Performers
BOLESŁAW WOYTOWICZ
Born in Dunajowce (now Dunaivtsi in Ukraine), he learned the piano with Aleksander Wielhorski. He studied at universities in Kiev (a doctorate in Slavic philology) and Warsaw (law and mathematics), as well as piano with Aleksander Michałowski and composition with Felicjan Szopski and Witold Maliszewski at the conservatory in Warsaw. He continued his composition studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris (1929–1932).
In 1927 he received an honourable mention in the 1st International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.
Under the German occupation he ran a café Art Salon in Warsaw, where he held concerts which featured such artists as, among others, Kazimierz Wiłkomirski, Eugenia Umińska, Irena Dubiska, Witold Lutosławski, and Andrzej Panufnik. The café was also a venue for underground meetings. Arrested and imprisoned at Pawiak in 1943, he described his experiences from this period in his memoirs titled In the Occupied Warsaw.
After the war he resumed his concert career. He served on the juries of competitions in Bolzano, Montreal, Budapest, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, as well as five editions of the Chopin Competition in Warsaw. He taught piano and composition in State Higher Schools of Music in Katowice (vice-chancellor in 1946), Kraków (1963–1979), and Warsaw (1958–1961).
With Bolesław Szabelski, Woytowicz was a co-founder of the so-called Silesian school of composition.
His numerous accolades included the Knight’s Cross and Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
Phot. National Digital Archives NAC
In 1927 he received an honourable mention in the 1st International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.
Under the German occupation he ran a café Art Salon in Warsaw, where he held concerts which featured such artists as, among others, Kazimierz Wiłkomirski, Eugenia Umińska, Irena Dubiska, Witold Lutosławski, and Andrzej Panufnik. The café was also a venue for underground meetings. Arrested and imprisoned at Pawiak in 1943, he described his experiences from this period in his memoirs titled In the Occupied Warsaw.
After the war he resumed his concert career. He served on the juries of competitions in Bolzano, Montreal, Budapest, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, as well as five editions of the Chopin Competition in Warsaw. He taught piano and composition in State Higher Schools of Music in Katowice (vice-chancellor in 1946), Kraków (1963–1979), and Warsaw (1958–1961).
With Bolesław Szabelski, Woytowicz was a co-founder of the so-called Silesian school of composition.
His numerous accolades included the Knight’s Cross and Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
Phot. National Digital Archives NAC
