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.

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.

Born in 1951 in Bielsko-Biała, passed away in 1990 in Pszczyna, Krzanowski was a composer and accordion player who studied composition with Henryk Mikołaj Górecki (1971–1975) and accordion with Joachim Pichura at the State Higher School of Music in Katowice.