Composition workshops are organized within the framework of all editions of the Warsaw Autumn Festival.

They offer composers the opportunity to consult with authors who visit Warsaw on the occasion of their works’ performance. The workshops consist of individual tuition with a single lecturer (maximum two), selected by the participant. Participants are also free to attend other tuition sessions.

The workshops are organized in cooperation between the Warsaw Autumn Festival and the Youth Circle, the young authors and scholars’ section of the Polish Composers’ Union, which unites almost all Polish composers and musicologists, as well as foreign authorities linked to Polish culture. The Polish Composers’ Union Association is also the founder and organizer of the Warsaw Autumn Festival, established in 1956.

Besides the composition workshop, each edition of the Warsaw Autumn Festival includes open meetings with composers participating in each edition, focusing on issues of culture, art, and technology. Combined with the workshops, these meetings allow participants to build comprehensive general and specific knowledge. There are usually five meetings each year,  featuring different composers than the workshops.

For the 2021 edition of the festival, the workshops take place between 17th and 25th September.

Two young composers have been selected to attend the workshop and festival in the framework of their ULYSSES Journey:
Clara Olivares (FR)
Loïc Destremeau (DK/FR)

During their residency, the two composers have the opportunity to take part in workshops with Elżbieta Sikora, Pierre Jodlowski and Matthias Kranebitter.

© Grzegorz Mart

The list of composers featured in the workshops is directly related to the Festival’s program, usually between June and July each year, three months before the Festival itself. Composers who have run workshops in the last two years include Mark Andre, Magdalena Długosz, Cathy van Eck, Juliana Hodkinson, Zygmunt Krauze, Grażyna Pstrokońska-Nawratil, Niels Rønsholdt, and François Sarhan.