Maestro Wojciech!

Today I wanted to tell you a few words about one incredibly talented Pole – Wojciech Kilar. Wojciech Kilar was born in Lviv (now Ukraine, then Poland) in 1932 and passed away in 2013 in Katowice, Silesian district of Poland. He was a Polish pianist, classical and film music composer.

Wojciech was a son of a doctor and and a theater actress. In 1946-47, just after the Second World War, together with his parents, he was forced to leave his home town and move to Poland (that was because the Polish boarder was moved). He continued his education in Rzeszów and he has always loved to play the piano!

Undoubtedly, he’s one of the most outstanding film music composers. He wrote music to over 130 movies. His relationship with cinema started already in 1958! Throughout the years he cooperated with many directors, among others with Andrzej Wajda, Kazimierz Kutz, Krzysztof Zanussi (starting from „The Structure of Crystal” he created music to almost all of Zanussi’s films), Krzysztof Kieślowski, Roman Polański, Francis Ford Coppola, Jane Campion. Wojciech Kilar received many awards for his work… In 1999 he even received an offer from Peter Jackson to write music for The Lord of the Rings. The composer said yes at the beginning, but – unfortunately – the cooperation never happened.

By the president Bronisław Komorowski’s resolution from April 18th 2012, Wojciech Kilar was awarded with the Order of the White Eagle „as a symbol of his notable merits for Polish culture and for exceptional achievements of his work”.

Wojciech Kilar passed away aged 81, after a couple of months long struggle with a brain tumor.

Listen yourself to some of his breathtaking music: