About JakubBlurring the Layers Between Music and Electronics
Composer and electronic artist Jakub Ciupinski has collaborated with Metropolis to create some of our most pivotal experimental projects, such as Flame Keepers, Brownstone, New Music 101, and TerraGenesis. Jakub is a NYC-based Polish composer who writes works in both electronic and traditional acoustic styles. He is co-founder of Blind Ear Music, New York based group of composers and instrumentalists performing improvised, real-time compositions, using wirelessly connected laptops as musical score displays. He has also designed his own instrument for performing electronic music using hand gestures.
Current Metropolis ProjectFlame Keepers
Conceived and designed by Jakub Ciupinski, with code developed by Avneesh Sarwate and Ryan Rose, Flame Keepers was created by Metropolis for composers during the pandemic and beyond. Since 2021, Metropolis Ensemble has commissioned 100+ composers for Flame Keepers, our perpetual sound art installation, producing over 3,000 musical stems.“Metropolis took over every inch of the Phillips Collection… this cutting-edge, we’ll-try-anything troupe put on a roving installation of compositions by Jakub Ciupinski, Christopher Cerrone and Paula Matthusen, all avant-garde New Yorkers in their 30s.”
The Washington Post reviewed Jakub Ciupinski's "Brownstone" at The Phillilps Collection in 2016.
Other Career Highlights
In 2016, Jakub Ciupinski's work "Wreck of the Umbria" was performed at Cracow Proms with the Beethoven Academy Orchestra and violinist Anne Akiko-Meyers. He also collaborated with Oscar-winning film director Andrzej Wajda, creating the score for the United Nations documentary “Opening Doors.”“In Mr. Ciupinski’s work, the electronic sounds come from buffaloes, frogs, rattlesnakes and other creatures. ‘I’m thinking of musicians as wild animals,’ he said.”
The Wall Street Journal previewed Metropolis' "Brownstone" on the Upper East Side in 2015.Previous Metropolis Projects
2022TerraGenesis: Operation Landfall
Metropolis and Jakub Ciupinski composed and created the original soundtrack for a new space simulation video game, TerraGenesis: Operation Landfall, in partnership with Alexander Winn, Edgeworks Entertainment, and Tilting Point. Rooted in science from NASA, this space survival game challenges players to build and expand the first human settlement on Mars and other worlds.
2021Biophony
The annual Biophony festival and pop-up concert series brings new music to world-class institutions, open streets, and public parks across the city. The Metropolis Brain Trust, a collaborative cohort of artists including Jakub Ciupinski, helped make each Biophony project come to life.
2020House Music: Spiritual America
During the pandemic, Metropolis hosted a weekly House Music video series for artists to develop original works, record from home, and share new music. Jakub Ciupinski performs an original remix of William Brittelle’s Spiritual America using his "hacked" theramins to unite a variety of clips from the album into one succinct package.
2019Forbidden Colors
To celebrate the launch of William Brittelle’s new album, Spiritual America, on Nonesuch and New Amsterdam Records, Metropolis hosted a walk-about concert and listening party at Public Records in the style of a roving electro-acoustic music mini-festival, including a world premiere Metropolis commission from Jakub Ciupinski, SpAM.
2018LPR X Anniversary
Metropolis joined in celebrating ten years of the Village concert venue, (Le) Poisson Rouge, in a set featuring Jakub Ciupinski and Kristin Lee. Also featuring performances by Nels Cline Trio, Joan As Police Woman, Toshi Reagon, Yonatan Gat, TAK ensemble, L’Rain, Zs, and Qasim Naqvi.
2016Metropolis Ensemble Tenth Anniversary
Metropolis presented multi-sensory musical performances at Angel Orensanz Center, including excerpts from Jakub Ciupinski's works, sound installations, projection mapping, and performance art alongside sixty composers and performers to celebrate ten years of music innovation.
2016Brownstone Sound Bites
Visitors at an Upper East Side mansion were transported into a jewel-lit, multi-sensory exploration of interlinked “sound bites” co-curated by Ricardo Romaneiro and food prodigy Jonah Reider of Columbia University dorm pop-up restaurant Pith. A roving after-party featured a DJ set with NoisoN.
2016Brownstone Phillips Collection
Metropolis presented Jakub Ciupinski's immersive concert at The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC with musicians and electronic elements placed through several floors, galleries, and former domestic spaces. The concert also featured works by Christopher Cerrone and Paula Matthusen.
2015Brownstone Upper East Side
Metropolis hosted Jakub Ciupinski's site-specific, 360-degree work at an Upper East Side Beaux Arts mansion. The concert also featured new electro-acoustic works from Ricardo Romaneiro and Christopher Cerrone, where audiences wandered through the space to create their own auditory experience.
2014Brownstone Northeast Tour
After the success of its 2010 premiere in Brooklyn, Metropolis took Jakub Ciupinski's Brownstone immersive concert experience on the road to create installations in private homes and arts institutions across Concord (New Hampshire), Portland and Lewiston (Maine).
2014Double Helix
Violinist Kristin Lee curated a Metropolis Resident Artist Series concert at Le Poisson Rouge, featuring the world premiere Metropolis commission from Jakub Ciupinski, “Glitch,” performed by Kristin and Jakub on specialized theramins. The concert also featured violin duos from composers Andy Akiho, Vivian Fung, Shobana Ragavan, and Patrick Castillo.
2014Cymbeline
Metropolis presented world premiere of the newly co-commissioned “Concerto for Guitar” by Jakub Ciupinski for guitar (Mattias Jacobsson), strings, and electronics at Le Poisson Rouge. Each new work in the concert featured performances re-imagining instruments for new contexts and contemporary genres.
2011Inaugural Benefit
Metropolis celebrated with founding visionaries and donors at Tom Colicchio’s Riverpark with cocktails, dinner, auction, and performances, including "Cocktails & Composing," a real-time composing system using iPhones; loops and rhythms composed by Jakub Ciupinski.
2010Brownstone
World premiere of Jakub Ciupinski's site-specific electro-acoustic installation in a private home in Brooklyn, where audiences freely wandered the spaces throughout the concert. The source material for the electronic music layer will be derived from the BBC Nature Sound Effects Library. The installation also included a contemporary art exhibit from the gallery On Stellar Rays.
2009Reverb
A concert of commissions and premieres at Le Poisson Rouge explored the future of music with different sources for composition, including the world premiere Metropolis commission of Jakub Ciupinski’s “Flashbacks” for piano (Jenny Lin) and live electronics. New works also premiered from Erin Gee, Vivian Fung, and Cristina Spinei.
2009New Music 101
Metropolis presented composer Jakub Ciupinski at Le Poisson Rouge for a night of interactive musical performances, inviting audience members to conduct and compose live music via an iPhone application, live set of minimal house loops and electronica beats composed by Jakub and performed in real-time by a gesture-controlled system of his design.
2009Glimpses
A concert forum of new chamber music from composers Jakub Ciupinski, Vivian Fung, and Cristina Spinei at Americas Society, including the world premiere Metropolis commission of Jakub's "Morning Tale" for piano with soloist Jenny Lin and live electronics.