Tabakiernik has received numerous awards at composition contests, such as 2nd prize and an honorable mention at the 3rd Vox Basilicae Calissiensis National Composers Competition in Kalisz (2005), 2nd prize at the 6th Polish Student Music Forum Composition Contest in Warsaw (2005), 3rd prize at the National Adam Didur Composers Competition in Sanok (2007), 1st prize at the 53rd Tadeusz Baird Competition for Young Composers (2012), and joint 3rd prize at the 13th International Kazimierz Serocki Composers Competition (2013).
Piotr Tabakiernik’s compositions have been performed at numerous festivals, including Warsaw Autumn, Musica Sacra, and the Laboratory of Contemporary Music in Białystok, and at such venues as the Trinity College of Music in London (as part of the Polish Contemporary Music for Cello programme, organized under the auspices of the Polish Cultural Institute in London and the Joan Greenfield Trust), and Sale Apollinee del Teatro La Fenice (during the Agimus Venezia festival).
Tabakiernik is also interested in composing music for theatre and film. He has created soundtracks for a number of performances at the Ochota Theatre in Warsaw: Flaneur (Spacerowicz), Yellow Arrow (Żółta Strzała), The Old Woman (Starucha); and at the Powszechny Theatre in Warsaw: The Tempest (Burza), Kalino malino, czerwona jagodo, The Madman and the Nun (Wariat i zakonnica), and The Government Inspector (Rewizor), as well as The Eclipse (Zaćmienie) at the Zagłębie Theatre in Sosnowiec (also performed in Częstochowa). His compositions for film have appeared in such productions as Open Your Eyes (Otwórz oczy, 2007) and Redeo (2008).
The composer has also been involved in the production of happenings, e.g. Bösendorfer PROJECT – a 9-hour long, semi-improvised piece bordering on minimalist music, or Feedback – a concert lasting several hours for TV sets linked to cameras, carried out in a factory hall lit by hundreds of fluorescent lamps (accompanied by Eric Satie’s Vexations in the background).
He also co-realized the Polish-Ukrainian project So-Called Humanity Gone Mad, which comprised six performances based on texts by Witkacy.
In 2009, Piotr Tabakiernik started working as an assistant at the F. Chopin University of Music.
Selected compositions:
- Burst Suppression for grand orchestra and electronic soundtrack (2010)
- Transcendental Etudes for string quartet (2011)
- Paroles Gelées for bass flute and piano (2012)
- Piano Concerto User’s Guide for piano and orchestra (2012)
- Feldman’s lens I/II/III for piano, celesta and computer (2013)
- Sumpiqo for string quartet, percussion, and 8 channel sound projection (2013)
- Seg for cello and accordion (2014)
Author: Paweł Krzaczkowski, transl. AM, January 2015