Lena Michajłów – composer, improviser, and pianist, born in 2002 in Kraków. She studied composition with electronic, theatre, and film music at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw in the class of Ignacy Zalewski, as well as at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg in the class of Laure Hiendl. Her works have been performed in Poland and abroad by, among others, Ensemble NAMES, Hashtag Ensemble, Hard Rain Soloists Ensemble, Kwadrofonik, Spółdzielnia Muzyczna Contemporary Ensemble, Duo Stump-Linshalm, Trio Javorkai, Concept Store Quartet, Chopin University Modern Ensemble, and Ko-MAT Ensemble, at festivals such as Warsaw Autumn, Sacrum Profanum, AżTak Festival, Limina Festival, the centennial of Polish Radio, and others.
She has participated in composition workshops including Synthetis in Radziejowice (2021, 2022, 2023), Darmstädter Ferienkurse (2023), and twice in the composition workshops organized within the Warsaw Autumn Festival (2021, 2022). She consulted her compositions with, among others, Marc Andre, Marco Stroppa, Pēteris Vasks, Francesco Filidei, Sarah Nemtsov, Oscar Bianchi, Justė Janulytė, Du Yun, Clara Iannotta, Brigitta Muntendorf, Paweł Mykietyn, Zygmunt Krauze, Krzysztof Knittel, Alexander Schubert, Marta Ptaszyńska, Ondřej Adámek, Doina Rotaru and Johannes Kreidler.
She has composed music for theatre productions and radio plays by the youngest generation of directors, presented at the Ludowy Theatre in Kraków, TR Warsaw, Wybrzeże Theatre in Gdynia, Andrej Bagar Theatre in Nitra (Slovakia), Adam Mickiewicz Theatre in Częstochowa, Polish Radio,
the Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw, as well as at the Venice Open Stage Festival. Since 2021 she has been a member of the Youth Circle of the Polish Composers’ Union, since 2024 a member of the Authors’ Association ZAiKS, and since 2025 a member of IGNM. She is a laureate of the program Il Suono dei Parchi e dei Laghi del Piemonte, the Playground program organized by Spółdzielnia Muzyczna Contemporary Ensemble, as well as the main prize in the Composition Competition for a compulsory solo flute work for participants of the 2nd International E. Towarnicki Flute Competition in 2021. In 2015 she received a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, in 2016 and 2017 a Sapere Auso Foundation scholarship, and in
2020 a Julian Cochran Foundation scholarship. In 2024 she was awarded the Young Poland Scholarship by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. She is also a laureate of piano competitions (including in Warsaw, Żagań, Antonin, Košice, Paris, Gödöllő, and others), and her recitals have taken place in many concert halls in Poland and abroad. As a pianist, she actively performs contemporary music – between 2021 and 2024 she was a member of the Chopin University Modern Ensemble, and four times took part in the European Workshop of Contemporary Music at the Warsaw Autumn Festival, working with artists from Ensemble Musikfabrik and Ensemble Recherche. Between 2021 and 2023 she co-created the improvisation collective AZA Ensemble. In February 2023, she took part in the Hackathon Synthdesign Marathon, during which, together with Barbara Zach and Przemysław Pacek, she created an ecological instrument based on distance sensors. An important part of her creative practice is the inclusion of improvisation in both the compositional and performance process, as well as the practice of active listening – using sounds overheard in everyday life as starting material shaping her works. She often combines instrumental music with electronics and mobile amplification.
