Bolesław Woytowicz
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5 December 1899, Dunaivtsi – 11 June 1980, Katowice
Polish pianist and composer.
In 1924 he was appointed a piano and music theory teacher in the Warsaw Conservatory, where he had been trained under Aleksander Michałowski and Witold Maliszewski. He won an honorable mention at the inaugural I International Chopin Piano Competition. For the next 15 years he combined his pedagogical labour with a concert career through Europe and the United States and further composition studies under Nadia Boulanger.
During World War II, he ran the "Salon Sztuki" cafe at Nowy Åšwiat 27 in Warsaw, where he organized concerts of chamber and solo music, thus helping many people who had no means of subsistence. In the cafe performed:
Eugenia UmiÅ„ska , Irena Dubiska , Witold LutosÅ‚awski , Andrzej Panufnik , Zbigniew Drzewiecki , PaweÅ‚ Lewiecki , Ewa Bandrowska-Turska , Wiktoria Calma, Ada Sari , Adam Didur and others. Played here, among others piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven, quartets by Antonín DvoÅ™ák, Grażyna Bacewicz, Roman Palester, Kazimierz WiÅ‚komirski, his own, as well as works by Stefan Kisielewski and Witold LutosÅ‚awski .
(note: the German officials would be unfamiliar with the music of Polish contemporary composers, so the musicians above could play freely, and only the Poles knew the music was Polish!)
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On October 17, 1945, he participated in the return of Chopin's heart from Milanowek to Warsaw's Church of the Holy Cross.
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Photo below, left to right: from left to right:
Bronisław Sydow
Parish Priest for Church of Holy Cross in Warsaw Fr. Leopold Petrzyk holding the urn of Chopin's heart
Pianist and Professor Bolesław Woytowicz.
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