The Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków ( pl, Akademia Muzyczna im. Krzysztofa Pendereckiego w Krakowie) is a conservatory located in central

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. It is the '' alma mater'' of the renowned Polish contemporary composer

Krzysztof Penderecki Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki (; 23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer and conductor. His best known works include ''Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'', Symphony No. 3, his '' St Luke Passion'', ''Polish Requiem'', ''A ...

, who was also its rector for 15 years. The Academy is the only one in Poland to have two winners of the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw (

Halina Czerny-Stefańska Halina Czerny-Stefańska ( �xaˈlina t͡ʂɛrnɨ stɛˈfaj᷉ska31 December 19221 July 2001) was a Polish pianist. Life She studied piano under her father, Stanisław Szwarcenberg-Czerny, as well as with Alfred Cortot at the École Normale de ...

and

Adam Harasiewicz Adam Harasiewicz (born 1 July 1932) is a Polish classical concert pianist. Harasiewicz was born in Chodziez, Poland. After studying violin for two months, at the age of 10 he began piano study, and at age 15 he obtained first prize in a contest ...

) as well as a few further prize-winners among its alumni.

Historical background

The academy was founded in 1888 by the eminent Polish composer Władysław Żeleński thanks to his artistic connections and patronage of Princess

Marcelina Czartoryska Princess Marcelina Czartoryska, née Radziwiłł (18 May 1817 in Podłużne − 5 June 1894 in Kraków) was a prominent Polish aristocrat and pianist. Life Born into the mighty Polish magnate family, the Radziwiłłs, in 1840 she married Aleksan ...

, a concert pianist and former pupil of

Frédéric Chopin Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leadin ...

. Until 1945 it operated as a conservatory under the name of ''Conservatory of the Music Society'' or, the ''Cracow Conservatory''. During the

partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place toward the end of the 18th century and ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 12 ...

, as the region of

Lesser Poland Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name Małopolska ( la, Polonia Minor), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a s ...

and Kraków was ruled by the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...

– in the late 18th century, it was necessary to gain the consent of the Austrian administration and meet the imperial requirements set for all conservatoires. The newly opened school was inspected by Joseph Dachs and Johann Fuchs, both professors of the

Vienna Conservatoire The Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna ( (MUK)) in Vienna, Austria, is a university of music and the arts. It was previously (2005−2015) named (KONSuni, Konservatorium Wien University), and before that (Conservatory of Vienna). ...

, and received their enthusiastic opinion. It enjoyed a period of great growth in the twenty years between the two wars under directors Wiktor Barabasz and Boleslaw Wallek-Walewski. The professorial staff included such names as

Zbigniew Drzewiecki Zbigniew Drzewiecki (; 8 April 189011 April 1971) was a Polish pianist who was for most of his life a teacher of pianists. He was especially associated with the interpretation of Frédéric Chopin's works. His pupils include several famous pian ...

Jan Gall Jan Karol Gall (August 18, 1856 – October 30, 1912) was a Polish vocal composer and music teacher. Gall was born in Warsaw, and studied under Franz Krenn in Vienna, Josef Rheinberger in Munich, and Francesco Lamperti in Milan. In 1880, he became ...

Zdzisław Jachimecki Zdzisław Jachimecki ( Lwów, 7 July 1882 – 27 October 1953, Kraków) was a Polish historian of music, composer, professor at the Jagiellonian University and the Kraków Music Academy, and member of the Polish Academy of Learning. Life Born ...

Egon Petri Egon Petri (23 March 188127 May 1962) was a Dutch pianist. Life and career Petri's family was Dutch. He was born a Dutch citizen but in Hanover, Germany, and grew up in Dresden, where he attended the Kreuzschule. His father, a professional vio ...

and

Severin Eisenberger Severin Eisenberger ( pl, Seweryn Eisenberger; 1879 in Krakau, Austrian Galicia – 1945 in New York) was a Polish concert pianist, composer and teacher. Eisenberger was a student of Heinrich Ehrlich in Berlin and Theodor Leschetizky in Vienn ...

. Closed during the Nazi occupation of 1939-1945, especially after

Sonderaktion Krakau ''Sonderaktion Krakau'' was a German operation against professors and academics of the Jagiellonian University and other universities in German-occupied Kraków, Poland, at the beginning of World War II. It was carried out as part of the much bro ...

in 1939, the conservatoire continued its activity underground and finally reopened on 1 September 1945, becoming the State Higher School of Music as of 1 February 1946 under its first rector, Prof.

