Stanisław Skrowaczewski (2004)

An outstanding conductor and composer, born on 3 October 1923 in Lviv, died on 21 February 2017 in St. Louis Park, United States. He began learning to play the piano and violin at the age of four. He composed his first symphonic work at the age of seven, and at the age of eleven he made his concert debut with a piano recital. Two years later, he performed as a pianist and conductor in Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3. An injury to his hand ended his career as a pianist. He then focused on composition and conducting. He studied under Roman Palester (composition) and Walerian Bierdiajew (conducting) at the State Higher School of Music in Krakow. Between 1947 and 1949, he lived in Paris, where he studied under Nadia Boulanger and participated in the founding of the avant-garde group Zodiaque.

In 1946, he became the conductor of the Wrocław Philharmonic, and from 1949 to 1954 he was the director of the Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice. From 1954 to 1956, he held a position at the Krakow Philharmonic. He was also associated with the National Philharmonic in Warsaw as its permanent conductor (1956-1959). For many years, he was associated with the Minnesota Orchestra as its ‘conductor laureate’ and held the position of principal guest conductor of the Saarlaendischer Rundfunk Orchestra.

In 1956, Stanisław Skrowaczewski won the International Conducting Competition in Rome. Invited by George Szell, he made his debut in the United States with the Cleveland Orchestra. He also conducted the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, and Cincinnati Symphony orchestras, and in 1960 he became artistic director of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, later renamed the Minnesota Orchestra (a position he held for 19 years). Since then, he has been a frequent guest of the best orchestras around the world, as well as renowned opera houses, including the Wiener Staatsoper and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He toured internationally with the Concergebouworkester, Orchestre Nationale de France, and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, and travelled twice with the Philadelphia Orchestra to South America and with the Cleveland Orchestra to Australia. From 1984 to 1991, he was the principal conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester. With this ensemble, he gave concerts in London and many other cities in the United Kingdom, as well as in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Spain, Poland and the United States.

Stanisław Skrowaczewski recorded an extensive repertoire for numerous record companies. Many of his analogue recordings have been reissued on CD, and his new recordings of works by Anton Bruckner, Dmitri Shostakovich and Johannes Brahms (with the Hallé Orchestra) have been very well received. He received the Gold Medal of the Mahler-Bruckner Society for his interpretations of Anton Bruckner's symphonies, and the ASCAP Award five times for his promotion of contemporary music with the Minnesota Orchestra. His recordings of Anton Bruckner's eleven symphonies with the Saarlaendischer Rundfunk Orchestra (released by Arte Nova) received the award for best orchestral recording in Cannes (2002).

In recognition of Stanisław Skrowaczewski's great contribution to the development of musical art, as well as the strong ties that bound the artist to Wrocław, the Senate of the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław decided to honour the artist with an honorary doctorate in 2004.