Popławski, Marceli (EN)

Popławski Marceli Feliks, *9 July 1882 Pieńkówka (Podolia), †1 May 1948 Łódź, Polish composer, violinist, and teacher. From 1901 to 1907, he studied in Kyiv – first at the Polytechnic Institute, then at the University’s Faculty of Law and School of Music. He continued his musical studies in Leipzig under H. Sitt (violin) and M. Reger (composition), in Paris under V. d’Indy (composition) and in Saint Petersburg under A. Glazunov (composition). From 1912 to 1916, he worked as a violin teacher in Yaroslavl on the Volga River. He later returned to Kiev, where he became the musical director of “Studio”, theatre of Stanisława Wysocka. In 1921, Popławski settled in Toruń; he taught violin at the Conservatory of the Pomeranian Music Society and was director of the Operetta of the Muncipal Theatre. He moved to Warsaw where he formed a representative symphony orchestra of railwaymen in 1934, which he conducted until 1939, giving regular concerts at the Dom Żołnierza [Soldier’s House] in Praga district. In 1938, he was awarded first prize in the composition competition of the Towarzystwo Wydawnicze Muzyki Polskiej (Polish Music Publishing Society) for his piano variations under the title Tydzień. During the occupation, most of his compositional oeuvre, comprising more than 200 works, was destroyed. In 1945, he settled in Łódź, where he worked as a professor of the violin class at the Ludowy Instytut Muzyczny, while also serving as director of the school of music in Pabianice. He was a member of the Stowarzyszenie Kompozytorów Polskich from 1926.