Wiłkomirski, Kazimierz (EN)

Wiłkomirski Kazimierz, *1 November 1900 Moscow, †7 March 1995 Warsaw, Polish cellist, conductor, composer and teacher, son of Alfred. At the age of 8, he began learning cello with M. Bukinik and after a year, he became his student at the People’s Conservatory in Moscow. In 1911–17, he studied at the Moscow Conservatory in the cello class of A. von Glehn and in the orchestra class of M. Ippolitov-Ivanov. Privately, he studied composition with B. Jaworski. As an 11-year-old boy, he began practising chamber music with his brother Michał (violin) and sister Maria (piano). The first concert of the Wiłkomirski Trio took place in 1913 in Bogorodsk, in 1915 the Trio made its debut in Moscow, and in 1919 in Warsaw. In 1917–19, Kazimierz Wiłkomirski taught at the music school in Batumi, and in 1919–21, he was a cellist in the orchestra of the Warsaw Opera. In 1919–23, he studied composition with R. Statkowski and conducting with E. Młynarski at the conservatory in Warsaw. In 1921–25, he taught (cello playing, principles of music, and harmony) at the school of the Musical Society in Kalisz, in the years 1925–29 he taught a cello class and a chamber music class, and taught theoretical subjects at the H. Kijeńska-Dobkiewiczowa conservatory in Łódź. In 1929–34, he taught at a private music school named after M. Karłowicz in Warsaw (choir, orchestra, chamber music class), from 1932 he also taught cello and chamber ensembles at the State Conservatory of Music in Warsaw. In 1926–34, he was the principal cellist, and from 1927 also the conductor of the Warsaw Philharmonic. In 1934, as a scholarship holder of the National Culture Fund, he completed his conducting studies with H. Scherchen in Switzerland. In 1934–39, he was a conductor and professor at the Polish Conservatory of Music of Macierz Szkolnej in Gdańsk and in 1935–39 the conductor of the Cecylia choir in Gdańsk. During World War II he lived in Warsaw. In 1939–41, he played in A. Dołżycki’s orchestra at Lardelli’s café, and practised chamber music, performing, among others, in B. Woytowicz’s café in the string quartet of E. Umińska (with R. Padlewski and H. Trzonek) and I. Dubiska (with Padlewski and M. Szaleski); as a soloist and chamber musician he performed in approximately 500 concerts. After the war, he devoted himself to intensive teaching activities: in 1945–47, he was the rector and professor of the conservatory (from April 1946 PWSM) in Łódź, where he taught (playing the cello) until 1948; in 1948–52, he was a professor (1950–52 Dean I faculty) of the State Higher School of Music in Wrocław (at the same time, in 1950–51, he taught cello at the State Higher School of Music in Poznań); and in 1952–57, he was a professor of the State Higher School of Music in Sopot. In 1958–64, he taught again at the PWSM in Wrocław, from October 1963 at the PWSM (later the Academy of Music) in Warsaw, where in 1966 he obtained the title of full professor, and after retiring (1970) he continued his teaching work until 1981. He conducted cello course championships in Łańcut (1975–84), Baden-Baden (1982) and at the Hochschule für Musik in Hannover (1983). In addition to cello classes, he taught a conducting class in Łódź and Wrocław, a chamber music class in Gdańsk and Warsaw, and a student orchestra in Warsaw. He trained 24 cellists, his students include G. Banaś, C. Barczyk, R. Suchecki, J. Węsławski, M. Wasiółka, M. Szczudłowska, B. Zaborowska and conductors – J. Krenz, J. Wiłkomirski and A. Wicherek.

