Zapała studied at the Academy of Music in Poznań, where he graduated in two subjects – choir conducting (under the academic supervision of Janusz Dzięcioł, 1999) and composition (under the academic supervision of Lidia Zielińska, 2010). Zapała gained a PhD in composing at the Academy of Music in Kraków (2012).
The composer has participated in numerous master classes: conducted by, among others, Jan A.P. Kaczmarek in Rozbitek Institute (2006), Karlheinz Stockhausen in Kurten (2008); the Acanthes classes in Centre Pompidou, Metz, conducted by Tristan Murail, Beat Furrer and IRCAM lecturers (2010); Deep Listening workshops with Pauline Oliveiros, composing master class with Catherine C. Hannix, sound art master class with Alvin Lucier at STEIM, Amsterdam (2012), and workshops with Zbigniew Karkowski at Electroacoustic Music Studio of the Academy of Music in Poznań (2012).
Zapała was also a participant of many artistic residency programmes: at Stanford University (CCRMA, 2014), Residents in Residence at ZAMEK Culture Centre in Poznań (2014), Kompozytor Rezydent (Composer-Resident) programme at Świętokrzyska Philharmonic (2014/2015), and in Zentrum fur Kunst und Urbanistik, Berlin (a residency which will take place in 2016).
His compositions have been presented at numerous festivals of contemporary music, including Warsaw Autumn, Sound Screen, Poznań Musical Spring, Contem.Ucha, Susaa Festival (Denmark), Made in Chicago Festival, International Young Audience Film Festival Ale Kino!, EmuFest 2012 in Rome, Misucacoustica in Beijing, Bing Concerthall in Stanford, Hermetic Chamber in Berlin, and AudioArt in Kraków.
Rafał Zapała is the founder of the an_ARCHE NewMusicEnsemble contemporary music group and an_ARCHE foundation. He also runs another contemporary music group, Sepia Ensemble. A description of his authorial conception, Live Electronic Preparation (LEP Technique), is published as a chapter in Oxford Handbook of Interactive Audio (Oxford University Press, 2014). Installations and sound actions in public space are crucial to the composer’s work. They include The Splitter, and the triptych consisting of Where is My Mind!?!! (Malta Festival, 2013), Sensorium (a monumental installation in the clock tower of ZAMEK Culture Centre in Poznań), and Post-Apocalypsis (which got awarded the golden medal for Sound Design on Quadriennale in Prague, 2015).
To find out more, visit the artist’s website: www.zapala.com.pl