Nationality: Polish

BACEWICZ, Grażyna

Born in Łódź, Feb 5, 1909
Died in Warsaw, Jan 17, 1969

Grażyna Bacewicz (pronunciation) was a Polish-Lithuanian violinist, pianist, and composer.
She began composing around age 13 and studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in 1932.
Bacewicz had an interesting professional duality in that she pursued performance and composition on relatively equal terms for much of her career. Bacewicz even premiered many of her own works. However, due to injuries from a car accident in 1954, Bacewicz gave up performing and focused exclusively on composition from then on.
The bulk of Bacewicz’s compositional output is chamber music, and much of her music is written for strings.
- Fun tie into radio – Bacewicz wrote several pieces for radio broadcast, including a radio opera in 1959 (The Adventure of King Arthur).

“I do not believe in inspiration; for me composing is like sculpting in stone rather than putting on paper the sounds of my imagination.”
Grażyna Bacewicz

While Bacewicz has always been appreciated in her home country, the composer has remained more obscure in international concert halls.
Fun fact – In addition to music, Bacewicz also wrote novels and short stories.¹

“Bacewicz’s position in Polish postwar music is undeniable: hers was an individual and independent voice; she was more innovative than is generally acknowledged and she carried the torch for the many Polish women composers who followed her example.”
Grove Music Online²

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Biography from the Adam Mickiewicz Institute

Pieces

20th Century American Polish

CHAJES, Julius

Born 1910 in L’vov, Galacia (now part of Poland)
Died in 1985

Chajes was a piano prodigy who gave his first public recital at the age of 9. He wrote his first piano composition the same year.
Chajes fled Poland in 1938 after its annexation by the Nazis. He lived in Palestine for two years, teaching at Beit L’viyim music academy in Tel Aviv (and studying the roots of Jewish music), then settled in the United States, becoming an important figure in Jewish liturgical music in Detroit.³

Biography from the Milken Archive of Jewish Music

Pieces

Chassid, Op. 24 No. 2

Romantic Polish

CHOPIN, Frédéric

Chopin, photographed in 1847.

Born Fryderyck Franciszek Chopin

Born in Żelazowa Wola, near Warsaw, March 1, 1810
Died in Paris, Oct 17, 1849

Biographical timeline from the Fryderyk Chopin Institute

Pieces

Romantic Hungarian Polish

DOPPLER, Franz

Born in Lemberg [now L’viv], Oct 16, 1821
Died in Baden, near Vienna, July 27, 1883

Also known as Albert Ferenc Doppler

Doppler was a flutist and composer who was born in Poland and made his career in Hungary.⁴

Biography from AllMusic

Pieces

20th Century Polish

GÓRECKI, Henryk Mikołaj

Born in Czernica, near Rybnik, Dec 6, 1933
Died in Katowice, Poland, Nov 12, 2010⁵

Pronunciation:
[‘xɛnrɨk mʲi’kɔwaj ɡu’rɛtskʲi]
Phonetic: “goo-REHT-ski”
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Biography from Britannica

Pieces

Romantic Polish

KARŁOWICZ, Mieczysław

Name Pronunciation

Born in Wiszniew, Święcany district, Lithuania, Dec 11, 1876
Died near Zakopane, Tatra Mountains, Feb 8, 1909

Karłowicz was a violinst, composer and conductor, and was involved with the Warsaw Music Society, a Polish group which published music composition and music research and arranged concerts.
- In addition to composing, Karłowicz did musicological work: in 1904 he published Nie wydane dotychczas pamiątki po Chopinie (‘Previously Unpublished Memorabilia of Chopin’).
Fun fact: His father, Jan Karłowicz, was a philologist, ethnographer, composer, and writer on Polish folk music.⁶

Biography

Pieces

Violin Concerto in A Major

20th Century Late Romantic American Polish

LOW, Leo

Photograph of Leo Low courtesy of JewishChoralMusic.com

Born in Volkovysk, Poland, 1878
Died in 1960

Leo Low was a Jewish composer and conductor of choral music.⁷
Low studied at the Warsaw Conservatory and subsequently directed several influential Jewish choirs in Warsaw, including the Hazomir Choral Society (Europe’s premier secular Jewish choir), and he served as director of music and resident composer at the Tłomacki synagogue.⁸
Low emigrated to the United States in 1920,⁹ and continued his career as a composer and choral director in New York and in Palestine.¹⁰

