Sebastian Zawadzki is a Polish-born composer and pianist living in Copenhagen who has been releasing albums since 2014 as well as composing and arranging music for a wide array of media including TV and films. In his works he incorporates elements of classical, electronic and jazz music. In April 2018, Zawadzki released a postclassical minimalistic album Norn inspired by an extinct language norn for string quartet, piano and ambient synths. In July 2017, Zawadzki released his third album Between the Dusk of a Summer Night inspired by William Ernest Henley's poetry. It is a neoclassical work performed by Budapest Symphony Orchestra and soloists, combined with electronics and nature sounds. This work integrates musicians across the different music genres.
Zawadzki started out his music career as a jazz pianist at the young age. His first album was released by Polish record label For-tune Records – first of them Luminescence includes minimalistic improvised solo piano compositions that were recorded in RecPublica Studios in Poland. The second albumEuphony ) is written for an expanded ensemble consisting of string quartet and jazz piano trio. Zawadzki was influenced by improvised music and classical music from a young age. As a result of his studies he wrote classical pieces - one of them is "Concerto for Bassoon and Chamber Orchestra", that had its premiere at IX Festiwal Nowego Miasta in Warsaw. During 2017, Zawadzki began to explore new ways creating sounds – he worked on projects involving classical instrumentalists and ensembles combined with electronic instruments - mostly modular synthesizers. The first album in more experimental stylistic is Between the Dusk of a Summer Night, that involves Budapest Symphonic Orchestra, soloists and ambient electronic. Recordings took place in Copenhagen and Budapest in June 2017. The next project by Zawadzki is called Norn. Music is written for a string quartet, bazantar, flute, ambient modular synthesizer and two voices, is maintained in a similar convention as Between the Dusk of a Summer Night. Zawadzki has also performed his music at several festivals including works from his albums.
Collaborations
Zawadzki also works as a film composer, arranger and conductor. His work can be found on several film productions. He also collaborated with Copenhagen Philharmonic from whom he got a commission to rearrange music of other bands for a full symphonic orchestra. He collaborated as well with an oscar-winning composer Jan A.P. Kaczmarek – he used to orchestrate his film music and concert music.