Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969): a composer with an individual, expressive style, an excellent violinist, a very fine pianist, and a talented author. At the Conservatory in Warsaw she studied composition with Kazimierz Sikorski, her violin tutor was Józef Jarzębski and her piano professor was Józef Turczynski. Graduating in 1932, she travelled to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger, later returning there to work with Carl Flesch. Her compositional output covered many genres, from ballets to songs and choral works, but also ranging from symphonies, concerti, and chamber works to pieces for solo piano. In 1936 she became principal violinist in the Polish Radio Orchestra. She then toured Europe as a soloist in the two years leading up to World War II, later resuming her career as a concert violinist and pianist after the war. For many years, Grażyna Bacewicz held the post of Vice-President of the Union of Polish Composers. She also served as a judge in many prestigious international music competitions. Strong and sensitive, and exceptionally family oriented, Grażyna Bacewicz was also blessed with unusual charm, phenomenal energy and huge creative potential.

Grażyna Bacewicz became world famous and won numerous prizes for her compositions, which were regularly performed by the best musicians, and picked up for publication. She received enthusiastic reviews from music critics, among them Stefan Kisielewski, who noted the ‘passionate ferocity’ of her playing and described her concerto for string orchestra as ‘a rare piece of healthy and tasty music’.

This biographical story, based in large measure on letters and other family documents, has been brought to us first hand by the composer’s grand-daughter, the writer Joanna Sendłak.

Joanna Sendlak

Joanna Sendłak is the grand-daughter of Grażyna Bacewicz. She was born and studied in Warsaw - first painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, then philosophy at the University. She has exhibited paintings in Warsaw galleries, published stories in literary magazines and is the author of a number of novels, most recently The Dreamer of 76th Street (Nowy Świat, 2016), With fire - love Grażyna Bacewicz on the eve of war (Skarpa Warszawska, 2018) and Symphony of stars (Skarpa Warszawska, 2019). Two volumes of her short stories were published by Fundacja Światło Literatury in 2019: Atotsi and Labirynt.

Halina Maria Boniszewska was born in the UK to Polish parents. She studied at the universities of London, Oxford and Warwick and has been an editor most of her life. She has translated (from Polish into English) Komeda: A Private Life in Jazz by Magdalena Grzebałkowska (Equinox, 2020), and Desperado: An Autobiography by Tomasz Stańko as told to Rafał Księżyk (Equinox, 2022). She has also translated a chapter from Ewa Winnicka's Angole which has appeared in A Tale of Two Londons: Stories from a Fractured City, ed. Claire Armitstead, (OR Books) and Krystian Brodacki's chapter on Polish Jazz in History of European Jazz (Equinox, 2018).

Halina Maria Boniszewska