Zygmunt Krauze

Polish composer and pianist Zygmunt Krauze,studied composition and piano at the Frederic Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. He is known as a composer of unistic music, based on the theory of unistic art adopted from the painting of Wladyslaw Strzeminski (1893-1952). Unistic music lacks contrasts, tension and climaxes in the traditional sense and its form is as homogenous as possible. He is an author of three operas, several instrumental concertos, symphonic and chamber works. Together with architects he also composed spatial music, which was presented in Poland, Austria and France. Krauze won the First Prize of the Gaudeamus Competition in Holland in 1966. Since then he has continued his carrier as a pianist performing mostly 20th century music. In 1967 he founded The Warsaw Music Workshop ensemble, which commissioned works from over 100 composers. He served as its artistic director and pianist for over 20 years.

Since 1965 he has given seminars as well as master classes of composition and contemporary music performance both in Poland and abroad, including prestigious centers of new music like: Darmstadt, Basle, Stockholm, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Jerusalem and Hong Kong. In 1982 he served as a visiting professor at Yale University. In 1996 he was nominated as an Eminent Corresponding Professor at Keimyung University, Daegu, South Korea. From 2002 he is professor of composition at the Music Academy in Lodz, and from 2006 at the Frederic Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw.

Many of his artistic activities took place outside Poland. Between 1973-74 he was an artist in residence in Berlin at the invitation of DAAD (Deutsche Akademischer Austauschdienst). In 1982 he was invited by Pierre Boulez to become a musical advisor to IRCAM in Paris. Apart from that he was a member of the repertoire committee of the Warsaw Autumn festival for ten years and in 1987-90 served as president of the International Society for Contemporary Music. He also served as president of the Witold Lutoslawski Society and president of the Polish Section of the ISCM.

Among his honours and awards are: Silver Cross of Merit of Poland (1975), the Medal of
Distinction from Jeunesses Musicales in Poland (1979) and the title of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France (1984). In addition he received the Prize of the Ministry of Culture in Poland 1989 and 2005. In 1999 he became an honorary member of ISCM. In 2004 he received the Golden Cross of Merit and in 2005 the UNESCO Heritage of the Humanity Award in Valparaiso, Chile. In 2008 he was appointed by the President of the French Republic Officer dans l'Ordre National de la Legion d'Honneur. In 2010, he was appointed by the Polish Ministry of Culture and Heritage gold medal "Gloria Artis". In 2011 he became Honorary Member of the Polish Composers Union.

Zygmunt Krauze's works have been recorded on such labels as: Muza, Dux, ORF, Nonesuch, Thesis, Musical Observations (CP2), Collins Classics, Recommended Records and EMI.

www.zygmuntkrauze.com