Natalie Szende

Natalie Katharina Ilona Szende (*1995) is a Hungarian electroacoustic composer and sound artist, born and raised in Augsburg, Germany. After she completed her studies in Musicology and Cultural Anthropology at Humboldt University Berlin and gained professional experience as a student assistant in the directorate and press office of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Natalie relocated to Budapest for her studies in Electroacoustic Composition & Media Arts at the Liszt Ferenc Music Academy as a student of Andrea Szigetvári.

In 2023, her first electroacoustic orchestral work was premiered by the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under the baton of Roderick Cox. That same year, Natalie made her debut at the CTM Vorspiel with a solo live performance presenting a composition for live electronics, voice and piano. In 2024, she contributed as a composer and sound designer to her first theatre works at Deutsches Theater Berlin and Trafó House of Contemporary Arts Budapest.

Considering the nature of each stage and concert setting, her practice focuses essentially on creating hauntological sonic worlds that reach back into the past while engaging with experimental contemporary contexts by synthesizing different musical, (sub-)cultural, technological and performative concepts. Her works have been presented in symphonic concert halls, theatres, and cinemas and she has been performing in churches, a power plant, art galleries and underground clubs so far. 

With her first audiovisual live performance in collaboration with Andrea Görcz, she opened the concrete Turbina Hall of the 2024 edition of INOTA Festival. In September 2024, Natalie debuted in the House of Music Hungary as the supporting act for Suzanne Ciani, setting up a live performance for 16 audio channels, shortly followed by her concert at the experimental UH Fest.

Supported by the ULYSSES Platform, Natalie took part in Ircam's In-Situ: Polytopes in June 2025.  
Selected as one of six emerging composers, she created the ambisonic audiovisual work LLBY within the Polytope envisioned by Iannis Xenakis, in collaboration with ExperiensS and mentored by Pierre Carré. In the previous edition of ManiFeste, Natalie took part as an auditor in the IRCAM Academy. More recently, she has appeared as a solo live performer at INOTA Festival 2025 (Theatre Hall) and SZIGET Festival 2025, and joined the UNSOUND Lab Camp 2025.