Hania Rani

From Gdansk to Esja

Hanna Maria Raniszewska, who records as Hania Rani, was born on September 5, 1990 in Gdansk. She graduated from the Feliks Nowowiejski Music School in Gdansk in 2009 and studied at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. In 2015 she made Biała flaga with the cellist Dobrawa Czocher, classical arrangements of Grzegorz Ciechowski songs, on Deutsche Grammophon per Polish Wikipedia (September 29, 2015), and formed the duo Teskno with Joanna Longić in 2017, whose album Mi (November 9, 2018) won a Grzegorz Ciechowski Toruń City Artistic Award and a Fryderyk nomination.

Esja (April 5, 2019, Gondwana) was her debut solo album. It reached 65 in the UK and went Gold in Poland, and at the 2020 Fryderyki won alternative album of the year, phonographic debut of the year and composer of the year, shared with Dawid Podsiadło and Olek Świerkot; sources differ on whether that was three or four awards. Home came on May 29, 2020, Music for Film and Theatre on June 18, 2021 and Inner Symphonies with Czocher on Deutsche Grammophon on October 15, 2021. She premiered a piano concerto, "Dla Josimy", at the POLIN Museum in Warsaw on April 18, 2023 with the Sinfonia Varsovia, inspired by the music of Josima Feldschuh written in the Warsaw Ghetto. On Giacometti came on February 17, 2023, Ghosts on October 6, 2023 and Nostalgia on September 27, 2024.

Her NPR Tiny Desk concert, published on January 22, 2024, had Ziemowit Klimek on bass and synth, and she won the Fryderyk for artist of the year and producer of the year in 2024. ITV commissioned an opening-credits piece for its England football coverage. She scored Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value (Cannes, 2025), with a score album on January 30, 2026 and a 2026 European Film Award for best composer. Non Fiction, a Piano Concerto in Four Movements on Decca (November 14, 2025), was recorded at Abbey Road Studio Two from January 29 to 31, 2025 with the Manchester Collective, Jack Wyllie on saxophone and Valentina Magaletti on drums and percussion. Forbes and the New York Times have written about her; the latter's headline says her music is tranquil, but please don't call it soothing.