Marta Ptaszyńska (born 29 July 1943) is a Polish
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
,
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
ist and professor of music at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
. She has been described by the Polish Music Center of the University of Southern California as "one of the best known Polish woman composers" as well as "a virtuoso percussionist specializing in performances of contemporary music".
Polish Music Center, University of Southern California
(archive from 5 June 2016), accessed 27 September 2018.
Career
Ptaszyńska was born in Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
, Poland. In 1998, she was appointed a Professor of Music and the Humanities at the University of Chicago. Since 2005 she holds an endowed chair
A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are of ...
of ''Helen B. & Frank L. Sulzberger Professor in Composition''.
She has been honored with many prizes and awards including Simon J. Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, the Danks Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...
, the Fromm Music Foundation Award, the Award at the International Rostrum of Composers The International Rostrum of Composers (IRC) is an annual forum organized by the International Music Council that offers broadcasting representatives the opportunity to exchange and publicize pieces of contemporary classical music. It is funded by c ...
at the UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
in Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, several ASCAP Award
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...
s, and many more. In 1995, she received the ''Officer Cross of Merit'' of the Republic of Poland.
Works
Orchestral music
Vocal and instrumental works
Chamber music
Instrumental and solo works
Multimedia works
Music for children
Books
*Ptaszynska, Marta & Niewiadomska, Barbara; ''Colorful World of Percussion'' (1978) A book for percussion training in 5 volumes.
* about Ptaszyńska :
''Muzyka to język najdoskonalszy. Rozmowy z Martą Ptaszyńską'', Kraków/Cracow PWM 2001
See also
* Poles in Chicago
Both immigrant Poles and Americans of Polish heritage live in Chicago, Illinois. They are a part of worldwide '' Polonia'', the Polish term for the Polish Diaspora outside of Poland. Poles in Chicago have contributed to the economic, social a ...
Notes
Further reading
*Meckna, Michael, and Barbara Zwolska-Stęszeweska. 2001. "Ptaszyńska, Marta". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie
Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was an influential and prolific British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was publ ...
and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
External links
Marta Ptaszynska's page at Theodore Presser Company
Marta Ptaszyńska on the University of Chicago's website
March 4, 1988 & May 25, 1997
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ptaszynska, Marta
Polish classical composers
Living people
1943 births
Women classical composers
20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
Classical percussionists
20th-century women composers
21st-century women composers
Polish women composers