Paweł Łukaszewski

born in 1968 in Częstochowa, he graduated from the Frederick Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, where he studied both the cello (with Andrzej Wróbel, diploma in 1992) and composition (with Marian Borkowski, diploma in 1995). He furthered his education by taking various postgraduate courses, not only in the field of music. In 1994 he finished the School of Arts Management at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Two years later he graduated from the postgraduate course in choral music organized by the Music Academy in Bydgoszcz. He also participated in a course in computer music in Warsaw (1992), in the Courses for Young Composers in Kazimierz Dolny (1992 and 1993), and in the Contemporary Music Summer Course in Kraków, under the supervision of Bogusław Schaeffer (1993).
Since 1996 he has pursued a teaching career at the Music Academy in Warsaw. He gained his Ph.D. in composition in 2000 and two years later became Head of Counterpoint at the Department of Composition. In 2003 he worked as a Visiting Professor in Chile.
He has received numerous grants, including those from the Częstochowa Town Council (1991–92), the Professor Bohdan Suchodolski Foundation (1995), the zaiks Authors’ and Composers’ Association (1996) and the Arts Promotion Fund of the Ministry of Culture (1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001).
His honours include First Prize at the Composers’ Competition in Łomża (1988), First Prize at the Warsaw Music Academy Compe-tition (1994), Second Prize at the 2nd Young Composers’ Forum in Kraków (1994), Second Prize at the Adam Didur Competition in Sanok (1996), and Second Prize at the 27th International ‘Florilege Vocal de Tours’ Competition in France (1998), He has received the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1998) and the award of the Mayor of Częstochowa for outstanding compositional achievements.
His works have been performed at over one hundred festivals in Poland and abroad, including Italy, the Vatican, the Czech Republic, Britain, Germany, Belgium, Belarus, Denmark, France, Spain, Iceland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, Monaco, Russia, Switzerland, the United States, Israel, Canada, Chile, China and South Korea. His discography includes over 30 cds (Acte Préalable, Polskie Nagrania, dux, mtj), one of which (String Quartet No. 1, performed by dafO String Quartet, dux 0142) received the ‘Fryderyk’ Award of the Polish Phonographic Academy and six others were nominated for this award.
In 1992–93 Paweł Łukaszewski was a secretary of the Youth Circle of the Polish Composers’ Union. He served as Chairman of the Association of the Lovers of Sacred Music (1992–2002). He is Chairman of the ‘Musica Sacra’ Association (since 2000) and the secretary of the Board of the ‘Laboratory of Contemporary Music’ Association (since 1995). He is
a member of the artistic council of the ‘Gaude Mater’ International Festival of Sacred Music in Częstochowa. He sits on the jury of the ‘Musica Sacra’ Young Composers’ Competition, which he initiated. He is also the director of the ‘Musica Sacra’ Choir.

Selected works: Two Preludes for piano (1989/1992), In my Homeland, two songs for male voice and piano (1989/2000), Litany to the Madonna of Treblinka for mezzo-soprano, two trumpets, bells, mixed choir and organ (1990), Capriccio for p. p. for solo violin (1991), Quasi Sonata for clarinet and piano (1991), One Week in London for tape (1992), Le jeu de l’amour et du hasard for tape, incidental music to Pierre de Marivaux’s play (1992), Three Songs for mezzo-soprano and piano (1992), Arrampicata for orchestra (1992), Ave for two a cappella mixed choirs (1992/2003), Aragena for soprano, cello and transformations (1993), Winterreise for string orchestra (1993), Eight Songs for Children for voice and piano (1993), The Dusk for tape (1993), String Quartet No. 1 (1994), Stabat Mater for three a cappella female choirs (1994), Dominum benedicite in aeternum for mixed choir, brass, and percussion (1994), Two Motets for Lent for a cappella mixed choir (1995), Vesperae pro defunctis for Gregorian choir, two mixed choirs, small and great organ and orchestra (1995), Concerto for Organ and String Orchestra (1996), Recordationes de Christo moriendo for mezzo-soprano and chamber orchestra (1996), Beatus vir, cycle of works for a cappella mixed choir (1996–2003), Gaudium et Spes for soprano, mixed choir and orchestra (1997), Concerto for String Orchestra (1997), Missa pro Patria for soprano, mezzo-soprano, mixed choir with soloists, percussion and wind orchestra (1997), Antiphonae, cycle for a cappella mixed choir (1995–1999), Souvenir I for organ (1999), Souvenir II for piano (1999), Jesu Christi prostrationes for a cappella mixed choir (1999), Via Crucis for baritone, tenor, countertenor, reciter, mixed choir and orchestra (2000), Two Motets for Christmas for a cappella female choir (2000), String Quartet No. 2 (2000), Litany to St Clement for soprano, mixed choir and string orchestra (2001–02), Three Orthodox Prayers for a cappella mixed choir (2001–03), Elogium – to those murdered in Katyń for baritone, cello, bells and string orchestra (2002), Stadium for piano (2002), Haiku, four songs for soprano and piano (2002), Homagge ą Edith Stein for a cappella mixed choir (2002), Psalmus 102 for a cappella mixed choir (2002–03), Gloria Gentis for a cappella female choir (2003), Moai for solo flute (2003), Litany to the Martyrs of Międzyrzec for soprano, violin, mixed choir and string orchestra (2003), Exsultet for soprano, mezzo-soprano, female choir and orchestra (2003), String Quartet No. 3 (2004), Sinfonietta for string orchestra (2004), Salvete flores Martyrum for two female choirs, two pianos and percussion (2004).

String Quartet No. 2 was written in 2000 and is dedicated to Jan
A. Jarnicki and was premiered by the Jagiellonian Quartet. Even though it was composed six years after my first quartet, the basic concept of the two works is similar. Written in the nota contra notam technique, the piece is a study in certain rhythmic events. They occur both in the outer (fast) movements, which undoubtedly constitute
a challenge for performers, and in the middle movement whose musical material is confined to a single four-pitch chord. The work, recently published by pwm Edition, was given an excellent interpretation by the Royal String Quartet at the 10th International Festival ‘Laboratory of Contemporary Music’ in Warsaw (2003).