Biography
Ewa Trębacz (pronounced Eva Trembatch) is a Polish-American composer living in Seattle. Collaboration understood as an exchange of creativity, is essential to her work. Exploring the unique interaction between the human subjects and their acoustic environment, she often uses space as a catalyst for improvisation, working through Ambisonic recording sessions in acoustically inspiring spaces. By overlapping such recordings on live performances, she strives to create an illusory continuum between real and synthetic spaces.
Ewa comes from Kraków, Poland, where she first studied violin performance at the M. Karłowicz School of Music in Kraków, then continued her music education at one of Poland's best conservatories, the Academy of Music in Kraków, where she studied composition under Bogusław Schaeffer, graduating with a Master's degree in 1999. In 2004 she became one of the first doctoral students at DXARTS, graduating in 2010 with her audiovisual immersive work Errai.
Her works have been presented, performed or broadcast in over 30 countries on four continents, and have been featured in Organised Sound, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, and many other music magazines. In 2009, her work things lost things invisible for Ambisonic space and orchestra, was recognized as work recommended by the 56th UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Paris, representing 27 radio stations from around the world. Her monographic CD was released in 2013 by the Polish Radio, Polish Composers’ Union and Polish Music Information Center. Listen on SoundCloud...
Metanoia, concerto for violin, string orchestra and surround sound (2020) - starts at 1:00:40
Research
Selected Research
- All Coding is Always Transcoding, a week-long dynamic research Laboratory, Meany Studio Theater, Laura Luna Castillo, 2024
- Odyssey Two. PSeME Collection. Polish Society of Electroacoustic Music. Opus 90, 2023. CD.
- Umbrae, Ambisonic soundscape, Ewa Trębacz (2023)
- Trębacz, Ewa. "Metanoia, concerto for violin, string orchestra and surround sound." Sound Chronicle of the Warsaw Autumn 2020. Polmic, 2023. CD.
- Metanoia, concerto for violin, string orchestra and surround sound, Ewa Trębacz (2020)
- Inanna Descending, for Ambisonic sound and variable ensemble, Ewa Trębacz (2019)
- J. Anderson (2016): Ambisonics & the ATK @ DXARTS. Presented at the Pacific Northwest AES Section Meeting (Nov 2017), Seattle. Download PDF
- Ligeia, for invisible soprano, ensemble and surround sound, Ewa Trębacz (2016)
- Trębacz, Ewa, composer. "Interior Portrait". Dir. Robert Sowa. Animated Film Studio. Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, 2013. DVD.
- Trębacz, Ewa. Polish Music Today. Portraits of Contemporary Polish Composers: Ewa Trębacz. Polmic, 2013. CD.
- ANC'L'SUNR, for symphony orchestra and 3D electronic sound, Ewa Trębacz (2013)
- Trębacz, Ewa. "Depth Modulation: Composing Motion in Immersive Audiovisual Spaces". Organised Sound 17.2 (2012): 156-162. Print.
- Trębacz, Ewa. "Modulation des Raumes: auf der Suche nach der Sprache eines immersiven Mediums" Glissando 19 (2011): 72-76. Print. Language: German.
- Trębacz, Ewa. "Pełna imersja: rzeczywistość czy utopia? Technologie przestrzenne z punktu widzenia artysty." ["Full immersion: reality or utopia? Artist's perspective on spatial technologies."] Glissando 16 (2010): 44-48. Print. Language: Polish.
- Trębacz, Ewa. "Errai". Perf. Josiah Boothby and Anna Niedźwiedź. Rec. Joseph Anderson. Sound Chronicle of the Warsaw Autumn 2009. Polmic, 2009. CD.
- Errai. Immersive Audiovisual Space, for horn, soprano, and audiovisual immersive media, Ewa Trębacz (2009)Adviser: Juan Pampin
- "Sequence". Dir. Robert Sowa, photography Marcin Koszałka, music Ewa Trębacz. Action Animation - The Most Recent Films. National Audiovisual Institute NInA (Poland), 2008. DVD.
- Trębacz, Ewa. "Things lost things invisible". Perf. Josiah Boothby, Toby Penk, Colby Wiley, and K.Szymanowski Academic Symphony Orch. Cond. Arturo Tamayo and Szymon Bywalec. Sound Chronicle of the Warsaw Autumn 2007. Polmic, 2007. CD.
- things lost things invisible, for Ambisonic space and orchestra, Ewa Trębacz (2007)
- Trębacz, Ewa. "Minotaur". Perf. Henryk Kaliński and Josiah Boothby. Sound Chronicle of the Warsaw Autumn 2005. Polmic, 2005. CD.
- Minotaur, for horn and surround sound, Ewa Trębacz (2005, revised 2011) Adviser: Juan Pampin
Courses Taught
Autumn 2022
Summer 2022
Autumn 2021
Spring 2021
Autumn 2020
Summer 2020
Autumn 2019
Summer 2019
Spring 2019
Autumn 2018
Spring 2018
Winter 2018
- 2012 - University of Washington, Computer Science & Engineering: CSE 131 - The Science and Art of Digital Photography (Teaching Associate, assistant to Bruce Hemingway)
- 2012 - Stanford University, CCRMA: guest lecture, part of MUSIC 255/ARTSTUDI 239 Intermedia Workshop course
- 2011 - University of Washington, DXARTS: Stereoscopy Research Group, supervisor of an independent study group
- 2010 - University of Washington, DXARTS: Special Topics in Digital Arts and Experimental Media - Space and Video, instructor (designed and taught a new course, focusing on selected immersive visual technologies and their applications to experimental art)
- 2008 - University of Washington, DXARTS: Digital Stereoscopic Cinema (TA, assistant to Stephanie Andrews)
- 2004 - University of Washington, DXARTS: Digital Sound