Composer
Adam Sławiński
1 performance · edition 2022
Performance
Biography
A composer, pianist and music critic born on 27 November 1935 in „Leśniczówka” (an unofficial, family name) near Szamocin in the Poznań Voivodeship. He studied musicology at the University of Warsaw. As a student, he began writing for the magazines Ruch Muzyczny (1955), Jazz (1956–63) and Jazz Forum (from 1965).
Between 1957 and 1963, he worked in the music department of Telewizja Polska. It was there that he began composing music for Television Theatre. Following the broadcast of the first production (Anatol France’s The Man Who Married a Mute), he was offered the chance to collaborate with Agnieszka Osiecka. He composed the music for almost all the song-and-dance productions in the Singing Letters series. These were mainly songs performed by actors and a few stage singers.
From 1965, he began composing film music. He has written around 40 musical scores for films, including several TV series. The series Chłopi (The Peasants), directed by Jan Rybkowski and still broadcast today, achieved the highest viewing figures. It has been watched by television audiences not only in Europe, but across almost the entire world. Another significant television series is The Longest War of Modern Europe, directed by Jerzy Sztwiertnia.
Since the early 1970s, he has been composing works performed at philharmonic concerts and at new music festivals – „Warsaw Autumn”, „Warsaw Music Encounters”, „Musica Polonica Nova” and „Poznań Music Spring”.
In 1974–75, he served as deputy music director of Polish Radio, and in 1990–91 he was director of Polish Radio Programme II. He introduced live broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera, a regular programme devoted to electroacoustic music entitled „Hortus Musicus, Hortus Electronicus”, and live broadcasts of the entire Chopin Competition.
From 1987 to 1989 he was secretary, and from 1989 to 1991 vice-president of the Executive Board of the Polish Composers’ Union. From 2007 to 2010 he was president of the Polish Society for Contemporary Music.
A. Sławiński has received a number of awards, including in 1966 (with A. Osiecka) and in 1967 (with W. Młynarski) at the National Festival of Polish Song in Opole, in 1967 the Amber Nightingale – the main prize at the International Song Festival in Sopot (with W. Młynarski), followed in 1987 by the Minister of Culture and Art’s Award; in 1999, the title of „Man of the Year” in the journalism category in the „Jazz Forum” poll; and the Polish Composers’ Union Award for creative achievements and his wide-ranging activities in support of the Polish composing community.
Source: www.polmic.pl · Photo: archiwum prywatne
