Hania Rani

Rani was born in Gdańsk to parents who are a doctor and an architect.^[2][3] She studied music at the Feliks Nowowiejski Music School in Gdańsk, Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw,^[4][5] and the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin.^[6]

Trained as a classical pianist, Rani began incorporating jazz into her work during music school.^[7] In 2015, she collaborated with Dobrawa Czocher on the album Biała Flaga, featuring their arrangements of music by Grzegorz Ciechowski. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rani started experimenting with improvisation and composing.^[8] She has blurred traditional distinctions between jazz, classical and house music.^[9]

In 2023, she won the Paszport Polityki award in the "popular music" category.^[10]

In 2024, ITV, one of the UK's leading broadcasters, commissioned a piece by Rani for the opening credits of their football coverage for the England national football team on ITV Sport.^[11]

Rani announced her first piano concerto, Non Fiction, composed partially in response to the discovery in 2020 of the compositions of a young music prodigy, Josima Feldschuh, written during the horrors of World War II in the Warsaw Ghetto. It was recorded in Abbey Road Studios and was released on Decca Records.^[12] As of 2025^[update], Rani has won seven Fryderyk Awards.^[3]

In 2026, Rani won the European Film Award for Best Composer for her original score for the film Sentimental Value.^[13]

On 8 June 2026, Rani performed at the Grand Theatre – National Opera in Warsaw at the opening concert of the Ephemera festival, where she gave the Polish premiere of her piece Shining, inspired by the music of Steve Reich and Philip Glass, performed with the Hashtag Ensemble.^[14] After the concert she was awarded the Silver Gloria Artis Medal for Merit to Culture by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Marta Cienkowska.^[15]