ANDRZEJ KURYLEWICZ - composer, pianist, trumpet-player,
trombonist.
Born in Lvov, 1932. His musical education began in the Music School
(Szkoła Muzyczna) in Lvov
and in the Institute of Music (Instytut Muzyczny) in Gliwice. He went on to
study
in the High School of Music (Wyższa Szkoła Muzyczna) in Kraków - piano under
Henryk Sztompka,
composition under Stanisław Wiechowicz. He made his debut as the founder of the
Polish Radio Jazz Band
(Zespół Jazzowy Polskiego Radia) in Kraków. He conducted the Polish Radio and
Television Orchestra in Warsaw.
In 1969 he founded the Formation of Contemporary Music (Formacja Muzyki
Współczesnej - strings,
brass and percussion), which he led till 1979. In 1967, in Warsaw’s Old Town,
with his wife Wanda Warska
- a singer and painter – he opened "Piwnica Artystyczna Kurylewiczów"
– a studio for the performance
of musical and literary forms, distinct and combined. Andrzej Kurylewicz is one
of the most outstanding personalities in contempary Polish music. He is a
passionate artist, who has changed several times
the field of his interests and activities. He has given concerts - both as a
conductor and instrumentalist - throughout Europe, as well as South and North
America. In 1965 he received
the Polish Radio and Television Award; in 1978, the Award of the City of
Warsaw; in 1981, the Prix Italia;
in 1987, the Medal of the City of Warsaw. He has also received many prizes for
his compositions
for film and theatre. In 1984 he took up the position of composer-in-residence
of the city of Wilhelmshaven. Throughout the late 80’s and early 90’s, he
maintained a close association with the State University
in Kansas (USA). As a composer, he belongs - as he himself has put it – to the
"post-avant-garde"
of the late 20th century. He has composed numerous pieces for symphonic
orchestra, for chamber orchestra,
as well as many song-cycles, psalms for Latin texts, a "Missa Brevis"
for the Roman Missal,
and a wide range of solo works, for piano, harpsichord, organ, flute, tuba,
double-bass, and others.
As a pianist, Andrzej Kurylewicz values highly the music of Karol Szymanowski,
offering particularly outstanding interpretations of all twenty-two of that
composer’s Mazurkas.
In his improvisations on the piano, he has been particularly innovative in
combining
classical and contemporary music with jazz.
GABRIELA
KURYLEWICZ – daughter of Wanda Warska and
Andrzej Kurylewicz.
Student of Stefan Swieżawski, Erwin Axer and Leszek Kołakowski. Philosopher, poet, translator,
poetry performer.
Studies at
the
In 2001 founded the Foundation Forma –
Theatre and
Member of ZAiKS (section of literary works) and SIEPM. Codirector
of the Piwnica Artystyczna Kurylewiczów.
Books in the history of philosophy:
Dzieło sztuki i jego brak (The Work
of Art Well-Made and Ill-Made), Warszawa 1996,
Poznawanie
i niepoznawanie istnienia – Giovanni Pico della Mirandola w poszukiwaniu
metafizycznej zgodności wszystkiego, co istnieje
(Knowing and Not Knowing Being –
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Quest for the
Metaphysical Harmony of all Existing Things), Warszawa 2004.
Translations:
Thomas Aquinas, Traktat o Bogu (The
Treatise on God), polish translation and commentaries
G. Kurylewicz, Z. Nerczuk i M. Olszewski, Znak, Kraków 1998, 2000.
Giovanni Pico della
Mirandola, O bycie i jednym (On Being and One) and List do Hemolausa
Barbaro (The Letter to Hermolao Barbaro), [in:] Anthology of the Latin
Philosophy in the XVth Century, ed. E. Jung, Łódź (in preparation),
Boethius, O
pocieszeniu, jakie daje filozofia (De Consolatione Philosophiae), pol. transl. G. Kurylewicz, M. Antczak, Kęty 2006.
Books of poetry:
Wiersze (Poems),
Kraków 1992, Kraków 1996 (second edition) and Warszawa 2003 (third edition),
Wydłużyć horyzont (To Extend
the Horizon), Kraków 1998, Warszawa 2003 (second edition),
Tristia, Warszawa 2003,
Księżyc
świadkiem (in preparation).
Translations of poetry:
William
Shakespeare, Hamlet and Sonnets (in preparation).
Phonography:
Historia jednego dnia (Story of
the One Day)
(script, poems
and reciting – G. Kurylewicz, music, double-bass – Mauro Battisti, the final
solo voice – Wanda Warska,
sound directing –
Ewa Guziołek-Tubelewicz, studio recording, Fundacja Forma, Polskie Radio 2002).
Nowa Historia – 13 wierszy (The New
Story – 13 Poems)
(script, poems,
reciting – G. Kurylewicz, music, piano – Andrzej Jagodziński, the final solo
voice – Wanda Warska,
sound directing –
Ewa Guziołek-Tubelewicz, studio recordnig, Fundacja Forma, Polskie Radio 2004).
WANDA WARSKA - singer, painter, song-writer. She studied music in
Poznań and Kraków.
Since 1956 she has performed as the principal singer of the jazz and
song-cycles
of the composer and instrumentalist Andrzej Kurylewicz. During the 60’s, she came
to prominence
as one of the most distinguished female jazz vocalists in Europe, and also
gained renown in Central America,
where she lived and performed for a time. In 1967, in Warsaw’s Old Town, with
Andrzej Kurylewicz, she founded "Piwnica Artystyczna Kurylewiczów" –
an independent studio for the performance of musical and literary
forms, encapsulating in addition an Institute of Arts and a gallery. During the
70’s, she composed music
for a number of films. Since the mid-seventies, she has devoted an increasing
amount of her time
to painting, working principally on wood and on canvas. Alongside her vast jazz
repertoire, she performs
the songs of Andrzej Kurylewicz and of her own composition. The latter part of
her repertoire includes
settings of the finest Polish and European poetry, in the original and in
Polish translation
– including Kochanowski, Norwid, Słowacki, Mickiewicz, Wyspiański, Rilke and
Mandelstam.
She continues to give performances and exhibitions throughout Poland and
Europe, in addition
to a weekly performance in "Piwnica", accompanied by Andrzej
Kurylewicz, in concert
with various other performers.
powrót Piwnica
Repertuar /
Piwnica / Twórcy związani z Piwnicą
/ Forma / Twórcy związani z Formą