Cezary Duchnowski – born in in Elbląg, composer and pianist. He has held scholarships from the Friends of Warsaw Autumn Foundation, the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Experimental Studio des SWR and the Ernst von Siemens Foundation. He has won many awards including at the International Rostrum of Electroacoustic Music in Rome and the Gaudeamus new music interpreters’ competition in the Netherlands. Since many years, Duchnowski has focused on electroacoustic music. He writes chamber and symphonic works, film and theatre music, multimedia, interactive, improvised, and paramusical projects.

In the ElettroVoce duo with Agata Zubel, he develops projects for voice and electronics, in the Phonos ek Mechanes ensemble, founded with Paweł Hendrich and Sławomir Kupczak, he performs “human electronics,” a special type of improvised electronic music in which computers are controlled by acoustic instruments.

Duchnowski has increasingly engaged in syncretic art, in which music plays a key role in creating a polymedia work. These interests have spawned projects of sound installations and theatre plays in which music strictly interacts with other media.

Cezary Duchnowski is a professor of composition at the Karol Lipiński Music Academy in Wrocław.

Beniamin M. Bukowski – director, playwright, dramaturge. MA graduate from Interfaculty Individual Studies in Humanities, Jagiellonian University (history of art and philosophy) and in theatre directing from the National Theatre Academy in Kraków. From April 2021 Deputy Artistic Director of the National Stary Theatre in Kraków, Poland.

He has been awarded scholarships from the Nowy Theatre in Warsaw, Residenztheater in Munich and Siemaszkowa’s Theatre in Rzeszów as well as the “Young Poland” scholarship of the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and the Creative Scholarships of the City of Kraków; he is a laureate of many Polish and international competitions in directing and playwriting.

Some of his most notable original productions include: The Arians and Tale of the Snake’s Heart at the H. Modrzejewska National Stary Theatre in Kraków, The Amazing Limbourg Brothers (Teatroteka WFDiF) and Mosdorf: Reconstruction at the Nowy Theatre in Poznań.

His scripts have been directed by András Dömötör, Carlo Brandt, Julia Szmyt, Tomasz Kaczorowski and Katarzyna Kalwat, among others. He has worked with the latter artist on Returning to Reims (Nowy Teatr/Łaźnia Nowa), Staff Only (Biennale Warszawa), Maria Klassenberg (TR Warszawa), Art of Living (National Stary Theater in Kraków).

His plays have been translated into English, German, French, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Georgian and Hungarian.

Barbara Wiśniewska – director, born in Warsaw. A graduate in directing from the Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw and currently a lecturer there. She gained experience alongside such artists as Katie Mitchell, Christopher Alden and Ushio Amagatsu. Since 2012, she has collaborated with Mariusz Treliński as an assistant and revival director of his productions at the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, Theater an der Wien or Narodní Divadlo – Státní Opera Praha.

Wiśniewska’s opera directing debut was a production of Jan Stefani’s Cracovians and Highlanders at the Wrocław Opera (2017). The last major productions she directed were Johann Strauss’s II Die Fledermaus (Alte Münze in Berlin 2022, as part of the Berlin Opernfest), Giuseppe Verdi’s Il Trovatore (The Opera at the Castle, Szczecin 2023), and Richard Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman – a superproduction under the musical direction of Marek Janowski (The Forest Opera in Sopot 2024, as part of the first edition of the Baltic Opera Festival, now performed as a repertory production of the Baltic Opera).

She began her work in dramatic theaters with Baby Doll, winning a competition for a debut at the Studio Theatre in Warsaw (2015), and has since realized many theatrical productions, concerts, festival performances and performance readings at institutional theaters in Poland and abroad.

Jerzy Kornowicz – composer, piano improviser, music curator. He studied composition with Tadeusz Baird and Marian Borkowski at the Academy of Music in Warsaw and with Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. As an interdisciplinary artist, he composes music of many genres. He has been honored at the International Rostrum of Composers and nominated for the Opus and Musica Nova awards. He is the founder of the Kawalerowie Błotni [Mud Cavaliers] intuitive music group. He was president of the Polish Composers’ Union. The artistic curator of the “Codes” Festival in Lublin, the President of “Creative Poland” Association, and the director of the Warsaw Autumn Festival. (photo: Mariusz Wideryński)

