which she graduated in 1999) and ICT at the University of Economics in Kraków (completing her diploma in 2000).
In 2004 she became a doctoral student at the University of Washington Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS), where she studied computer music with Richard Karpen and Juan Pampin. She graduated with a Ph.D. in 2010 with her audiovisual immersive work Errai. Currently she works at DXARTS as a Research Scientist.
Between 1997-2000 she was one of the co-founders, and later president, of the APEIRON Art Society – an organization representing young artists, predominantly from the Kraków area, whose goal is to promote latest art and enable collaborations between young European artists. She has been working with artists connected with the animation studio of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków since 1998.
Her works have been presented, performed or broadcast in over 30 countries on four continents. She has been a recipient of stipends and grants from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation / USArtists International, the City of Kraków, and the Polish Ministry of Culture and Art, as well as commissions from the Klangspuren Festival in Austria, Polish Composers’ Union, and the International Contemporary Music Festival "Warsaw Autumn". In 2009, her work things lost things invisible for ambisonic space and orchestra, was recognized by the 56th UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Paris, associated with the International Music Council and representing 27 radio stations from around the world.
Her monographic CD, released by the Polish Music Information Center (polmic.pl), Polish Radio and Polish Composers Union, is available to stream on Second Inversion - an online channel of King FM Radio in Seattle (includes all CD tracks and commentary about the pieces):
From CD booklet - Places, Spaces, Encounters. A Conversation with Ewa Trębacz. By Anna Niedźwiedź.
Her current research is oriented towards experimental media, focusing on spatial aspects of the experience of a work of art, with a special focus on the two immersive techniques: ambisonics and stereoscopy. Her recent projects are based on the idea of the separation and manipulation of spatial cues, both visual and sonic, in order to design a game of illusions, to create a continuum between the synthetic and live sources, and to challenge the borders of perceptual limitations. (www.ewatrebacz.com)
Selected sound and video works:
- IRIVISKIA violin-horn duo with computer-realized surround sound (2014-15)
- ANC'L'SUNR" (remix), ambisonic sound (2013)
- ANC'L'SUNR, spatial soundscape with orchestra in the foreground (2012) - listen on Ninateka.pl
- Errai, immersive audiovisual space (2009)
- Things lost things invisible, ambisonic space and orchestra (2007)
- Minotaur, horn and surround sound (2005)
- Curriculum Vitae, digital video (2005)
- Ephemerae, symphonic wind ensemble (2005)
- Still Life, digital video (2004)
- Limbo, digital video (2003)
- Chordochromies, harpsichord and computer-realized sound (2003)
- Spinning Zone, percussion trio and computer-realized sound (2002)
- Aletheia, string orchestra (2000)
- Nescio Quid - Lux Aeterna - Libera me, mixed chorus a cappella (1998)
- Larghetto, string trio and live-electronics (1996)
- Il Fonte Adamantino, string quartet and vocal ensemble (1996)
- Koncha, oboe, cello and electronic media (1994)
- N.N., violin and vibraphone (1993)
- IRIVISKIA violin-horn duo with computer-realized surround sound (2014-15)
Composer’s website: www.ewatrebacz.com
Author: Małgorzata Kosińska, Polish Music Information Centre, Association of Polish
Composers, January 2005, update: November 2010. Transl. AM August 2014, update: Dec 2015