Krzysztof Penderecki

Krzysztof Penderecki was born on November 23, 1933 in Dębica in a family with Armenian roots. Initially, he learned to play the violin and took composition lessons from Franciszek Skołyszewski. He then continued his composition studies from 1955 to 1958 at the Academy of Music in Krakow under Artur Malawski and Stanisław Wiechowicz. From 1966 to 1968, he worked at the Volkwang Hochschule für Musik in Essen (Germany). From 1973 to 1978, he taught at Yale University in New Haven, from 1972 to 1987 he was the rector of the Academy of Music in Krakow, and from 1987 to 1990 he was the artistic director of the Krakow Philharmonic. He is the first guest conductor of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk Orchester in Hamburg and the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk Sinfonie Orchester in Leipzig. Since 1992, he has been the artistic director of the Casalsa Festival in San Juan (Puerto Rico). In 1997, he became the artistic director of the Sinfonia Varsovia orchestra. Since 1998, he has been an advisor to the Beijing Music Festival in Beijing, and since 2000, a guest conductor of the China Philharmonic Orchestra. He has conducted concerts with leading symphony orchestras in the United States and Europe. In addition to his own works, he conducts symphonic works by composers from various eras. Krzysztof Penderecki has been the recipient of numerous artistic awards and high national and international honors, including: I, II, and III prizes at the 2nd Competition of Young Composers of the Polish Composers' Union (1959), State Prize of the 1st degree (1968, 1983), Polish Composers' Union Prize (1970), Herder Prize (1977), Honegger Prize (1978), Sibelius Prize (1983), Lorenzo Magnifico Prize (1985), Karl Wolf Foundation Prize (1987), Grammy Award (1998, 1999, 2001), Grawemeyer Music Award (1992), UNESCO International Music Council (1993), Best Living World Composer Award (2000), Prince of Asturias Award (2001), Praemium Imperiale (2004), Order of the White Eagle (2005), Latvian Order of the Three Stars (2006). In 2008, Krzysztof Penderecki was honored with the Golden Medal of the Minister of Culture of Armenia, received the Diploma of Honorary Professor of the State Conservatory in Yerevan, the Award of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage Bogdan Zdrojewski in the field of music, the Neptune Award of the President of the City of Gdańsk, and received the Eagles 2008 award for the best music for the film Katyń by Andrzej Wajda. Krzysztof Penderecki has received honorary doctorates from dozens of higher education institutions (including in Rochester, Bordeaux, Washington, Belgrade, Madrid, Poznań, Warsaw, Buenos Aires, Glasgow, Münster, Seoul, Krakow, and Gdańsk - since November 6, 2008) and is an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Kungl. Musikaliska Akademien in Stockholm, Akademie der Künste in Berlin, Academia National de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, Académie Internationale de Philosophie et de l'Art in Bern, Académie Nationale des Sciences, Belles-lettres et Arts in Bordeaux, Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin, American Academy of Arts and Letters. Krzysztof Penderecki's non-musical passion was gardens. In the arboretum he founded on his estate in Lusławice, he planted and cultivated over one and a half thousand species of plants. Composer passed away on 29.03.2020 after a long illness.