Authors

Poland’s most eminent composer, ‘poet of the piano’, was born on 1st March (according to his own declara- tions) or 22nd February (as the baptismal certificate states) 1810 in Żelazowa Wola, to the music-loving family of Polonised Frenchman Mikołaj (Nicolas) Chopin and his wife Tekla Justyna née Krzyżanow- ska.

Pianist, composer, arranger, conductor and music producer, born in Bydgoszcz, where he graduated from Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń’s piano class at the Felix Nowowiejski Academy of Music.

A leading Polish improvised music ensemble, expanding the concept of a contemporary music collective. Rewarded in major European jazz competitions, such as Jazz Hoeilaart (Belgium).

Composer and pianist, born on 17th July 1932 in Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine), died on 29th December 2013 in Katowice.

Theatre director, known for her outstanding interpretations of plays by Anton Chekhov, William Shakespeare, and Elfriede Jelinek. She graduated in psychology from the University of Warsaw and in drama directing from Kraków’s State Higher School of Theatre Arts (now the AST National Academy).

A composer, electronic artist, and professor of the musical arts, Knittel has created orchestral, choral and chamber works, operatic and ballet music, sound installations, numerous computer pieces (which he has both composed and performed) as well as "live electronics". The artist’s discography comprises more than sixty titles. Knittel studied sound engineering and composition with Tadeusz Baird, Andrzej Dobrowolski, and Włodzimierz Kotoński at Warsaw’s Chopin State Higher School (now University) of Music. In 1974 and 1976 he took part in the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music.

A composer of theatre and film music as well as poetry settings, pianist, native of Krakow by birth and choice. His collaboration with the ‘Cellar under the Rams’ cabaret started in 1959 while he was still a composition student at Krakow’s State Higher School (now Krzysztof Penderecki Academy) of Music. His work with Ewa Demarczyk, launched in 1962, led to writing several dozen pieces (for her, and later for other artists of that stage) that made Polish song history.

Born on 19th September 1938 in Warsaw, he studied piano with Maria Wiłkomirska and composition with Kazimierz Sikorski at that city’s State Higher School of Music. He continued his education with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. He is a professor of composi- tion at the Academy of Music in Łódź.