Stamp of the Month: January 2019



Poland 28.5.2009

Grażyna Bacewicz

The Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz was born in Łódź on February 5, 1909. She died on January 17, 1969 in Warsaw. In January 2019, her death marks the 50th time.
 
Her first music lessons in piano, violin and composition Bacewicz received from her father. From 1928 she studied philosophy , composition, violin and piano in Warsaw and continued these studies with Nadia Boulanger and Carl Flesch in Parist in the early 1930s. After graduating she has given concerts throughout Europe, taught at the conservatory in Lodz and was concertmaster in the orchestra of the Polish Radio from 1936 to 1938. From 1953 she devoted herself to composition and taught at the conservatories in Łódź and Warsaw.
1935 Bacewicz had participated at the International Wieniawski Competition in Warsaw, later she was a juror at numerous international violin competitions. Bacewicz is one of the most important representatives of contemporary Polish music. Her compositional work includes among others a radio opera, three ballets, six symphonies, several orchestral works and concertos, chamber music and songs.
 

 
The video shows Grażyna Bacewicz performing her Polish dance “Oberek”. She is accompanied at the piano by her brother Kiejstut Bacewicz.