Zuzanna Koziej
Pronunciation IPA: zuzˈanna kˈɔʑɛj
Polish composer and arranger. A graduate of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, she continued her training at the Conservatorio Statale di Musica ‚Giuseppe Verdi’ in Turin, Italy. She has had the opportunity to learn from composers such as Ēriks Ešenvalds, Bob Chilcott, Ko Matsushita, and Paweł Łukaszewski.
Zuzanna Koziej is a scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (Young Poland Programme, 2021). She has also won numerous awards in international composition competitions. Among her recent achievements in 2023, she received the 3rd prize in the New Works Rising Choral Composition Competition by the Phoenix Boys Choir in the United States and was awarded an honourable mention in two other competitions.
Her first monographic album, Music of Trust, featuring choral and vocal-orchestral music, was released in February 2023 with the participation of the Choir of the National Forum of Music in Wrocław, Poland, and conductor Agnieszka Franków-Żelazny.
Her compositions have also been featured on other albums: Water Nymph on the CD of the Choir of the Maritime University of Szczecin, and The Lamb, the winning piece of the international composition competition The Lamb’s Journey in the United States in 2022, which was released on the CD of Ensemble Altera under the same title in March 2024. In December 2024, another album entirely featuring her choral arrangements of Polish folk music, Sway, Oh Sway, was released with the Astrolabium Choir, conducted by Kinga Litowska, and Tomasz Drozdek as a multi-instrumentalist. Both monographic albums, Music of Trust and Sway, Oh Sway, were nominated for the highest phonographic award in Poland, the Fryderyk.
Her works are performed worldwide, including in the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ecuador, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Italy, Serbia, Ukraine, Turkey, the Netherlands, and Hungary, often as part of international exchange projects. She organised one such project herself, Zaufanie-Vertrauen: Bringing Poles and Germans Together Through Music, where her piece Mass of Trust was performed jointly by German and Polish choirs in concerts held in both countries. She is deeply committed to music that unites, teaches, and helps both audiences and musicians discover new perspectives.
Awards:
- III Prize in the International Composition Competition New Works Rising organized by Phoenix Boys Choir, Phoenix, USA, 2023
- Honourable Mention on the International Composition Competition “George Ștephănescu”, 2023
- Honourable Mention in the International Composition Competition “Laudato si’”, Rome, Italy, 2023
- II prize in the International Competition for Girls’ Choir Compositions organized by Latvian Section of ISCM and Latvian Composers Union in Riga, Latvia, 2022
- III prize in the composer’s competition „Ludowo na novo”, Poland, 2022
- winner of the International Competition The Lamb’s Journey organized by Ensemble Altera – for the piece The Lamb, USA, 2022
- awarded with the grant of Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship for artistic activity, 2022
- III prize in the 4th Alexander Kastalsky International Competition for Choral Writing, Moscow – for the piece Ubi caritas for choir and ensemble, 2021
- Honorable Mention in the Arcady-RBC Emerging Artist Composer Competition in Canada (2021)
- Honorable Mention in the Composer’s Competition HerVoice in United States (2021)
- Awarded with a grant “Młoda Polska” of Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and Sport in Poland for outstanding achievements, dedicated for a realisation of a project of releasing a CD (2021)
- A finalist (4th position) of the AERCO International Competition for Choral Composition, awarded with a performance of the piece by Youth Choir Kamer from Latvia; Italy (2020)
- Double II prize in an international composer competition Sacra/Profana in San Diego, California for the pieces: „Deus meus” and „Trahe me” (2019)
- Award „Composer in Residence of Poznan Chamber Choir” in Composer’s Competition „Opus 966” (2016)
- Honorable Mention in the Composer’s Competition „Opus 966” (2016)
- Winner of the Composer’s Competition for Final Concert of the 12th International Festival of the University Choirs „Universitas Cantat” 2015. The world premiere was performed by all participants jointly; choirs from Poland, Ecuador, Ukraine, Serbia, Argentina, Republic of South Africa, Philippines, Brazil, Puerto Rico and Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio conducted by Agnieszka Duczmal, on 27 June 2015
- I Prize in the II Piotr Perkowski Competition for Composers, Toruń (2015)
- II Prize and Audience Award in the International Competition for Composers “In modo di Lutosławski” and world premiere of the composition in Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio, Warsaw (2013)
- Award of the Toruń Mayor for artistic activity (2010, 2013)
- III Prize in Competition for Composers in Stalowa Wola (2012)
- I Prize and Audience Award in the I Piotr Perkowski Competition for Composition, Toruń (2012)
- Honorable Mention in the Competition for Composers, Bydgoszcz (2010)
zuzannakoziej.com 