Szymon Bywalec – conductor. He graduated with distinction in symphonic and opera conducting from the class of Professor J.W. Hawel at the Academy of Music in Katowice. He has worked with G. Chmura, A. Tamayo, K. Penderecki, P. McCreesh, and F.-X. Roth. He has been the winner of national and international conducting competitions. With the Orchestra of New Music (of which he is the artistic director), he has performed more than 150 premieres. He has conducted many symphonic and chamber orchestras in Poland and abroad. He has recorded for such labels as BIS, Decca, Kairos and DUX. (photo: Izabela Lechowicz)

Krzysztof Knittel – composer, professor of musical arts. He has been a lecturer at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and at the music academies in Łódź and Kraków. He has collaborated with the Polish Radio Experimental Studio. He composes orchestral, choral, opera, and computer music. His discography includes over 50 records. He has performed in most European countries, Asia, North and South America. He served as director of the “Warsaw Autumn” festival and created the “Ad Libitum” International Festival of Improvised Music. (photo: Paweł Kwiek)

Stanisław Leszczyński – music theoretician, music publisher, lecturer at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music. Director of the Polish Radio Music Recordings, representative of the director of the Polish National Opera, artistic director of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, where he organized his own festival and phonographic program “Chopin and his Europe”. Initiator of the International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments. Jury member of competitions in Geneva, Luxembourg, and Amsterdam. He has been awarded the “Gloria Artis” Gold Medal and the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta as well as received the Totus Tuus and Norwid awards. (photo: AK private archive)

Janusz Marynowski – double bassist, director of Sinfonia Varsovia since 2004. He graduated from the class of Professor Tadeusz Pelczar at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw. Since 1987 he has been associated with Sinfonia Varsovia, where he was a double bassist, orchestra manager, and assistant to the orchestra’s director, Franciszek Wybrańczyk. Thanks to his efforts, the orchestra became a local government cultural institution. For years he has been passionate about photography, immortalizing the profiles of the finest musicians. (photo:  Janusz Marynowski, private archive)

Elżbieta Sikora – composer. She studied sound engineering and composition at the State Higher School of Music in Warsaw (with T. Baird and Z. Rudziński), electroacoustic music at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in Paris (with P. Schaeffer and F. Bayle), computer music at IRCAM and at Stanford University (with J. Chowning). She has received a variety of awards: the second prize for her chamber opera Ariadne at the Carl Maria von Weber Competition in Dresden, the award of the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques in Paris for her opera Wyrywacz serc [The Heart Extractor], and the Storm of the Year in Gdańsk for her opera Madame Curie. From 2011 to 2017 she served as artistic director of the Musica Electronica Nova Festival in Wroclaw. (photo: Bartek Barczyk)

Jarosław Trybuś – art historian, exhibition curator, lecturer, author of Warszawa niezaistniała [Never-built Warsaw] (2012) and Przewodnik po warszawskich blokowiskach [A Guide to Warsaw’s Blocks of Flats] (2011). Co-curator (with Grzegorz Piątek) of the Golden Lion-winning exhibition Budynków życie po życiu [The Afterlife of Buildings] in the Polish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture (2008). Co-founder of Fundacja Centrum Architektury [Architecture Center Foundation]. Deputy director of the Museum of Warsaw (2012-2022) and curator of the main exhibition Rzeczy warszawskie [The Things of Warsaw]. Initiator of The Opera about Warsaw. The Best City in the World. (photo: Dawid Żuchowicz)

Piotr Gruszczyński – theater critic, dramaturgist, curator. Deputy director of the Nowy Teatr International Cultural Center in Warsaw, co-responsible for the artistic programming of this institution. As a dramaturgist, he works closely with Krzysztof Warlikowski. From 2007 to 2019 he worked with Mariusz Treliński on the dramaturgy of his opera productions. He is a professor at the Warsaw Theater Academy. (photo: Maurycy Stankiewicz)

Jerzy Kornowicz – composer, piano improviser, music curator. He studied composition with Tadeusz Baird and Marian Borkowski at the Academy of Music in Warsaw and with Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. As an interdisciplinary artist, he composes music of many genres. He has been honored at the International Rostrum of Composers and nominated for the Opus and Musica Nova awards. He is the founder of the Kawalerowie Błotni [Mud Cavaliers] intuitive music group. He was president of the Polish Composers’ Union. The artistic curator of the “Codes” Festival in Lublin, the President of “Creative Poland” Association, and the director of the Warsaw Autumn Festival. (photo: Mariusz Wideryński)