Biography and partial works list from the Milken Archive

Pieces

Likhtelekh

20th Century Modernist Polish

LUTOSLAWSKI, Witold

Born in Warsaw, Jan 25, 1913
Died in Warsaw, Feb 9, 1994

Witold Lutosławski (pronunciation) began formal music training at six years old. In 1932, he enrolled in the Warsaw Conservatory, studying piano and composition. Fun fact: at this time, Lutosławski was simultaneously enrolled in Warsaw University for mathematics.
Lutosławski’s burgeoning compositional career was quickly interrupted by the outbreak of WWII. During the Nazi occupation, he made a living playing piano in cafes.
The composer rose to prominence in his native Poland following the premiere of his Concerto for Orchestra in 1954. As the years passed, he became more active in conducting his own works as well.¹¹
As a composer, Lutosławski “never belonged to any composing ‘school,’ did not yield to any trends or fashions, did not uphold a tradition, nor did he take part in avant-garde revolutions. He was, however, both an avant-garde artist and a follower of tradition.”
- He is best known today for his orchestral works, though he also wrote choral works, songs, chamber music, and pieces for solo piano.¹²
Quote from Lutosławski’s obituary in the NY Times:
- “Mr. Lutoslawski prized beauty in music and made a point of saying so even when beauty in new music was out of fashion. His works are distinguished by long-lined melodies, an ingenious use of orchestral structure and harmonies that vary from comfortable lushness to pungent acidity. Yet it would be wrong to think of them as neo-Romantic. In creating what he called his ‘sound language,’ Mr. Lutoslawski drew freely on avant-garde techniques, spicing his works with a light atonality and limited improvisation.”

Learn More

Biography via USC’s Polish Music Center

Pieces

Concerto for Orchestra

Romantic German Polish

MOSZKOWSKI, Moritz

Born in Breslau [now Wrocław], Aug 23, 1854
Died in Paris, March 4, 1925

Moritz Moszkowski (pronounced “mosh-kov-ski”) was a pianist, composer, and conductor who first gained renown as a touring virtuoso on the keyboard instrument, making his debut in 1873.
In the 1880s, Moszkowski began suffering from a nervous disorder which forced him to retire from touring. Consequently, he began focusing more seriously on composition and conducting.
In 1897, at the height of his fame, Moszkowski permanently moved to Paris after marrying the sister of Cécile Chaminade.
As a composer, Moszkowski was most famous for his piano music. His early influences included Chopin, Mendelssohn, and Schumann, though his mature musical voice was highly distinctive and original, showcasing his intimate knowledge of the piano.
In addition to his composing and conducting, Moszkowski was in high demand as a piano teacher and taught Josef Hofmann, Wanda Landowska, and Joaquin Turina, among others.¹³

Learn More

Biography from Hyperion Records

Pieces

8 Morceaux caractèristiques (8 Characteristic Pieces), Op. 36

20th Century Romantic Polish

PADEREWSKI, Ignacy Jan

Born in Kuryłówka, Podolia province in Russian Poland, Nov 6, 1860,
Died in New York, June 29, 1941

[ig-NAT-see yahn pah-de-REF-ski; pronunciation]

Ignacy Jan Paderewski was a Polish concert pianist, composer, and politician.
In 1872, Paderewski attended the Warsaw Conservatory and became a professor of piano just a few years later.
In the late 1880s, Paderewski debuted as a concert pianist to much acclaim and developed an overwhelmingly devoted fan following (think Lisztomania).
During WWI, Paderewski became a member of the Polish National Committee. As a representative to the U.S., Paderewski urged President Wilson to support Polish independence, which he did as part of his “Fourteen Points.“¹⁴
- Fun fact – as a representative of Poland, Paderewski signed the Versailles Treaty in 1919. That same year, he became Prime Minister of the newly independent Poland. By 1922, he resigned all political positions and resumed his musical career.¹⁵
As a composer, the bulk of Paderewski’s oeuvre (unsurprisingly) consists of piano works, though he also wrote orchestral music, chamber music, choral music, art songs, and an opera.¹⁶

