We invite you to the ceremonial unveiling of a bust of Maestro Andrzej Markowski, founder and first artistic director of the Wrocław Oratorio-Cantata Festival Wratislavia Cantans ("Singing Wrocław"). The sculpture, which will be on display in the NFM foyer, was created by Bronisław Krzysztof. This event will honor the great musician, thanks to whom we can celebrate the 60th edition of the International Festival Wratislavia Cantans named after Andrzej Markowski.
Andrzej Markowski – conductor and composer. Born on 22 August 1924 in Lublin; died on 30 October 1986 in Warsaw. He studied composition in Lublin (1939–1941) and piano in Warsaw (1943–1944). In 1944 he took an active part in the Warsaw Uprising. After the war, he continued his studies at the Trinity College of Music in London (composition with Alec Rowley, 1946–1947) and at Warsaw’s State Superior School of Music (composition with Piotr Rytel and Tadeusz Szeligowski, conducting with Witold Rowicki, 1947–1955).
In 1955–1959, he was a conductor at the Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice, and from 1959 to 1964 – artistic director and principal conductor of Kraków Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1959, he founded a chamber orchestra in Kraków and later organised a concert series entitled Musica Antiqua et Nova, as well as the Kraków Spring of Young Musicians festival, where many compositions by Krzysztof Penderecki, Grażyna Bacewicz, and others were premiered.
In 1965, he accepted the post of director of Wrocław Philharmonic, which he managed to install in its own new building. In 1966, he founded the Wratislavia Cantans Festival of Oratorio and Cantata Music, of which he was the artistic director from 1966–1976. He also simultaneously directed the Festival of Polish Contemporary Music in Wrocław and the Festival of Organ and Harpsichord Music. In 1979, together with Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, he toured the Far and Near East. From 1971–1977, he was a conductor and deputy artistic director of the Warsaw Philharmonic. In the 1970s, he made a tour of England with the WOSPR (Great Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio) and (twice) – a tour of Japan with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1970, he held the post of conductor at the Groningen Philharmonic and from 1982 – the post of artistic director at the Łódź Philharmonic.
He greatly contributed to the promotion of Polish music both at home and abroad. He conducted orchestras in Berlin, Milan (La Scala), Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Brussels (Palais des Beaux-Arts), as well as Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Cologne, Florence, Leipzig, Dresden, Montreux, Frankfurt, Teheran, Beirut, Melbourne, Moscow, Copenhagen, Oslo, Darmstadt, Buenos Aires, and Mexico City. He performed with such world famous artists as Artur Rubinstein, David Oistrakh, Isaac Stern, Maurizio Pollini, Henryk Szeryng, Krystian Zimerman, Julius Katchen, Vlado Perlemuter and Jorge Bolet.
Andrzej Markowski gained recognition and fame as a pioneering interpreter of early music, conducting Polish premieres of such works as Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine and Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, Handel’s Messiah and Judas Maccabaeus, but also Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. He also gained renown as an eminent interpreter of Baroque and contemporary music and promoted this music in Poland and abroad. He repeatedly led concerts at the Biennale di Venezia and the Sagra Musicale Umbra festival in Perugia. He conducted the La Scala Orchestra in Milan three times. He has performed at over 25 concerts of the Warsaw Autumn festival. He was also a member of that festival’s Repertoire Committee from 1971–1981. At the Warsaw Autumn, he presented world and Polish premieres of compositions by Krzysztof Penderecki, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Kazimierz Serocki, Tomasz Sikorski, Bolesław Szabelski, Witold Szalonek, Paweł Szymański, Witold Lutosławski, György Ligeti, Pierre Boulez, Hans Werner Henze, Charles Ives, Iannis Xenakis, Luigi Nono, and Bruno Maderna.
He also won tremendous renown with his music for more than thirty five short and feature films, including such Polish classics as Andrzej Wajda’s A Generation, The Ashes and Roly Poly, Jerzy Hoffman’s Colonel Wołodyjowski, as well as experimental films by Andrzej Munk, Walerian Borowczyk, Jan Lenica, and Tadeusz Makarczyński. He inspired Andrzej Wajda’s film The Orchestra Conductor. He also wrote theatre music.
In 1965, he received the Minister of Culture and Art Award, 2nd Class, and in 1974 – State Award, 1st Class for his outstanding artistic creations at the Warsaw Autumn festival. He was twice granted the Orpheus Critics’ Award (1968, 1971) and (also twice) – the annual Award of the Polish Composers’ Union (1969, 1971). In 1974, his LP recording of Krzysztof Penderecki’s Utrenja won the Grand Prix du Disque of the Académie Charles Cros in France.
Andrzej Markowski left a huge contribution to the development of musical culture in Poland and around the world.
Bronisław Krzysztof, an active artist since 1981, creates sculptures, medals, designs, graphics, and posters. For over twenty-five years, he has been collaborating with SISLEY Cosmetics Paris as a designer, developing both elements related to cosmetic products and interior arrangements. His achievements include over fifty individual exhibitions and over one hundred and sixty collective exhibitions presented in Poland and in nineteen countries, including the USA, Japan, Canada, France, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and Italy. The artist also runs his own gallery. Krzysztof has created over 160 sculptures, which have found their way into the collections of many well-known art collectors and institutions, such as Gustav Cisneros, Ann and Gordon Getty, Hubert and Isabelle d'Ornano, Alfred Taubman, and Elise and Basile Goulandris. His clients include: Dodie Rosekrans, David Rothschild, Valentino Garavani, and Peter Marino. The Polish artist's works can be found in museum collections in Poland (Silesian Museum in Katowice, City Museum in Wrocław, Historical Museum in Bielsko-Biała, and National Museum in Cracow) and abroad (British Museum, Basil and Elise Goulandris Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Coins and Medals in Kremnica).
Numerous pieces by Bronisław Krzysztof are present in public spaces, including a sculpture of Maria Skłodowska-Curie in Warsaw, a DNA monument in Wrocław, works in Paris and Naples, as well as the exhibition “RZEŹBA-GRANIT” (SCULPTURE-GRANITE) in the courtyard of the Royal Palace, home to the City Museum in Wrocław. One of his most recent creations is the monument to General Maczek in Edinburgh; Krzysztof is also the artist behind the bust of Georges Clemenceau in Warsaw.