Rieger Adam, *1 October 1909 Vítkovice (today a district of the city of Ostrava, Czech Republic), †5 May 1998 Myślenice, buried at the Rakowicki Cemetery in Kraków, Polish pianist, teacher, social activist. In 1928, he graduated from the Conservatory of the Music Society in Kraków, where he studied under W. Łabuński (piano) and Z. Dymmek (conducting). He completed his supplementary studies in Paris and Vienna under E. Steuermann and at the summer conducting course in Salzburg (1932). In 1938, he completed his studies in musicology at the Jagiellonian University under the supervision of Z. Jachimecki. In 1934–36, he was the music director of the Polish Radio Broadcasting Station in Kraków and organised the Wawel Festivals broadcast on a nationwide radio station. From 1930, he worked as a teacher at the Conservatory in Kraków (until 1936), the Institute of Music in Grodno (director in 1938–39), and the Conservatory in Vilnius (1940–41). In 1942, he returned to Kraków and worked for Professor Odo Bujwid as a “lice feeder.” He co-organised the Kraków clandestine concert life. After the war, he taught in Kraków: at the PSM (director in 1945–49), PPSM (director in 1953–57), PLM (director in 1953–60) and at the PWSM (currently the Academy of Music, 1947–92), where from 1956, he was an associate professor, and in 1962–78, head of the department and dean of the Faculty of Musical Education. He took part in the campaign to collect musical folklore at the State Institute of Art (1952) and developed a new method of indexing folk melodies in the collection of O. Kolberg, which he published in the article Zagadnienia leksykalnego indeksowania melodii (“Lud” XLII, 1957). In 1948–52, he was a member of the Musicological Commission of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1948, he became a member of the Program Commission of Music Education of the Ministry of Culture and Art. In 1949, he was the secretary of the jury of the 4th International F. Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. He collaborated with PWM from the beginning of the publishing house; he was a member of the Artistic Council and the editorial committee of the series « Pedagogiczna Biblioteka Fortepianowa ». He developed several dozen items from piano literature, also with J. Hoffman and with his wife, pianist Maria Bilińska-Riegerowa. He is the author of the translation of A. Einstein’s monograph Mozart (Krakow 1975). Thanks to the versatility of his interests, in the 1960s, he created a home Discussion Club in Krakow, whose meetings were attended by luminaries of Krakow science and culture. He spoke eight languages fluently (Latin, Greek, German, English, French, Czech, Russian and Italian). In 1931, he was a co-founder and member of the Board of the Young Musicians’ Association in Kraków, in 1945 he was a co-organiser and secretary of the Musicians’ Trade Union, and in 1959–62 and 1965–68 a member of the Main Board of SPAM. He was awarded, among others, the title of Meritorious Teacher of the Polish People’s Republic (1973), the Knight’s Cross (1964), Officer’s Cross (1975) and Commander’s Cross (1988) of the Order of Polonia Restituta. Rieger’s son, Stefan Rieger (*1951), a music critic, since 1980 a journalist for Radio France Internationale, is the author of the book G. Gould czyli sztuka fugi (Gdańsk 1997).
Literature: U. Gątkowska-Węgrzyn, St. Rieger, A. Rieger-Pratt Adam Rieger. Muzyka, pedagogika, ciekawość, Kraków 2015 [https//www.amuz.krakow.pl/wp-content/uploads/sklep/RIEGER,pdf].
