The music of Dominik Karski is essentially focused on the search for new sound-structures and musical experiences through the exploration of the physicality of performance. His approach is directed at the quality of sound itself, through a focus on the player-instrument relationship as the primary source of the musical substance. The material is established through the idea of synthesis of independent elements: rather than pre-designing the form, it is gradually uncovered through the interactions between the combined elements from one moment to the next. The resulting musical processes are generally unpredictable - as the element of surprise plays a vital role during the flow of sound - but also coherent, as the sound-qualities evolve in a somewhat organic manner. The essential purpose in his work is to learn about the source of the energy that sets events in motion.
Dominik Karski was born in 1972 in Poland, and lived in Australia from 1991 to 2006; at the moment he is based in Wrocław, Poland. He studied Composition in Perth and Brisbane with composers Brian Howard, Steven Cronin and Gerard Brophy. Currently he is working towards PhD degree at the University of Melbourne, which also involves studies at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien (Austria) under the mentorship of Chaya Czernowin.
His music has been performed in Europe, USA, and Australia: recent highlights include a substantial exposure of his work by ELISION at the 50th Warsaw Autumn Festival (September 2007), in May 2007 in Melbourne and Brisbane, and at the 2006 Huddersfield Festival, as well as performances of The Impulse Within by Claire Edwardes and Zephyr Kwartet during October 2005 in The Netherlands. Also of significance was the performance of inward by Ensemble SurPlus in July 2005, as part of the International Master Class for Young Composers at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany. Karski attended the ISCM World New Music Days Trans-it 2004 in Switzerland, and in 2003 his Streams of Consciousness received performances by Ensemble Offspring during their European tour, which included the Warsaw Autumn. He participated in the Gaudeamus Music Week in Amsterdam in 2002 (honorable mention) and 2003, where his music was performed by Claire Edwardes, Ralph van Raat, and Nieuw Ensemble. Earlier international activities included participation in the 2002 Asian Contemporary Music Festival in Seoul, winning the First Prize in the 2001 Panufnik Competition (Kraków, Poland), representing Australia at the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne’s FORUM 2000 and the 2001 Rencontres de musique nouvelle at Le Domaine Forget (Canada).
In Australia, Karski’s music has been recognized through awards such as the 2003 Albert H. Maggs Composition Award and the 1998 ABC Young Composers’ Award, as well as performances by the leading musicians such as flautist Janet McKay, violinist Elizabeth Sellars, percussionists Peter Neville and Claire Edwardes, cellist Geoffrey Gartner, and ensembles ELISION, Libra, and Offspring.