The pianist and composer Laura Konjetzky was born in Munich in 1977.
She studied piano at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg/Austria with Christoph Lieske and at the Berlin University of the Arts/Germany. She continued her studies with Walter Fähndrich at the University of Music Basel/Switzerland with a concentration on Free Improvisation.
Laura recorded numerous solo pieces for the Bavarian State Broadcast Company (Bayerischer Rundfunk) amongst others Prokofiev, Schulhoff, Ustvolskaya and gave many solo and chamber music performances of classical and new music, and in improvisation.
She performed with Ensemble Resonanz, Ensemble Zeitsprung and the Munich Chamber Orchestra, as well she was engaged to perform at the Salzburg Festival, International Conference of the International Society for the Philosophy of Architecture (ISPA), A*DEvantgarde Festival, Klassik im Club Festival, Tanzwerkstatt Europe, European Weeks Festival in Passau, Jazz And More Festival Sibiu, Rumania, Think Big! Festival, Festival "Zeit für Neue Musik" in Bayreuth and the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts.
Since 2009 Laura Konjetzky is a Music Supervisor for the Bavarian State Broadcast Company (Bayerischer Rundfunk).
Her compositional work focuses on the piano. She explores new sounds at and with the grand piano, and she searches for new elements that expand piano music as, for example, with structured spoken language or percussion instruments.
Among her most important works are the composition „The thoroughly shaken dream“ (2016) for soprano, mezzo-soprano, 2 flutes, electric guitar and piano and the 60-minute piece "Fading Varnish", a composition with projections of photographs for piano solo, playback and additional instruments (2013).
In addition, she wrote music for dance and theatre, including for the Bavarian State Theatre (Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel), Theater Bremen, schauspielfrankfurt, the choreographic project Heinrich tanzt! by Fokus Tanz – Tanz und Schule e.V., as well as for compagnie Anna Konjetzky.
Laura Konjetzky received several prizes and awards for her artistic work, such as the Leonhard and Ida Wolf Memorial Award for Music, granted by the City of Munich (2002), the Bavarian Prize for the Advancement of the Arts (2006) and the Music Fellowship of the regional capital Munich (2010). In 2010/11, she was a fellow at the Internationale Künstlerhaus Villa Concordia in Bamberg/Germany.
In 2011/12 she received a fellowship from the Bavarian State Ministry of Sciences, Research and the Arts for a six-month study visit at Cité Internationale des Arts Paris.
Laura Konjetzky was selected as a composer for the Djerassi Resident Artists Program 2013 in California, USA and awarded the Helen L. Bing Fellowship.
2014, 2015, 2017 & 2018 she was juror at the federal competition "Jugend musiziert", 2016 & 2018 at the regional competition Munich „Jugend musiziert“.
Laura Konjetzky received the Europäische Musikautoren-Stipendium (EMAS) 2015 (European Music Author Fellowship) from GEMA (German society for musical performing and mechanical reproduction rights) and 2017 the International fellowship Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), Virginia, USA.
Foto © Regine Heiland