Romuald Twardowski

Romuald Twardowski (17 June 1930 – 13 January 2024) was a Polish composer, pianist, organist and academic teacher who studied in Vilnius, Warsaw and Paris.

In a style described as "developed neoclassicism", he composed operas, ballets, instrumental music and vocal works, especially sacred music for both Catholic use and the Orthodox Church.

He achieved international prizes for his compositions, and many works were recorded in anthologies, including the Violin Concerto, chamber music, and sacred and secular choral music such as the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.

Twardowski was born in Vilnius (then Wilno in Poland) on 17 June 1930.

During years of occupation and World War II, he studied the violin; after the war, he began learning to play the piano and organ.

From 1946 to 1950, he was the organist at the Church of St. Johns in Vilnius.

From 1952 to 1957, he studied piano and composition at the Conservatory of Vilnius, with Povilas Tamuliūnas and Julius Juzeliūnas.

He was an early member of the folklore ensemble Wilia (folklore ensemble), founded in 1955, focused on Polish folk music.

He moved to Warsaw to continue his studies at the Warsaw Academy of Music from 1957 to 1960, with Bolesław Woytowicz.

He created major works for the stage in the 1960s; his first opera, Cyrano de Bergerac, based on Rostand's play, was premiered at the Silesian Opera in Bytom in 1963, directed by Zbigniew Sawa and conducted by Włodzimierz Ormicki.

On a scholarship of the Polish Composers' Union, he studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger in 1963 and returned in 1966, with a focus on Gregorian chant and medieval polyphony.

He created the operas Tragedy, or the Story of John and Herod (1965) and Lord Jim after Joseph Conrad's novel (1973), and the ballets The Naked Prince (1960) and Wizard's Sculptures (1963).

They were staged in Łódź and Warsaw.

He was professor at the State Academy of Music in Warsaw from 1972 to 2008.

From 1972 to 2008 Twardowski was a professor at the State Academy of Music in Warsaw, teaching composition and instrumentation.

He served as jury member of many choir competitions.

He was awarded honours of the Order of Polonia Restituta, the Knight's Cross in 1974, the Officer's Cross in 1985 and the Commander's Cross in 2020.

In the 1980s, he composed two more operas; Maria Stuart was premiered at the Grand Theatre, Łódź in 1981, staged by Maria Fołtyn.

He was president of the Orthodox Music Foundation, organizing the International Orthodox Music Festival Hajnówka in Białystok and chairing its jury from 1983.

History of St. Catherine was premiered at the Grand Theatre, Warsaw in 1985, and produced two years later at the Baltic State Opera in Gdańsk.

His operas were also performed in Czechoslovakia, Finland, Germany and Yugoslavia.

He published an autobiography in 2000, Było, nie minęło: wspomnienia kompozytora (Been, not Gone: A Composer's Memories), about his creative work, people and events of his life.

Twardowski died in Warsaw on 13 January 2024, at the age of 93.

Twardowski achieved international prizes for his compositions, including:

He received the American Paderewski Award in 2006, and the Gloria Artis Medal for Merit to Culture in Gold in 2010.

Albums with his works were nominated several times for the Fryderyk Music Award.

The State Music School in Puławy and the Municipal Music School in Gostynin bear his name.

Twardowski worked in many genres, opera and ballet, concertante instrumental music for large and small ensembles, choral music both sacred and secular, chamber music and songs, composing about 200 works.

He composed sacred music for the Catholic church, but also for the Orthodox Church, specifically the Chamber Choir Kyiv conducted by his friend Mykola Hobdych.

His musical style has been called "developed neoclassicism", and his choral works as "very varied and, although moderately modern, very accessible music", "pure and beautiful".

His music has been described as "very clear and communicative, full of internal drama and individual in its character".

His major compositions include:

Works by Twardowski were recorded, mostly in anthologies grouped by genre by the Polish label Acte Préalable (AP), including: