Born in Debica, Poland, in 1933, Krzysztof Penderecki is one of the most esteemed and widely discussed composers of our time. The development of his compositional style has reflected the evolution of new music from the avant-garde of the 1960s up to the present day, through which time he has preserved his own distinctive voice.
Like other leading composers of our century, Mr. Penderecki has also built an international reputation as a conductor. In Europe he has conducted the Berlin Philharmonic as well as orchestras in France, England, Italy, Austria, Sweden and Switzerland, and his American appearances have included performances with the Chicago Symphony, the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra, among others. The 2009/10 season includes performances with the Nashville Symphony as well as residencies at the University of Toronto and Yale University, culminating in a performance at Carnegie Hall. He currently serves as Artistic Director of Sinfonia Varsovia (Warsaw Sinfonia), and has previously held posts as Principal Guest Conductor of the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg and of the MDR Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig, Artistic Director of the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, and Artistic Advisor of the Beijing Music Festival ... read full bio
Born in Debica, Poland, in 1933, Krzysztof Penderecki is one of the most esteemed and widely discussed composers of our time. The development of his compositional style has reflected the evolution of new music from the avant-garde of the 1960s up to the present day, through which time he has preserved his own distinctive voice.
Like other leading composers of our century, Mr. Penderecki has also built an international reputation as a conductor. In Europe he has conducted the Berlin Philharmonic as well as orchestras in France, England, Italy, Austria, Sweden and Switzerland, and his American appearances have included performances with the Chicago Symphony, the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra, among others. The 2009/10 season includes performances with the Nashville Symphony as well as residencies at the University of Toronto and Yale University, culminating in a performance at Carnegie Hall. He currently serves as Artistic Director of Sinfonia Varsovia (Warsaw Sinfonia), and has previously held posts as Principal Guest Conductor of the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg and of the MDR Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig, Artistic Director of the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, and Artistic Advisor of the Beijing Music Festival.
After finishing his studies at the Krakow High School of Music, Mr. Penderecki immediately began his rise to prominence, winning all three prizes at the 1959 contest of the Polish Composers' Association. In early works such as "Emanations," "Strophes," and most notably the "Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima," he put himself at the forefront of the avant-garde, combining a highly experimental and expressionistic use of sound with a radical humanistic message.
The highlight of this first phase of Mr. Penderecki's work occurred with the premiere of his most famous work, the "St. Luke Passion," in Münster Cathedral in 1966, the first in a series of liturgical works including "Dies Irae," dedicated to the victims of Auschwitz (1967), "Utrenja" ("The Entombment of Christ" and "The Resurrection of Christ," 1970-71), and "Magnificat" (1974). Mr. Penderecki's style gradually turned toward simple structures and a more traditional tonal language in these works, moving toward a contemporary neo-Romanticism. Other works from this period include the Violin Concerto (1976-77), written for Isaac Stern, and the "Te Deum" (1980), dedicated to Pope John Paul II.
Mr. Penderecki also established his reputation as a musical dramatist during these years, first with "The Devils of Loudun" (1969), followed by "Paradise Lost," premiered in Chicago in 1978. His third opera, "The Black Mask," achieved a major success in its premiere at the 1986 Salzburg Festival, and with the opera buffa "Ubu Rex" (1990-91), adapted from Alfred Jarry, Mr. Penderecki has created a burlesque in the spirit of Rossini.
In the 1980s, Mr. Penderecki began to connect the acerbic sounds of his first period with the romantic gestures of the second, thus creating music of universal humanistic expressiveness. Among the most notable works of this period are the Cello Concerto No. 2 (1982), the Viola Concerto (1983) and the "Polish Requiem" (1984), a work which is the composer's memorial to the oppression of his country and a declaration of solidarity with its struggle for freedom.
Mr. Penderecki has completed a number of symphonies and concertos in rapid succession since 1988, including the Symphony No. 5 (1991-92); the Flute Concerto (1992), written for Jean-Pierre Rampal; the Sinfonietta No. 2 for Clarinet and Strings (1994) and the Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra. Two of his works, the Violin Concerto No. 2 (1994-95), which was written for Anne-Sophie Mutter and won two Grammy Awards, and his Symphony No. 3, received their United States premieres at Carnegie Hall in the fall of 1996. Mr. Penderecki's first major work for piano and orchestra, "Resurrection" was premiered at Carnegie Hall and Philadelphia's Kimmel Center in May 2002. It was commissioned by the Carnegie Hall Corporation and written especially for Emanuel Ax and the Philadelphia Orchestra. His notable chamber music compositions have included "Per Slava" (1985-86), written for Mstislav Rostropovich, "The Interrupted Thought" for string quartet (1988), the String Trio (1990-91) and the Divertimento for Solo Cello.
His most recent works include several notable choral pieces: "Seven Gates of Jerusalem," premiered in Jerusalem in January 1997 as part of celebrations marking the city's 3000-year anniversary; "Hymn to St. Danill," premiered in October 1997 to mark the 850th anniversary of the founding of Moscow; and "Credo" premiered at the 1998 Oregon Bach Festival. "Credo" was recorded for Hänssler Classics by the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra and Choir and was presented with the 1999 Echo-Klassik Preis of the Deutsche Phonoakademie. "Seven Gates of Jerusalem" was recorded in November 2000 by Wergo. Mr. Penderecki's first major work for piano and orchestra, "Resurrection" was premiered at New York's Carnegie Hall and Philadelphia's Kimmel Center in May 2002. It was commissioned by the Carnegie Hall Corporation and written especially for Emanuel Ax and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Among the numerous awards and prizes Mr. Penderecki has won are the UNESCO Award, the Crystal Award (from Davos, Switzerland) the Great Art Award of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Prix Italia (in both 1967 and 1968), the Prix Artur Honegger, the Sibelius Prize, the Premio Lorenzo Magnifico, the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition and a Grammy Award, among many others. In 1998 he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has also received two Emmy nominations for the A&E Network broadcasts from the Casals Festival. Nine universities, among them Glasgow, Madrid and Belgrade, have conferred honorary doctorates on Mr. Penderecki.
From 1972 to 1979, he was director of the Krakow High School of Music, and from 1973 to 1978 he taught at Yale University as well. He is an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Royal Academy of Music in Dublin, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm and the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, and bears the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and has recently been named Freeman of the City of Strasbourg.
Last updated November 2009. Contact Opus 3 Artists for the most up-to-date version.
