persons' index (S)

composer, pianist and conductor; b. 30th July 1966 in Wroclaw. He took his first piano lessons from Selima Morska-Wełmińska. In 1987 he graduated from the State Secondary Music School in Toruń, where he studied with Barbara Muchenberg. He studied at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, first at the Faculty of Choral Conducting and Music Education, and then at the Department of Composition and Music Theory. In 2005 he earned a doctorate in musical arts in conducting and in 2012 he obtained his postdoctoral degree. Since 2013 he has been an associate professor at the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz.

He developed his compositional skills under the supervision of Karlheinz Stockhausem and during master classes of Interpretation and Composition Courses in Kuerten, Germany (1998-2002), and the 4th International Course for Composers in Gdańsk with Alain Savouret, Elżbieta Sikora and Ewa Synowiec (2000).

In 1985 Piotr Salaber won the Student Song Festival in Kraków, and a year later he participated in the National Festival of Polish Song in Opole. He is the author of music to several hundred songs, nearly a hundred theatre performances, radio and television programmes, films and tv series. He prepared numerous reportages, including from Indonesia, Singapore, Madagascar, Kenya, Tanzania, Seychelles, Egypt, Comoros, Mauritius, the United States and Mexico, which were published in the pages of "Ilustrowany Kurier Polski" and broadcast in original radio programmes on Polish Radio in Bydgoszcz. Performances with his music have been staged in theaters in Poland (Atheneum, TR Warszawa), Russia (Bolshoi Drama Theater in Saint Petersburg, Moscow Sovremennik Theatre), France (Atelier-Théâtre in Paris), Canada (Popular Theatre in Vancouver), Hungary (Csokonai Theater in Debrecen, