The compositions from Hendrich’s solo album, as well as ones he wrote after 2002, reveal the composer’s increasing interest in the multilayered character of a work of art and in heterochrony, i.e., the simultaneous progression of melodic lines with different tempos. He also developed his own concept of periodic organization of the frequency of sound material. Its assumption is an abandonment of the model of using octaves as the basic frequency unit. The composer effectively works on new models of dividing the octave, unlike the classical one with twelve halftones, and, furthermore, departs from scales based on octaves. For Hendrich, working on each new composition is an opportunity to develop his own system of sound organization – as early as in the pre-composition stage.
Most of Hendrich’s compositions have titles based on Latin or Ancient Greek words, often neologisms. Their role is to hint at the technical and compositional issues appearing in a piece. The composer avoids extra-musical references, and his oeuvre represents the idea of absolute music, as well as scientific precision. Music acts here as a natural science, within which the technique appears as the scientific theory indicating the possibilities arising from the natural laws of acoustics.
He has won many awards, including 3rd prize for Anepigraph for small orchestra (2005) at the International Composers’ Competition in Vienna organized by the Franz Josef Reinel Foundation. In 2009, his work Metasolidus I for symphony orchestra was nominated, along with six others, for the OPUS Public Media Award (the winner was not selected). Currently Paweł Hendrich is the artistic director of the "Musica Polonica Nova" Festival of Polish Contemporary Music in Wrocław and a member of the programme committee of the "Warsaw Autumn" International Contemporary Music Festival. During the artistic season 2016/2017, the composer was also a resident of Orkiestra Muzyki Nowej (New Music Orchestra). In 2017, he received the badge of honour "Meritorious for Polish Culture".
Paweł Hendrich took part in courses and workshops for composers in Warsaw, Wrocław, Frankfurt, Beijing, Görlitz/Zgorzelec, in which such lecturers as Peter Eötvös, Luca Francesconi, Anders Hillborg, Marco Stroppa, Horatiu Radulescu, Ivan Fedele and others participated.
Paweł Hendrich’s works have been performed, among others, at the Warsaw Autumn Festival, Musica Polonica Nova and Musica Electronica Nova Festivals in Wrocław, the First Performances Festival in Katowice, the Audio Art Festival in Warsaw and Kraków, during the Poznań Music Spring, Musica Viva in Munich, Frankfurter Positionen, Rudens Kamermūzikas Festivāls in Riga, Suså Festival in Næstved (Denmark), Rudersdal Sommerkoncerter in Hørsholm (Denmark), Lotus Festival (Japan), and Unerhörte Musik in Berlin. They were also included in the programme of the World Music Days in Wrocław, as well as the University of Louisville New Music Festival (USA), 24th Portraits of Composers in Warsaw, Słuchalnia in Toruń, New Waves in Gdańsk, Katowice JazzArt Festival.
They were played at concerts in Poland, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic, Turkey, Hungary, Malta, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, Russia, Japan, China, and the United States by such ensembles as NFM Wrocław Philharmonic (dir. Szymon Bywalec), New Music Orchestra (dir. Szymon Bywalec), National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra (dir. Szymon Bywalec), Pomeranian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra (dir. Fabián Panisello), Ensemble Modern (dir. Peter Eötvös, Anu Tali, Clemens Heil), Ensemble Musikfabrik (dir. Diego Masson), PluralEnsemble (dir. Fabián Panisello), LUX:NM, KammarensembleN (dir. Staffan Larson), Illinois Modern Ensemble (dir. Stephen A. Taylor), The Forbidden City Chamber Orchestra (dir. Liu Shun), Orkest de Ereprijs (dir. Wim Boerman), Lutosławski Quartet, LutosAir Quintet (dir. Maciej Koczur), Silesian Chamber Orchestra (dir. Osvaldo Ferreira), Beethoven Academy Orchestra (dir. Michał Dworzyński), Wrocław Leopoldinum Chamber Orchestra (dir. Ernst Kovacic), Tech-no Orchestra (dir. Robert Kurdybacha), Sound Factory Orchestra (dir. Robert Kurdybacha), Arcis-Ensemble (dir. Urlich Nicolai), Polish Orchestra Jeunesses Musicales (dir. Miłosz Bembinow), Warsaw Cellonet Group (dir. Andrzej Bauer), NFM String Trio Leopoldinum, Kwartludium, an_ARCHE New Music Ensemble, Melos Ethos Ensemble (dir. Zsolt Nagy), Kwadrofonik and by such soloists as Elżbieta Woleńska, Mikołaj Pałosz, Rafał Łuc, Adam Bałdych, Ignaz Lisiecki, Agnieszka Gajgier-Otręba, Alicja Lizer-Molitorys, and Stanisław Lasoń.
Paweł Hendrich’s compositions were ordered, among others, by "Warsaw Autumn" International Contemporary Music Festival (Ensemble Musikfabrik), Deutschlandfunk (Kwartludium), Goethe-Institut, BHF BANK Stiftung and Ensemble Modern, City of Wroclaw (National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra), Polish Institute in Madrid (PluralEnsemble), Institute of Music and Dance, New Music Orchestra, The Forbidden City Chamber Orchestra, National Forum of Music (Lutosławski Quartet, LutosAir Quintet, NFM String Trio Leopoldinum), ZAiKS Authors’ Association, Polish Composers’ Union (Pablostrom, Orkest de Ereprijs).
Composer's website: www.hendrich.pl