About

Bah-vietz

First things first, many people ask me “How do you pronounce your last name??”. It’s actually quite easy – it’s [Bah-vietz].

So now that we’ve got that out of the way let’s get to business!

Who is David Bawiec?

I am an award-winning composer for film and TV as well as a pop music producer. A graduate of the world-renown Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, where I pursued a triple-major degree program in Film Scoring, Contemporary Writing & Production, as well as Songwriting.

I’ve always had both feet in two worlds of music. One in orchestral writing and film scores, the other in pop music. Having the opportunity to work in both of these worlds as well as blend them on occasion to create a new level of expression is something beautiful. Music is my endless love and passion and being able to express my feelings through music has honestly been the most amazing gift of my life.

Where have you heard my work?

Well for example if you watched The 83rd Annual Academy Awards (Oscars) or the TV show NCIS then you’ve heard my work. I’ve also had the privilege of working on Michael Bublé’s and Jackie Evancho’s latest albums. I’d written music for such clients like Nike, Dr. Pepper, Atlantis Resorts, & National Geographic. I’ve worked on Peepshow Las Vegas, Arrested Development Season 4 &  Exeter – the newest horror film from the guys that gave you the Paranormal Activities. Those are just a couple examples that don’t include the multiple movies that I have written music for, music supervised or music edited on.

Awards

Remember how at the beginning I mentioned I was “Award-Winning”? Well here are just a couple of the awards I’ve received:

My story

Born on July 11, 1985 in Brussels, Belgium, I was the first child to my parents Anna Kiełbowicz (Polish) and Wlad Bawiec (Belgian). By the age of 6, I had already lived in three countries: Belgium, Holland (where my brother Peter was born) and eventually Poland where we ended up staying for the next 19 years. No matter where we lived, at home we always spoke polish. I attended a Dutch, French, American and later even a Polish school, learning all of those languages in the process. Over the years English and Polish became my primary languages, both of which I speak fluently. In fact I’ve always had a thing for languages, I speak 7 languages total: 3 languages fluently (English, Polish, French) and 4 more on a basic level of communication.

My talent for music I received from my mother who herself is a pianist and a composer. Just like her, I started playing the piano as a child. My love for music grew stronger with every day of my life. However my music education path was a very bumpy and tough one. Aside from going to a normal lower school, in the afternoons I attended a lower music school where I learned my first steps on the piano, music theory, etc. In the middle of seventh grade my parents decided to transfer me from the American school system to a Polish school. I had so much catching up to do in my polish that I had to focus on that entirely and quit music school. I decided not to disconnect completely from my music education by taking private piano lessons. I started playing a lot to myself and along with CD’s and songs on the radio. Over time, I learned to improvise on given chords very well. This also gave me a lot of knowledge in the world of pop and contemporary arranging.

Don’t ask me why, but after having finished high school I decided to study Roman Philology at the Warsaw University in Poland. It took me just a couple months to realize that this was a bad idea and that there was no way in the world that this was not going to be the passion of my life. After a lot of soul-searching I realized that music had always been that huge passion of mine and so I decided to return to my roots and to completely devote my life to music.

When passing the entrance exams to the Frederick Chopin University of Music in Warsaw (formerly the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music) I faced a lot of challenges. Mainly the fact that it was a requirement for applicants to have completed 12 full years of music lower, middle and high school education. I had roughly a couple years in my bag. But as they say, there are no limits to what you can achieve when you put everything to it and you’re driven by passion. Within half a year I learned everything that I had missed out on in my music education and learned 6 years worth of theory in less than 7 months. When the time came around, I passed the entrance exams into the Chopin University of Music, making me the first person in 25 years to pass the entrance exams into the university without having attended music middle or high school. In 2005 I began my studies at the University of Music at the “Choral Conducting” major.

Having already changed my life I was about to change something at the Academy itself! I always had two enormous passions in music: film music and contemporary music (pop/pop-rock/musical/gospel/ccm, etc.). After many discussions with the dean of my major, I was granted permission to start the first contemporary band in the history of the F. Chopin Academy of Music.

Singing and performing on stage has always been a part of my life. I sang in various TV & radio commercials like: Kapitan Iglo, Yogobella, etc. and in film scores: “Bandyta” (music Michał Lorenc), “War & Peace” (music Jan A.P. Kaczmarek). In 2006 I won a casting to a big-production musical with an international cast. As a student I started working at the Warsaw Chamber Opera House where I sing in the choir. I also sing in many other music projects varying from small ensembles, to large choirs with orchestra, and from classical to contemporary pop or gospel.

Apart from that, I compose a lot of music, ranging in style from serious orchestral works to light instrumental pieces, and from emotional ballads to fast-tempo hard “rock-type” songs. I arrange and produce all the songs created at BlueStar Studios.

In 2007 I started my application process to one of the leading music schools in the world – Berklee College Of Music in Boston, USA. Out of thousands of students auditioned, I was one of the few who had been chosen to start their music education at Berklee. Not only did I successfully pass the entrance exams, I also received a scholarship from the college for having presented “high level of talent and musical promise”. At Berklee I pursued a triple-major degree program in Film Scoring, Contemporary Writing & Production, as well as Songwriting.

After graduating roughly 3.5 years later, I moved to Los Angeles, California, where I have been working professionally since. Soon enough I started getting calls to work on this project, that film, that album. Busy has definitely been the most accurate description of my life, and I have to admit: that’s how I like things to be.

As for my current work, I am constantly writing new music and arranging different pieces. From pop music for the top 40 and adult contemporary charts to Vegas shows, it’s always a new surprise. Be sure to check frequently for the latest developments on my new projects.