Marta Ptaszynska

Who is Marta Ptaszynska?

Marta Ptaszyńska is a composer, percussionist and professor of music at the University of Chicago. She has been described as "one of the best known Polish woman composers" as well as "a virtuoso percussionist specializing in performances of contemporary music."

She has been honored with many prizes and awards including Simon J. Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, the Danks Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Fromm Music Foundation Award, the Award at the International Rostrum of Composers at the UNESCO in Paris, several ASCAP Awards, and many more. In 1995 she received the “Officer Cross of Merit” of the Republic of Poland.

In 1998 Ptaszyńska was appointed a Professor of Music and the Humanities at the University of Chicago. Since 2005 she holds an endowed chair of Helen B. & Frank L. Sulzberger Professor in Composition.