Wiłkomirski began his conducting career on 20 February 1927 with a concert at the Warsaw Philharmonic, the program of which included: Romeo and Juliet overture-fantasy and Variations on a Rococo Theme by P. Tchaikovsky (with B. Ginzburg on cello), a piano concerto by A. Scriabin (with Maria Wiłkomirska at the piano), The Spanish Caprice by N. Rimsky-Korsakov. Outside Poland, he performed in Romania, Germany and Latvia, and after 1945 in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Bulgaria, Israel and Cuba. He appeared as an opera conductor for the first time in March 1933 at the Warsaw Opera (M. Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov). In 1947–49, he was the artistic director, then (until 1952) the conductor of the Opera and Philharmonic in Wrocław (he also collaborated with the philharmonic in the 1962/63 season), in 1952–54, the artistic director of the Baltic Philharmonic in Gdańsk, and from January 1953 the director of the Studio Opera House in Gdańsk, soon transformed into the Baltic Opera, where he worked as a conductor in 1955–57. From 1957 to 1963, he worked at the Wrocław Opera, first as director (until spring 1960), then artistic director (until December 1960), and then conductor (until 1963). He also performed in foreign theatres, including: in Bratislava, Budapest, Dresden, Cluj-Napoca, and Schwerin. He was a juror in many international music competitions (Prague 1950, 1955, 1970, 1976, 1979, Moscow 1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, Budapest 1963, Munich 1968). In 1974, he chaired the jury of the national conducting competition in Katowice. He last performed as a cellist in 1983 in Sopot, and as a conductor in 1986 in Wrocław. He was the president of the ZKP branch in Wrocław (1958–60), a member of the ZKP Main Board (1946–47), a member of the honorary orchestra of the FN (1961), and the president of SPAM (1970–74, from March 1974, honorary president). Wiłkomirski was honoured, among others, MKiS Award, 1^st degree (1964, 1967, 1980), State Award, 1^st degree (1990), Gold Cross of Merit (1937, 1952), Officer’s Cross (1955) and Commander’s Cross (1969) of the Order of Polonia Restituta, Order of the Banner of Labor, 1st class (1980) ). Since 1991, the Youth Cello Competition has been held in Poznań. K. Wiłkomirski.

Kazimierz Wiłkomirski, an artist of great erudition, extensive interests and extraordinary passion for action, went down in the history of 20^th century Polish music as an outstanding cellist, chamber musician, conductor, teacher, composer, writer and organiser of musical life. In addition to the classical repertoire, he introduced works by contemporary composers, including: cello concerts by J.A. Maklakiewicz (first performance Bucharest 1930) and A. Honegger (concert at the Warsaw Philharmonic under the composer’s baton, 1933), works by I. Stravinsky, S. Prokofiev, E. Morawski (Love, 1932), K. Szymanowski (Symphony No. 3, 1937). After the war, his programs included, among others: works by M. Karłowicz, L. Różycki, E. Młynarski, operas by W. Żeleński (Goplana, Wrocław 1959) and I.J. Paderewski (Manru, Wrocław 1961). He contributed to Polish chamber music as the creator and leader of the Wiłkomirski Trio, in which he performed with his brother Michał and sister Maria, and after 1945 with Maria and half-sister Wanda. Wiłkomirski’s compositional work does not go beyond the neo-romantic style, and its culmination is the Symphony Concertante and the Cantata about Saint Jacek.

Literature: J. Młodziejowski „Kantata wrocławska” Kazimierza Wiłkomirskiego, “Muzyka” 1954 No. 5/6; K. Strzelecka Życie pięknem było, Lublin 1993; K. Strzelecka Zmierzch zwiastun świtu, Lublin 1999; T. Wiłkomirska Wspomnienia, Lublin 1999, 3^rd ed. 2004; concert programme W hołdzie Kazimierzowi Wiłkomirskiemu in F. Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw 28 November 1999 (includes, among others, A. Wiłkomirska-Wojciechowska Kazimierz Wiłkomirski. Dane z życiorysu 1900–1995, fragments of reviews from 1921–1974); Gdańskie lata Kazimierza Wiłkomirskiego, ed. J. Krassowski, Gdańsk 2002.