Dorota Krzywicka-Kaindel – theater and music critic, translator. She graduated in musicology from the Jagiellonian University. She has worked in Germany and Austria as dramaturgist of and assistant to Krzysztof Warlikowski, Krystian Lupa, and Grzegorz Jarzyna. She publishes in Ruch Muzyczny, Didaskalia, and the Polish Diaspora’s periodicals (in 2015 she received M. Płażyński Prize in the category of the journalist of the Polish Diaspora’s medium). Author of short films (in 2018 she received Bronze Award at Emigra Film Festial). She lives in the Vienna Woods. (photo: Christoph Kaindel)

Sylwia Chutnik – Doctor of Humanities, writer, publicist, and social activist. Graduate of the Institute of Polish Culture at the University of Warsaw with a specialization in cultural animation and gender studies of the Institute of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Warsaw. She is a lecturer at the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities and Pedagogical University in Kraków. Winner of many cultural awards. Her writing has been translated and published in 10 countries.  (photo: Marcin Łobaczewski)

Janusz Marynowski – double bassist, director of Sinfonia Varsovia since 2004. He graduated from the class of Professor Tadeusz Pelczar at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw. Since 1987 he has been associated with Sinfonia Varsovia, where he was a double bassist, orchestra manager, and assistant to the orchestra’s director, Franciszek Wybrańczyk. Thanks to his efforts, the orchestra became a local government cultural institution. For years he has been passionate about photography, immortalizing the profiles of the finest musicians. (photo:  Janusz Marynowski, private archive)

Małgorzata Sikorska-Miszczuk – librettist, dramaturgist, screenwriter. She made her debut in 2006 with the drama Śmierć Człowieka-Wiewiórki [The Death of the Squirrel-Man]. She wrote librettos for six contemporary Polish operas, including Czarodziejska góra [The Magic Mountain] (music by P. Mykietyn, 2015), Noc Kruków [The Night of Ravens] (music by Z. Krauze, 2022). She won the Gdynia Drama Award, Prix Bohemia, Ferdinand Vanek Award, Prize at the “Metaphors of Reality” competition, and the Grand Prix at the “Two Theaters” Festival. From 2020 and 2021, she was the literary manager at SFP’s Munk Studio. Since 2022, she has been the president of the Competition Jury of the T. Różewicz Drama Award Competition. Since 2022, she has been a member of the Management Board of the Society of Authors ZAiKS. She has two sons. She lives in Warsaw.  (photo: Agata Schreyner, courtesy of Malta Festival Poznań)

Grzegorz Piątek – author, publicist, architecture critic, architect. For his book about the building of Poland’s modern port city Gdynia obiecana (2022), he was awarded Polityka’s Passport (2023). He also published the biographies of the architect Bohdan Pniewski (Niezniszczalny, 2021) and Warsaw’s last pre-World War II mayor Stefan Starzyński (Sanator, 2016), as well as a book about the first years of the rebuilding of Warsaw after the destruction of World War II (Najlepsze miasto świata, 2020). He has written numerous articles about architecture, cities, as well as society and culture for magazines such as: Architektura-murator, Gazeta Stołeczna, Gazeta Wyborcza, Salon, Vogue Poland. He co-curated the exhibitions Hotel Polonia. The Afterlife of Buildings, awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture (2008), and Dane warszawskie, part of the permanent exhibition at the Museum of Warsaw (2017). (photo: Kuba Celej)

Jarosław Trybuś – art historian, exhibition curator, lecturer, author of Warszawa niezaistniała [Never-built Warsaw] (2012) and Przewodnik po warszawskich blokowiskach [A Guide to Warsaw’s Blocks of Flats] (2011). Co-curator (with Grzegorz Piątek) of the Golden Lion-winning exhibition Budynków życie po życiu [The Afterlife of Buildings] in the Polish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture (2008). Co-founder of Fundacja Centrum Architektury [Architecture Center Foundation]. Deputy director of the Museum of Warsaw (2012-2022) and curator of the main exhibition Rzeczy warszawskie [The Things of Warsaw]. Initiator of The Opera about Warsaw. The Best City in the World. (photo: Dawid Żuchowicz)