COMPETITION PATRON

Grzegorz Fitelberg (1879-1953)

Grzegorz Fitelberg was born in 1879 in Daugavpils in Latvia. He was a composer and one of the most remarkable Polish conductors. In 1896 he completed his musical studies in Conservatory in Warsaw: composition under Zygmunt Noskowski and violin under Stanisław Barcewicz.

He made his début as a conductor in 1904 in the Warsaw Philharmonic. Almost at the same time he made friends with Karol Szymanowski and other representatives of Young Poland (a cultural modernist movement) - Mieczysław Karłowicz, Ludomir Różycki and Apolinary Szeluto. From then on he began to propagate Polish music of the 20th century, especially Karol Szymanowski's compositions.

In the years 1908-11 Fitelberg was the artistic director and the chief conductor of the Warsaw Philharmonic, simultaneously giving concerts in numerous important European music centers such as Berlin, Lipsk, Drezno and Vienna. Between 1914 and 1919, at the invitation of Sergiusz Kusewicki he frequently appeared in Russia (Petersburg, Moscow). From 1921, for the next three years next years Fitelberg was a conductor of Russian Ballets of Sergiusz Diaghilev.

During the following years he led very active life conducting in many European and South American countries. In the years 1942-45 he stayed in the United States of America. After he had come back to Poland in 1947, he became director and first conductor of the chief conductor of the Great Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio in Katowice. Under his direction the orchestra achieved very high performing level. Fitelberg taught conducting, first in Warsaw Conservatory, and then between 1950 and 1951 in the Higher Music School in Katowice. Among his best students was Karol Stryja, the initiator of the Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors. Grzegorz Fitelberg died in 1953 in Katowice.

From:
Leon Markiewicz "Grzegorz Fitelberg - Życie i dzieło", Katowice 1998
Leon Markiewicz "Grzegorz Fitelberg 1879-1953. The great polish conductor.", Katowice 1999