She studied piano under Irena Protasiewicz and Wanda Łosakiewicz and composition under Kazmierz Sikorski at the Higher State School of Music in Warsaw.
She began her artistic career as a pianist; she had already began she began giving concerts whilst still studying, and in the following years she toured Poland, Belgium, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. She co-founded the Polish section of Jeunesses Musicales and in 1964-68 she was the Secretary General. From 1968 to 1970 she received a scholarship from the French government and lived in Paris, where she studied composition under Nadia Boulanger, Olivier Messiaen and Pierre Schaeffer as well as musicology under Jacques Chailley at the Sorbonne. She co-founded the Groupe International de Musique Electroacoustique de Paris (GIMEP). In 1975, she moved to Tervuren near Brussels, where she stayed until 2000 with her husband Horst-Jurgenem Tittel, a high-ranking official of the European Union. Nowadays they live in Taillet near Perpignan in French Catalonia (Oriental Pyrenees).
Apart from composition Joanna Bruzdowicz is involved with music criticism and journalism. She promotes new music on French, Belgian, German, and American radio shows. She leads master classes mainly at MIT, Yale University, the University of Southern California and University of California in Los Angeles, and at the Sorbonne in Paris, Université de Montreal. She also founded the Frederic Chopin and Karol Szymanowski Society of Belgium in 1983. In 1996 she founded an annual International Music Festival in Ceret, Franch, which taes place in the summer and is dedicated to composers as well as performers from the first three countries to introduce democratic constitutions: United States of America, Poland, and France as well as Catalonian composers (both French and Spanish).
In 2006, she opened CAT.Studios in Perpignan – a cinema production-distribution company and studio for film music. She is one of the studio's four directors. She composes film scores and is also the author (along with her husband) of numerous film scripts, including 36 films for German television WDR Stahlkammer Zürich.
In 2001 Joanna Bruzdowicz was awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta.
Selected compositions:
1957-59
- Concertino for two pianos
1961
- Maly Apollo (Little Apollo) for soprano and piano
1962
- Wariacje (Variations) for piano
- Listy (Letters), piano miniatures
1963
- Wariacje (Variations) for string quartet
- Miniatury (Miniatures) for clarinet and piano
- Koncert (Concert) for vibraphone and piano
1964
- Epigramy for solo violin
- Niobe for soprano, speaker and instrumental ensemble, lyrics by Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński
- Sept miniatures for solo flute
1965
- Wizyta (Visit) for baritone and piano, lyrics by Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński
- Wierszyk o wronach (Poem about crows), for baritone and piano, lyrics by Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński
- Wczoraj (Yesterday), for soprano and piano, lyrics by Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński
- Śpij w spokoju (Sleep in peace), for soprano and piano, lyrics by Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński
- Oto widzisz znowu idzie jesień (Look autumn is making its way again), for soprano and piano, lyrics by Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński
- Prośba o wyspy szczęśliwe (A call for joyful islands) for soprano and piano, lyrics by Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński
- Już kocham cię tyle lat (I’ve loved you for so many years already), for bass and piano, lyrics by Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński
- Etiudy przestrzenne (Spatial etudes), three songs for a cappella choir
- Czystość (Purity) for soprano and piano
- Erotyki (Erotica’s) for piano
1966
- Per Due for violin and piano
- Kwintet na instrumenty dęte (Brass quintet)
1967
- Rysunki z przystani (Drawings from the harbour), seven miniatures for mezzo-soprano, flute, piano and percussion
- Suite in memoriam Sergiej Prokofiev for orchestra
1968
- Kolonia karna (The Penal Colony), a musical drama based on Franz Kafka
- Pieśni do poematów Konstantego Ildefonsa Gałczyńskiego (Songs to Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński’s poems) for vocal - instrumental ensemble
- Impressions for two pianos and symphony orchestra
1969
- Ek- stasis, electroacoustic music
- Éclairs for orchestra
- Phobos for tape
- Esquisses for flute, viola, cello and piano
- Soundtrack to Objets a Réflexion directed by Berndt Nuberg
1970
- Salto for percussion and tape
- Fas et nefas for tape and prepared guitar
- Stigma for solo cello
- Pehnidi for harpsichord
