Dr Bartosz Szafranski
I'm a composer specialising in film, video games, and contemporary dance. I’ve worked as a composer & sound designer on game titles Chains of Fury (2023), H1.Jack (2022), Futurust (2022), and as assistant to composer Richard Jacques on Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (2021). I’ve also composed music and designed sound for several screen-dance works by director/editor & choreographer Jo Cork, including Oh, To Be Held (2019), Calibrate (2018, Arts Council England), Sensate (2015).
Since 2021, together with architectural designer Ava Aghakouchak, we’ve been researching & developing Audio-Visual Haptics, funded by Studio Wayne McGregor as part of the QuestLab Network programme, with support from UCL and Sense, a charity for those with complex disabilities or who are deafblind. My film scoring and contemporary dance work has been broadcast internationally as official festival selections in the UK, Colombia, USA, Brazil, Poland, Macao.
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Qualifications
- BMus (Hons) Composition
- DMus Composition
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Awards
The Worshipful Company of Musicians’ Silver Medal -
Memberships
ISM
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Research and publications
Compositions
Szafranski, B. (2019) Intensity X (62’ soprano sax., 2 violins, electric guitar, electronics) [https://soundcloud.com/szcomposer/intensity-x]
Szafranski, B. (2019) Oh, to be held (6’ film score) [https://youtu.be/_6KHP_taBDg]
Szafranski, B. (2018) Calibrate (21’ film score) [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv1Z0hp8njHST9wVCvCNiuMzA4cg-Kke8t]
Szafranski, B. (2017) REconnected (1’49” film score) [https://vimeo.com/234234906]
Szafranski, B. (2017) Six Spiders (15’00” voice, electric violin, electric guitar, drone) [https://soundcloud.com/szcomposer/six-spiders-live-in-a-church]
Szafranski, B. (2017) Clean Shaving (5’36” film score) [https://vimeo.com/220292667]
Szafranski, B. (2017) Eight (12’00” string quartet, piano, drone) [https://soundcloud.com/szcomposer/eight-live-in-a-church]
Szafranski, B. (2016) WE (25’35” electroacoustic) [https://soundcloud.com/szcomposer/sets/we]
Szafranski, B. (2015) Serial Glarer (1’18” piano and electronics) [https://soundcloud.com/szcomposer/serial-glarer
Szafranski, B. (2015) Sensate (16’45” electroacoustic) [https://soundcloud.com/szcomposer/sets/sensate-film-score-and-sound-design]
Performances
Tran(s)mit Online Dance Film Festival. 27 May 2016. Philadelphia, USA
Motus Projects (Stour Space Art Gallery). 12 June 2016. London, UK
Triskelion Dance Film Festival. 13 July 2016. New York, USA
Videomovimiento Festival Internacional Videodanza. 27 September 2016. Bogota, Columbia
ID: Digitopia (2Faced Dance Company). 7 November 2016. The Courtyard, Hereford, UK
Introducing... (Birmingham Dance Network). 11 November 2016. MAC, Birmingham, UK
Rollout International Dance Film Festival. 17 December 2016. Macau, China
Short Waves International Film Festival. 22 March 2017. Poznan, Poland
CanCan Experimental Cinema (LemoArt Gallery). 3-28 April 2017. Berlin, Germany
D’Olhar Festival Itinierante De Dança E Video. April 2017. Goiânia, Brazil
Now Dance Festival (Cheshire Dance). 4 May 2017. Chester, UK
Kubiak, A., Szafranski, B. Six Spiders. 8 September 2017. Royal Musical Association Conference 2017, Liverpool, UK.
Konvalia Quartet, Kubiak, A., Szafranski, B. Six Spiders and Eight. 7 December 2017. St Mary's Church, Ealing, London, UK.
InShadow Screendance Festival, December 2017, Lisbon, Portugal.
Kubiak, A., Szafranski, B. Six Spiders. 24 February 2018. Electric Spring, Huddersfield, UK.
Calibrate – A Screendance Installation. 7 September 2018. Chisenhale Dance Space, London, UK (funded by Arts Council England).
Kubiak, A., Szafranski, B. Six Spiders. 28 March 2019. European Platform for Artistic Research in Music (EPARM), Cluj Napoca, Romania.
Recordings
An Abandoned Orchid House (2018) by Talitha Rise [CD] Label: Coven Tree Records. String arrangement on River.
Big World Blue EP (2014) by Big World Blue [CD] Label: Weatherbox. String arrangement on Morning.
Book chapter
Szafranski, B. (2018) Score Scroll. Replacing Page-Based Notation with a Technology-Enhanced Solution in Composition and Performance. In Hepworth-Sawyer, Hodgson, Paterson, and Toulson, ed. (2019) Innovation in music: performance, production, technology and business. New York: Routledge.
Szafranski, B. (2021) The “self” particle.: A time traveller’s account of how one doctorate in music composition would’ have benefitted from a better awareness of autoethnography. Accepted for publication in Wiley and Gouzouasis, ed. (TBC) Routledge Companion to Autoethnography and Self-Reflexivity in Music Studies.
Presentations
Innovation in Music Conference 2017, 6-8 September, London – paper presentation: Score scroll. Presenting new compositions as animated video scores. (7 September)
Royal Musical Association Conference 2017, 7-9 September, Liverpool – lecture-recital: Six Spiders and it’s unique dual part. Advantages, difficulties and consequences of engaging one performer in simultaneous vocal and instrumental expression. (8 September)
BFE/RMA Music Inside and Out, University of Huddersfield, 5 January 2018: Advantages of rehearsing and performing with technology-enhanced score presentation.
Ambient@40, University of Huddersfield, 24 February 2018: Structuring ambient through a video game adaptive audio system. Fmod, Unity, and Futurust.
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Conferences
Innovation in Music Conference 2017, 6-8 September, London – paper presentation: Score scroll. Presenting new compositions as animated video scores. (7 September)
Royal Musical Association Conference 2017, 7-9 September, Liverpool – lecture-recital: Six Spiders and its unique dual part. Advantages, difficulties and consequences of engaging one performer in simultaneous vocal and instrumental expression. (8 September)
BFE/RMA Music Inside and Out, University of Huddersfield, 5 January 2018: Advantages of rehearsing and performing with technology-enhanced score presentation.
Ambient@40, University of Huddersfield, 24 February 2018: Structuring ambient through a video game adaptive audio system. Fmod, Unity, and Futurust.
