Stanisław Skrowaczewski

Stanisław Paweł Stefan Jan Sebastian Skrowaczewski (Polish: [staˌɲiswaf skrɔvaˈt͡ʂɛfskʲi]; October 3, 1923 – February 21, 2017)[1] was a Polish-American classical conductor and composer.

Stanisław Skrowaczewski
Stanisław Skrowaczewski in Tokyo (October 2011)
Pronunciationstaˌɲiswaf skrɔvaˈt͡ʂɛfskʲi
Born
Stanisław Paweł Stefan Jan Sebastian Skrowaczewski

(1923-10-03)October 3, 1923
Lwów, Second Polish Republic
DiedFebruary 21, 2017(2017-02-21) (aged 93)
St. Louis Park, Minnesota
NationalityPolish-American
Alma materAcademy of Music in Kraków

Biography

Skrowaczewski was born in Lwów, Second Polish Republic (now Lviv, Ukraine). As a child, he studied piano and violin; displaying talent on the piano at an early age, he made his public debut playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor. A hand injury ended his piano career.[1]

After World War II, Skrowaczewski graduated from the Academy of Music in Kraków (in the composition class of Roman Palester and conducting class of Walerian Bierdiajew) and soon, in 1946, became the associate conductor of the Wrocław Philharmonic, then the Katowice Philharmonic, the Kraków Philharmonic and finally the Warsaw National Orchestra. He studied composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. In 1956 he won the Santa Cecilia Competition for Conductors.

At the invitation of George Szell, Skrowaczewski conducted the Cleveland Orchestra.

He and his wife defected from Poland to the United States in 1960, via Amsterdam,[1] after he was offered the post of music director of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra[1] (later renamed the Minnesota Orchestra under his tenure in 1968), a position he held until 1979 when he became conductor laureate. In 1981 the American Composers Forum (then known as the Minnesota Composers Forum) commissioned the Clarinet Concerto which Skrowaczewski wrote for Minnesota Orchestra principal clarinetist Joe Longo, who premiered it in 1981.

Between 1983 and 1992 he was principal conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester.

Between 1995 and 1997, Skrowaczewski served as artistic advisor to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. In 1988, he was composer-in-residence for the Philadelphia Orchestra's summer season at Saratoga. He has guest-conducted that orchestra, and many others, all over the world.

His complete set of recordings of the symphonies of Anton Bruckner, made with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, has received much acclaim, as has his 2005/06 complete Beethoven symphony cycle with the orchestra. Another noted recording is his Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 with the London Symphony Orchestra in collaboration with soloist Gina Bachauer.

Skrowaczewski's Passacaglia Immaginaria, completed in 1995, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1997. Commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestral Association to honor the memory of Ken and Judy Dayton, it was premiered at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis in 1996.

His Chamber Concerto was commissioned by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in memory of Leopold Sipe, their first music director. Skrowaczewski received his second Pulitzer nomination in 1999 for his Concerto for Orchestra.[2][3]

He received the Commander Order of the White Eagle, the highest order conferred by the Polish government, as well as the Gold Medal of the Mahler-Bruckner Society, the 1973 Ditson Conductor's Award, and the 1976 Kennedy Center Friedheim Award.

He was the father of Paul Sebastien, founder of electronica groups Psykosonik and Basic Pleasure Model. He lived in Wayzata, Minnesota, and died in St. Louis Park on February 21, 2017.

Frederick Harris, Jr., director of the MIT Wind Ensemble, wrote Skrowaczewski's official biography.[4]

Recordings
  • Passacaglia Immaginaria/ Chamber Concerto/ Concerto for Clarinet in A & Orchestra - Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra; Albany TROY481 (2001); conducted by the composer

Notes
  1. Sandomir, Richard (27 February 2017). "Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Conductor Who Fled Poland, Dies at 93". New York Times. Archived from the original on 27 February 2017.
  2. Dobrin, Peter (April 14, 1999). "Phone Call Brings A Pulitzer, Credibility". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved December 26, 2015.
  3. Reichel, Edward (November 30, 2003). "A triumphant return: Conductor will lead Utah Symphony in the hall he helped inaugurate". Deseret News. Retrieved December 26, 2015.
  4. http://www.seekingtheinfinite.com/
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Cultural offices
Preceded by
Gerd Albrecht		 Principal Conductor, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra
April 2007 – March 2010		 Succeeded by
Sylvain Cambreling
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