Chopin University Electronic Music Studio

Chopin University Electronic Music Studio is a place where students compose electronic, film and theater music. The studio is located at the Chair of Composition of the UMFC. It was founded in 1990 on the initiative of prof. Włodzimierz Kotoński, the first head of the Studio, who became  the patron of the Studio in 2016. Until 2020, the studio operated under the name of Electronic and Computer Music Studio Studio Muzyki Elektronicznej i Komputerowej.

The artistic output of CUEMS includes over 300 compositions composed by students and graduates of the UMFC and other artists cooperating with the Studio (including Elżbieta Sikora, Zygmunt Krauze), as well as by participants of composition courses organized as part of the Studio's activities.

Since its inception, the Studio has been organizing concerts and other artistic events, courses and scientific conferences, incl. the annual concert of student works #Electrophony and the concert New Music New Technologies (in 2021 the special guest of the concert was Alexander Schubert, who conducted the masterclass). Additionally, every two years, CUEMS organizes the #Electrophony concert accompanying the Warsaw Autumn festival. The Festival's Internet Radio is broadcasting from the CUEMS Studio. The compositions created in the Studio were presented by Polish Radio. CUEMS also runs scientific and artistic projects. As part of such a project, the Gestofon was created - an electro-acoustic instrument in which the performer controls the sound parameters using gestures. Outstanding instrumentalists performing new music participated in the recording of sound materials as part of the Gestofon project: Zygmunt Krauze, Mikołaj Pałosz, Michał Górczyński, and Hashtag Ensemble. The studio cooperates with the Chopin University Modern Ensemble and the Department of Sound Engineering.

The rich concert and scientific activity of CUEMS is associated with a wide didactic offer. In 2019, a new specialization was introduced at the Faculty of Composition and Theory of Music - Composition with Electronic, Film and Theater Music. As part of MEFiT, students learn film and theater music composition, learn about the most modern tools necessary to compose computer music and live electronics live, create multimedia projects. Classes are conducted by composers who are outstanding specialists in their fields, with rich artistic achievements (composition of film music - Tomasz Opałka; composition of theater music - Jan Duszyński, composition of computer music - Wojciech Błażejczyk, Sławomir Wojciechowski, Andrzej Kopeć, exercises in electronic music - Żaneta Rydzewska, Mateusz Śmigasiewicz, Krzysztof Kicior), electronic music - prof. Barbara Okoń Makowska. Students' compositions as well as their film and multimedia works are presented at concerts and other artistic events of the UMFC, such as the Multimedialna Majówka. Most of the classes are open to students of other UMFC faculties, which favors the exchange of composers' experiences with instrumentalists or sound engineers.

CUEMS has two post-production studios with professional acoustic adaptation, including high quality audio equipment, professional composer and sound software, as well as analog devices (including Moog synthesizers). At CUEMS, we teach the use of the most modern tools to create and perform music, ensuring a high artistic level and the highest quality of sound. We are open to experiments and various stylistic trends.