. In 1979 it gained the rank of an Academy of Music. On 1 October 2000 the academy inaugurated its new premises at 41-43, St. Thomas Street (ul. Sw. Tomasza).

Structure

Composition, Interpretation and Music Education Faculty

*Composition Department *Conducting Department *Music Theory and Interpretation Department *Music and Education Research Department *Choral Department *Religious Music Department *Electroacoustic Music Studio

Instrumental Faculty

*Piano Department *Organ Department *Early Music Department *Guitar and Harp Department *Violin and Viola Department *Cello and Double Bass Department *Woodwinds and Accordicon Department *Brass Department *Jazz Department *Percussion and Contemporary Music Department *Chamber Music Department

Voice and Drama Faculty

*Voice Department

People associated with the academy

Notable alumni

''The list does not include graduates who later became staff of the Academy.'' * Sylvia Čápová-Vizváry, pianist *

(pianist) *

Janina Garscia Janina Gressel (born Janina Garścia; March 12, 1920 – March 1, 2004) was a Polish composer, pianist, and teacher. Career In 1945, she graduated from the Władysław Żeleński State Secondary School of Music (class of piano professor Olga St ...

(composer) *

(pianist) *

Jan Hoffman Jan Hoffman (11 June 1906 – 25 October 1995) was a Polish pianist and music educator. Biography Jan Hoffman was born in Kraków and studied with Józef Śliwiński and Wiktor Łabuński at the Conservatory of Music in Kraków, receiving a dip ...

(pianist) *

Kazimierz Kord Kazimierz Kord (18 November 1930 – 29 April 2021) was a Polish conductor. Between 1949 and 1955, he studied piano at the Leningrad Conservatory. He also studied at the Academy of Music in Kraków. He held major conducting positions with the ...

(conductor) * Adam Kopyciński (conductor) *

Abel Korzeniowski Abel Korzeniowski (; born 18 July 1972) is a Polish composer of film and theatre scores. Life and career Korzeniowski was born in Kraków. He had contact with music from early childhood: his mother Barbara plays the cello and both his brothers A ...

(film music composer) * Waldemar Maciszewski (pianist) *

Władysława Markiewiczówna Władysława Markiewiczówna (5 February 1900 in Bochnia – 17 May 1982 in Katowice) was a Polish pianist and renowned educator. She studied in the Conservatory of the Musical Society in Kraków (nowadays Academy of Music in Kraków) in the p ...

(pianist) * Elżbieta Szmytka (soprano) * Wacław Kiełtyka (accordionist, guitarist) ;From postgraduate studies: *

Lidia Grychtołówna Lidia Grychtołówna (born 1928 in Rybnik) is a Polish pianist. In 1955 she was awarded the V International Chopin Piano Competition's 7th prize, and one year later she shared the 3rd prize of the inaugural edition of the Robert Schumann Compet ...

(pianist) *

Wojciech Kilar Wojciech Kilar (; 17 July 1932 – 29 December 2013) was a Polish classical and film music composer. One of his greatest successes came with his score to Francis Ford Coppola's '' Bram Stoker's Dracula'' in 1992, which received the ASCAP Award ...

(composer) * Marzena Diakun (conductor)

Notable faculty

Academics before World War II

Academics after 1945

Also graduated from the Academy: * Marcel Chyrzyński (composer) * Jerzy Katlewicz (conductor) *

Krzysztof Meyer Krzysztof Meyer (born 11 August 1943) is a Polish composer, pianist, and music scholar, formerly Dean of the Department of Music Theory (1972–1975) at the State College of Music (now Academy of Music in Kraków), and president of the Union of P ...

(composer) *

(composer) * Andrzej Pikul (pianist) * Paweł Przytocki (conductor) *

Bogusław Schaeffer Bogusław Julian Schaeffer (also Schäffer) (6 June 1929 – 1 July 2019) was a Polish composer, musicologist, and graphic artist, a member of the avantgarde "Cracow Group" of Polish composers alongside Krzysztof Penderecki and others. Schaeffe ...

(composer) *

Stanisław Skrowaczewski Stanislaw Pawel Stefan Jan Sebastian Skrowaczewski (; October 3, 1923 – February 21, 2017) was a Polish-American classical conductor and composer. Biography Skrowaczewski was born in Lwów, Second Polish Republic (now Lviv, Ukraine). His pa ...

