Wojciech Kilar

Wojciech Kilar was a Polish classical and film music composer. His film scores have won many honours including the best score award for the music to ‘Ziemia obiecana’ (The Promised Land) in 1975, and he has composed music for major Hollywood motion pictures such as ‘The Pianist’, ‘The Ninth Gate’, among many others, and his music was also used in ‘The Truman Show’. Kilar was born in Lviv on July 17, 1932, and because of the 2nd World War, he moved to Katowice in Southern Poland, where he spent most of his life from 1948. Between 1946–47 he studied piano with K. Mirski in the secondary music school in Rzeszów. In 1947 he made his debut there at the Young Talents’ Competition playing his own ‘Two Children’s Miniatures’ (2nd prize). Between 1947–48 he attended the music school in Kraków, where he studied piano with M. Bilińska-Riegerowa; he continued his piano studies in the secondary music school in Katowice with W. Markiewiczówna. At the same time, he took private composition lessons with B. Woytowicz. Between 1950–55 he studied piano and composition with B. Woytowicz at the Higher State Music School in Katowice. He continued his post-graduate studies at the State College of in Kraków from 1955 to 1958. In 1957 he took part in the International New Music Summer Course in Darmstadt. In 1959–60 a French government scholarship enabled him to study composition under Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and in 1960, he won the Nadia Boulanger Prize for Composition. Having received critical success as a composer, Kilar then scored his first domestic film in 1959, and went on to write music for some of Poland's most acclaimed directors, such as Krzysztof Zanussi. He worked on over 100 titles in his home country, as well as several others in France and across other parts of Europe. He made his English-language debut with Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of Dracula. His other English language features — such as Roman Polanski's ‘The Pianist’ (2002), and Jane Campion's ‘The Portrait of a Lady’ (1996) — were typified by his trademark grinding basses and cellos, deeply romantic themes and minimalist chord progressions. He has won numerous awards for his film music, as well as some for his concert works, that include ‘Missa Pro Pace’ (2001) and his ‘September Symphony’ (2003). Wojciech Kilar died on December 29, 2013.