New Music USA Online Library

Igor Iwanek, D.M.A. was born in Lódz, Poland, in 1981. He is active as a  composer, pianist educator, orchestrator and arranger. His teaching career brought him to such renowned institutions as Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston University. He has also taught at Sharon Music Academy, Instrumental Music School of Concord-Carlysle and Ivy Music Academy.

Spiritually, late compositions of J.S. Bach and Alexander Scriabin have always been a source of great inspiration for Igor. His non-western influences include the Persian and Indian Classical music idioms as well as the Afro-Cuban dance music tradition.  He is greatly interested in the mystical relationship between music and geometry.

Igor’s “Three Mazurki” for piano, left hand alone, won a special prize at the Second International Paderewski Composition Competition.  His "Pope Music", a piece for orchestra won the Boston University Orchestral Composition Competition.  Additionally, Igor was awarded the Williamson Foundation of Music Award and is the winner of the Kaji Aso composition prize and the recipient of the Roger Sessions Memorial Composition Award. Igor received the Emerging Artist of New England Award from the Saint Botolph Club Foundation and was the winner of the Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble Composition Competition.  Igor’s works were premiered and workshopped by such groups as Arditti String Quartet, Amber Flute Quartet, Alea III, Boston University Symphony Orchestra, Ellipsis Trio, Jack Quartet, Xanthos Ensemble etc. He is a member of the PI KAPPA LAMBDA National Music Honors Society, Scriabin Society of America and is the recipient of Fontainebleau Ecole d’Arts Americaines and Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst grants.

A word on Iwanek's teaching philosophy:
"The marvelous adventure of being alive depends entirely upon the atmosphere that each of us creates, by our     enthusiasm, our conviction and understanding that to pursue what one greatly cherishes is a unique privilege in life.  I myself strive daily to rekindle and maintain that original, ineffable impulse that brought me initially to music.  I also try to impart that conviction to my students, teaching them to work hard, love what they do and take responsibility for their learning."

His principal composition teachers were Ketty Nez and Dalit Warshaw. He has also studied with Richard Cornell, Joshua Fineberg, Samuel Headrick, Jan Swafford and Andy Vores. Currently Iwanek studies piano with Pavel Nersessian. His former piano teachers were Sergey Schepkin and Marina Magazinnik.  In addition to composing he is an active proponent of music for piano, left hand alone.