1971
- Jour d'ici et d' ailleurs for choir, vocal quartet, narrator and chamber ensemble by Pauline Miguel
1971-1975
- Homo Faber, trilogy for tape
1972
- Les Troyennes, musical tragedy by Euripides
- Soundtrack to La Mort de Lord Chatterley directed by Gilles Katz
1973
- Epitaphs (en mémoire de mon Père) for harpsichord and tape
- A claire voix for mixed choir, three horns, piano and tape
- Episode for piano and three dental Strings
- Esitanza for two pianos or piano four-hands
- Mater Polonica, fantasy according to the theme Bogurodzicy for organs
- Soundtrack to Chita je t'aime directed by Gilles Katz
1973-1974
- Le Beau Danube Bleu for two pianos and tape
1974
- Koncert fortepianowy nr 1 (Piano concert nr 1)
- Ette for solo clarinet
1975
- Trio for mezzo- soprano or baritone, cello and piano
- Line for harpsichord and organ
- Symfonia (Symphony)
1975-1976
- Koncert skrzypcowy nr 1 (Violin Concerto)
1976
- The story of a curious bird, musical theatre for children
- Le Petit Prince, Ballet after Antoine de Saint- Exupéry
- Soundtrack to La Foret d' Orleans directed by Gilles Katz
1978
- Inner Space - Outer Space for tape
- Equivocita for klavicord
- Of Love and death for male or female voice and tape by brother Lou
- Aquae Sextiae for wind quintet and wind orchestra
- October Sonata for piano
- Soundtrack to Statements after the Arrest of George Moors
1979
- Bartokalia for Béla Bartók for tape
- Fantasia Hermantica na temat SABBE for viola and piano
- Tre contra tre for flute, oboe, viola, and three percussionists
- Soundtrack to A propos de la neige fondue directed by Gilles Katz
1980
- New Scenes of Childhood, electronic Suite for Children
- Marlos Grosso Brasileiras ‘Chant d' amitié’ for flute, violin, harpsichord and tape
- Trio dei Due Mondi for violin, cello and piano
- Prelude and Fugue for harpsichord
1980-1981
- Bramy Raju (The gates of heaven), Music by Jerzy Andrzejewski Drama
1981
- Trio by Trio, Dance Suite for flute, violin and harpsichord
- Dum spiro spero, scenic music for flute and tape
1982
- Concerto for Double - bass and orchestra
- Para y contra for double bass and tape
- Oracle for bassoon or bassoon and tape
- Dreams and Drums for percussion
- Film Music Aunt Blandine directed by Guy Jorre
- Soundtrack to Islande directed by Philippe Morse
1983
- Kwartet smyczkowy nr 1 'La Vita' (String Quartet)
1985
- Urbi et Orbi, cantata for tenor, children's choir, two trumpets, two trombones and organ
- Soundtrack to Un échec de Maigret directed by Gilles Katz
- Soundtrack to Sans toit ni loi directed by Agnès Varda
1985-1989
- Music for the TV series steel Zurich Chamber directed by Celino Bleiweiss, Peter Fratcher and Kai von Kotze
1987
- En attendant Anaïs, music for children
- Soundtrack to Le Jupon rouge directed by Genevieve Lefebvre
- Soundtrack to Le dernier prix ( Seria 5 dernières minutes) directed by Gilles Katz
1988
- Aurora Borealis for harp and organs
- Kwartet smyczkowy nr 2 ‘Cantus Aeternus’ (string quartet with speaker)
- Soundtrack to Kung Fu Master directed by Agnès Varda
- Soundtrack to Jane B. par Agnès V. directed by Agnès Varda
1988-1989
- Four Seasons Greetings for chamber string orchestra and soloists
1989
- Soundtrack to Jeumont, 51 minutes d' arrêt directed by Gilles Katz
1990
- La Espero, cantata for soprano, baritone, harpsichord and strings
- Je me souviens for marimba
- Violin Sonata No. 1 ‘Il Ritorno’
- On Prayer for soprano and piano
1991
- Soundtrack to Jacquot de Nantes film music by Agnès Varda
1993
- Stabat Mater for chorus a cappella
1994
- Spring in America, Sonata for violin and piano
- The Cry of the Phoenix, for cello and symphony orchestra
- Soundtrack to L' homme que j'ai tué directed by Giorgio Ferrary
- Soundtrack to Les grandes dames du strip-tease directed by Françoise Levie
1995-1996
- World, five pieces for soprano and piano, lyrics by Czesław Miłosz
1997
- Song of Hope and Love for cello and piano
- Symfonia for two guitars, percussion, string quartet or chamber orchestra
- Soundtrack to Un Air si pur by Yves Angelo
2000
- Soundtrack to Glaneurs et la Glaneuse directed by Agnès Varda
2002
- Soundtrack for Deux ans plus tard directed by Agnès Varda
2004
- Salvador Dali, Poem for baritone and piano, lyrics by Paul Eluard
- Szesnaście obrazków z wystawy Salvadora Dali (16 paintings from Salvador Dali’s exhibition) for piano
2005
- Fanfare for Celebration of Women in Music for instrumental ensemble and brass
- Film Music for Les Ames grises directed by Yves Angelo
2006
- Kwintet 'Tramuntana' for saxophone and string quartet, 2006
Author: Małgorzata Kosińska, Polish Music Information Center, Polish Composers' Union, March 2004, update: December 2008, Translated by: Zuzanna Wiśniewska, August 2015
