Marta Ptaszynska

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Polish percussionist, pianist, lecturer and composer, born in Warsaw, July 29, 1843. She began studying the piano at the age of four and later studied the piano and music theory at the Music School, Warsaw and percussion under Professor J. Zgodzinski in Poznan. She received her M.A. in 1968 from the Warsaw Conservatory with distinctions in percussion, composition and music theory. She continued her composition studies in Warsaw on a French government grant, under Nadia Boulanger in Paris from 1969 to 1970. At the same time she attended a course in electronic music at the Groupe des Recherches Musicales of the French Radio. From 1965 to 1970 she was president of the Circle of Young Composers in Poland. At the Cleveland Institute of Music she earned the artist diploma degree in 1974, after studying percussion under Donald Erb. As a percussionist she specializes in performing avant-garde works by composer such as Serocki, Stockhausen, Cage and Boucourechliev, as well as her own compositions. She was a member of the Percussion Ensemble, Poznan and the Cleveland Institute of mUsic Contemporary Ensemble. She appeared several times at the Warsaw International Festival of Contemporary Music as a soloist and a member of an ensemble, playing her own and other works. She lectured in percussion at the Warsaw Conservatory, composition at Bennington College, the Universities of Berkeley and Santa Barbara and was guest lecturer at other universities. Some of her compositions won awards in Poland and awards from the Percussive Arts Society of America (1974 and 1976).

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            Works for wind orchestra:

• Conductus (1983)