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Photo: Natalia Lorenc

Dominik Karski was born in 1972 in Poland, and lived in Australia from 1991 to 2006; at the moment he is based in Wrocław, Poland. He studied composition in Perth and Brisbane with composers Brian Howard, Steven Cronin and Gerard Brophy. Currently he is working towards PhD degree at the University of Melbourne, which also involved studies at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien (Austria) under the mentorship of Chaya Czernowin in 2006/2007.

His music has been performed in Europe, USA, and Australia: recent highlights include a substantial exposure of his work by ELISION at the 50th Warsaw Autumn Festival (September 2007), in concerts throughout Australia in 2008/2007, and at the 2006 Huddersfield Festival. Also of significance was the performance of inward by Ensemble SurPlus in July 2005, as part of the International Master Class for Young Composers at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany. Other significant events include his participation in the ISCM World New Music Days Trans-it 2004 in Switzerland, Gaudeamus Music Week in Amsterdam in 2002 (honorable mention) and 2003, the 2001 Panufnik Competition in Kraków (1^st prize), and Nouvel Ensemble Moderne's FORUM 2000 and the 2001 Rencontres de musique nouvelle in Canada.

In Australia, Karski's music has been recognised through awards such as the 2003 Albert H. Maggs Composition Award and the 1998 ABC Young Composers' Award, as well as performances by leading musicians such as violinist Elizabeth Sellars, percussionists Peter Neville and Claire Edwardes, cellist Geoffrey Gartner, flautists Kathleen Gallagher and Janet McKay, and ensembles ELISION, Libra, and Offspring.

The music of Dominik Karski is essentially focused on the search for new sound-structures and musical experiences through the exploration of the physicality of performance. His approach is directed at the quality of sound itself, through focusing on the player-instrument relationship as the primary source of the musical substance. For this reason, close collaboration with performers plays an important role in his work, and over the last several years he has developed a very productive relationship with the musicians of ELISION ensemble.

Most recently (2009) he completed a major work for flute soloist and ensemble pre-seed, which was commissioned by flautist Richard Craig, and supported with a Creative Stipend awarded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (Warsaw, Poland). The work is scheduled for performance in London in 2010 by ELISION with Richard Craig as the soloist.

Dominik Karski — current to December 2009