Barbara Dudek (they/she) is a queer contemporary music artist who lives and works in London, UK. Native of Poland, her imaginative compositions trying to bridge music and theatre. She works in both tonal as well as post-serial language with frequent use of electronics. Her distinctive personal style emanates joy, doubts and bewilderments of everyday encounters.
They have graduated with Master Degree in Music from Trinity Laban Music and Dance Conservatoire (2024) where they studied under Amir Sadeghi Konjani, Stephen Montague and Edward Jessen with additional mentoring and now, a close collaborator Rohan de Livera. During their studies at Trinity, they also collaborated with several renowned ensembles such as : Riot Ensemble, The Hermes Experiment, Vox Urbane, The Ruffians, Opus Quartet and solo players such as Alexander Ferkey (double bass), Gosia Kępa (percussion), Anna Pych (soprano) and many more.
They have received a Bachelor in Music from London Centre of Contemporary Music (2017) where they studied composition under Roland Perrin and Simon Wallace. During that period Barbs studied jazz, Latin and African music, writing selection of pieces in bossa nova, highlife and Afro-Cuban jazz styles.
During Barbara’s explorative period they have written music and sound for video arts, which went onto multiple exhibitions locally in Poland. Scored music for short movies, one of them called ‘F*ck the boxes’ – a story about non-binary person featured at LGBTQ Flare festival 2019 at BFI. Furthermore, they have written, produced and performed music under ‘Goldrain’, where in tone of introspective ballads Barbs explored various processes occurring while integrating own psyche. Here’s a video made in collaboration with Ukrainian director Anna Iemelianova:
Their vocal work was widely performed in the UK, ‘Room for all’ commissioned by Lewisham Council for Lewisham Choral Society during Lewisham Borough of Culture 2022 has gained recognition. Vox Urbane chose the song for their BBC radio 3 debut and performed it during ‘In Tune’ in April 2023.
Known to many by abbreviation of her name, Barbs looks for deeper meaning whether it’s text, sonority or gesture and ways to interact with it. Her interests in philosophy, mythology or neuroscience and language often become a starting point for compositions. Her recent work includes taking ideas from digital sound processing and reflecting them in writing for solo instruments and ensemble. She has recently realised large scale multi-disciplinary work called ‘Requiem Moderna’ for mixed ensembles, electronics, soloists and dancers.