(conductor) * Regina Smendzianka (pianist) * Jadwiga Szamotulska (pianist) ;Non-graduates: *

Peter Holtslag Peter Holtslag (born 1957 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch recorder and flauto traverso virtuoso. Holtslag studied recorder at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam (now Conservatorium van Amsterdam), Frans Brüggen being his great inspiration, grad ...

(recorder and flauto traverso player) *

Stefan Kisielewski Stefan Kisielewski (7 March 1911 in Warsaw – 27 September 1991 in Warsaw, Poland), nicknames Kisiel, Julia Hołyńska, Teodor Klon, Tomasz Staliński, was a Polish writer, publicist, composer and politician, and one of the members of Znak, one ...

(composer) *

Bolesław Kon Bolesław Kon (9 December 190610 June 1936) was a Polish concert pianist who won international acclaim in his brief career. Kon was born into a poor Jewish family in Warsaw. He began his piano training aged about 10, at the Moscow Conservatory u ...

(pianist) *

Roman Palester Roman Palester (28 December 1907 – 25 August 1989) was a Polish composer of classical music. Palester composed his most significant work during the 1960s and was the first Polish musician to be awarded the Alfred Jurzykowski Prize in 1964. ...

(composer) *

Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń (Bulgarian: Екатерина Попова) (born 30 April 1948 in Sofia) is a Polish pianist of Bulgarian descent. She studied at the Poznań Music Academy, then graduated with honours from the State High School of Musi ...

(pianist) *

Ada Sari Ada Sari (29 June 1886 – 12 July 1968) was a Polish opera singer, actress, and educator. One of the leading coloratura sopranos of her generation, she possessed a large, resonant voice with a clear timbre. Her career took her to the stages of th ...

(singer) * Jadwiga Szamotulska (pianist) *

Eugenia Umińska Eugenia Umińska (4 October 1910, Warsaw – 20 November 1980, Kraków) was a Polish violinist. Student of the Chopin University of Music, Warsaw Conservatory. From 1915 to 1918, she was a member of the Warsaw Music Society, where she was a stud ...

(violinist) *

Bolesław Woytowicz Bolesław Woytowicz (5 December 189911 June 1980) was a Polish pianist and composer. Woytowicz was born in Dunaivtsi. In 1924 he was appointed a piano and music theory teacher in the Warsaw Conservatory, where he had been trained under Aleksander ...

(composer and pianist) *

Tadeusz Żmudziński Tadeusz Żmudziński (9 July 1924, in Chorzów – 17 October 1992, in Katowice) was a Polish pianist and educator. In 1946, Żmudziński graduated with highest honours from the University of Music in Katowice, where he studied under Prof. Wład ...

(pianist)

Doctors ''honoris causa''

* 1994 –

* 1997 –

Paul Sacher Paul Sacher (28 April 190626 May 1999) was a Swiss conductor, patron and billionaire businessperson. At the time of his death Sacher was majority shareholder of pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche and was considered the third richest person i ...

* 2001 – Mieczysław Tomaszewski * 2003 –

Helmuth Rilling Helmuth Rilling (born 29 May 1933) is a German choral conductor and an academic teacher. He is the founder of the Gächinger Kantorei (1954), the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart (1965), the Oregon Bach Festival (1970), the Internationale Bachakademie S ...

* 2005 – Peter Lukas Graf * 2007 – Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar * 2008 –

Henryk Mikołaj Górecki Henryk may refer to: * Henryk (given name) * Henryk, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, a village in south-central Poland * Henryk Glacier, an Antarctic glacier See also * Henryk Batuta hoax The Henryk Batuta hoax was a hoax perpetrated on the Polish ...

* 2013 –

Paul Badura-Skoda Paul Badura-Skoda (6 October 1927 – 25 September 2019) was an Austrian pianist. Career A student of Edwin Fischer, Badura-Skoda first rose to prominence by winning first prize in the Austrian Music Competition in 1947. In 1949, he perform ...

* 2015 –

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...

* 2016 - Kaja Danczowska * 2017 - Iwan Monighetti * 2019 - Barbara Świątek-Żelazna * 2022 -

Anne-Sophie Mutter Anne-Sophie Mutter (born 29 June 1963) is a German violinist. She was supported early in her career by Herbert von Karajan. As an advocate of contemporary music, she has had several works composed especially for her, by Sebastian Currier, Henri ...

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Academy of Music in Krakow Universities and colleges in Kraków Music schools in Poland Educational institutions established in 1888 1888 establishments in Austria-Hungary