Stanislaw Skrowaczewski
Photo: Toshiyuki Urano
Polish conductor Stanislaw Skrowaczewski celebrates today his 90th birthay. Skrowaczewski studied piano, conducting and composition at the Music Academies in Lviv and Krakow. A hand injury ended his promising career as a pianist. In 1946, became the music director of the Wroclaw Philharmonic, then the Katowice Philharmonic, the Krakow Philharmonic and finally the Warsaw National Orchestra. He studied composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. In 1956 he won the Santa Cecilia Competition for Conductors.
At the invitation of George Szell, Skrowaczewski conducted the Cleveland Orchestra. In 1960 he was appointed music director of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (later renamed the Minnesota Orchestra under his tenure in 1968), a position he held until 1979 when he became conductor laureate. In later years he also served as Music Director of the Halle Orchestra in Manchester and of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (Minnesota).
As a guest conductor, Stanisław Skrowaczewski has appeared with such leading orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Wiener Symphoniker, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Concertgebouw. Today he continues to be very active, as both a conductor and composer.