Pieces

6 Humoresques de concert, Op. 14

Romantic Polish

SZYMANOWSKA, Maria

Born in Warsaw, Dec 14, 1789
Died in St Petersburg, July 25, 1831¹⁷

Maria Szymanowska (pronounced “shim-ah-nof-ska;” IPA: ʂɨmaˈnɔfska) was a Polish composer and piano virtuoso who made a significant contribution to 19th-century Polish repertoire. She composed over 100 pieces, most of which were for the piano.
Fun fact – Szymanowska introduced nocturnes to Poland, so she provided the developmental link between John Field, the originator of the genre, and Frédéric Chopin.
In addition to composing, Szymanowska was also a highly acclaimed concert pianist and spent many years touring around Europe. In 1922, she became “First Pianist” at the Russian Imperial court.
In 1928, the composer settled in St. Petersburg where she continued to give concerts, teach, and host salons attracting the city’s artistic and social elite.¹⁸

Biography

Pieces

20th Century Polish Russian

WEINBERG, Mieczysław

Born in Warsaw, Dec 8, 1919
Died in Moscow, Feb 2, 1996

Pronunciation

IPA:[mjɛtʃiswɑv vaɪnbɛrg]

Phonetic: MYEH-chee-swav VINE-berg

Pronunciation via Forvo

Alternate Names

There are various versions of this composer’s name in use. Because he was born in Poland and worked in Russia, his name has been transliterated in several ways. Additionally, when he arrived in Russia as a refugee from Poland, a Russian border guard decided to rename him Moishe (a stereotypically Jewish name) instead of Mieczysław.¹⁸

If you’re having trouble finding him in search engines, also try these spellings/versions:

Moisey Samuilovich Vaynberg (Oxford Music Online uses this one)

Moishe Vainberg

Mojsze Wajnberg

His wikipedia article also has the Hebrew and Cyrillic versions if you’re interested.

Biography

Weinberg was a Polish-born Jewish composer who spent most of his career in Russia.¹⁹
Weinberg fled Warsaw in 1939 upon the Nazi invasion of Poland and ended up in Minsk. Tragically, the family he left behind ultimately perished in a Nazi concentration camp.
Weinberg was a huge admirer of Shostakovich and his music, and the older composer ended up playing a pivotal role in Weinberg’s entry into Russia in 1943 (where he would spend the rest of his life).
- Weinberg sent Shostakovich the score for his First Symphony (1942), and the latter was so impressed that he urged Soviet officials to permit Weinberg to emigrate to Moscow. The two composers became close friends thereafter.
Weinberg’s music written in the 1940s is characterized by an abrasive neo-classical style, while his works post-war were more simplified (as many composers were inclined to do in light of the political climate) and drew on folk idioms from his Jewish heritage.
Weinberg was affected by the growing Anti-Semitism under Stalin and was even imprisoned in 1953 under trumped-up charges for “promoting bourgeois Jewish nationalism.” Thanks to Stalin’s conveniently timed death and the intervention of his friend, Shostakovich, Weinberg was eventually released.
While Weinberg was an extremely prolific composer, his music was relatively unknown outside of Russia until the fall of the Berlin Wall.²⁰

Scholarly website/database on Weinberg

Pieces

Symphony No. 2, Op. 30

Romantic Polish

WIENIAWSKI, Henryk

Born in Lublin, July 10, 1835
Died in Moscow, March 31, 1880

Wieniawski was a Polish violin virtuoso who studied both violin and composition at the Paris Conservatory.
Wieniawski spent much of his career as a touring virtuoso, often appearing with his younger brother, pianist Józef Wieniawski.²¹

“Without doubt the greatest violinist of his time.”
Anton Rubinstein on Wieniawski²²

Biography from the Henryk Wieniawski Music Society

Pronunciation:
[‘hɛnrɪk vi’njafski]
“HEN-rick veen-YAFF-ski”
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Pieces

Violin Concerto No. 2 in d minor, Op. 22