Krzysztof Penderecki
Krzysztof Penderecki was born on 23 November 1933 in Dębica (Poland). He received violin and piano tuition at a very early age and entered the Conservatoire in Krakow when he was 18. From 1954, he studied composition with Artur Malewski and Stanislas Wiechowicz at the Krakow Academy of Music where he was subsequently appointed as professor in 1958. One year later, Penderecki won all three available prizes at the II Warsaw Competition for Young Composers. With the first performance of "Anaklasis for 42 string instruments" at the Donaueschingen Festival in 1960, he became part of the international avant-garde. Penderecki gained a reputation with a wider public with the premiere of the "St Luke Passion" in Münster Cathedral in 1966.
The Polish composer taught at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen from 1966 to 1968. His first opera "The Devils of Loudon" based on a book by Aldous Huxley received its premiere at the Hamburg State Opera House in 1969. In 1972, Penderecki was appointed as rector of the State Academy of Music in Krakow and also taught at Yale University in the USA from 1973 to 1978.
Penderecki composed several of his works in remembrance of catastrophes in the 20th century. "Threnos for 52 string instruments", composed in 1960, is dedicated to the victims of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and the piano concerto "Resurrection" was composed as a reaction to the terror attacks of 11 September 2001. For Penderecki, these associations in content are not merely an abstract concept, but also in their instrumental tonal colouring and dramatic sounds emotionally comprehensible for listeners. Extensive political-social associations can also be found in the "Polish Requiem", which he began in 1980 with the composition of the "Lacrimosa", which is dedicated to Lech Walesa. The composer dedicated other movements of this work to the Polish victims of Auschwitz and the Warsaw uprising in 1944. This was supplemented by the "Ciaccona" in memoriam Johannes Paul II in 2005, which commemorated the Polish Pope.
