Natalie Szende

Natalie Szende is an electroacoustic composer, live performer, and sound artist based between Budapest and Berlin.

Her work explores the idea of ‘cinema for the ear’ – immersive sonic environments that evoke vivid, spatial narratives. Moving fluidly between ambisonic, acousmatic and electroacoustic practices, she crafts experiences that blur the boundaries between contemporary music, sound art, and experimental club culture.

Influenced by hauntological aesthetics, Szende’s compositions inhabit liminal spaces – where memory, texture, and spectral presence intertwine.

Her works have been presented across a wide range of contexts, from cinemas and power plants to classical concert halls, underground clubs, churches, and art galleries.

In 2026, she graduated from the Liszt Academy of Music. In the same year, she received the Carmen Mateu European Young Artist Award as part of a collective. She has also contributed as a composer and sound designer to her first theatre works at Deutsches Theater Berlin and Trafó House of Contemporary Arts Budapest.

The previous year, her ambisonic piece LLBY was showcased at 104 Paris through a scholarship from the IRCAM Academy and the Ulysses Network. Szende composed the score for the animated film Adgwa-Ata, which was selected for the 2026 Cannes Film Festival and the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. The film later won the Grand Prize at the Friss Hús International Short Film Festival, earning Oscar-qualifying status.