GRAZYNA BACEWICZ, the prolific and prodigiously talented Polish composer. Born in Łódź in 1909, she amassed a large number of prizes over her lifetime including no fewer than five state medals from the Polish government. And a violinist, pianist, and writer with a significant musical voice.
And she was always destined for musical greatness, announcing to her parents that she would be a composer when she was still a child. Studying violin and composition in Warsaw and Paris, where she won the first of her many composition prizes, she was also an active concert violinist in turbulent times, lured back to Warsaw to become the first woman principal of the Polish Radio Symphony and running secret underground concerts during the 2nd World War. After the war, teaching at the Warsaw conservatory and representing her country all over Eastern Europe, she continued writing at a frantic pace before a terrible car accident in 1954. Perhaps that hastened her death, just short of 60, in the middle of completing a ballet where some premonition made her leave detailed instructions for the four minutes at the end. She’s frequently played now: and many streets and schools in Poland bear her name
Presented by composer Joan Tower for International Women’s Month in March, written and produced by Charlotte Wilson for WMHT
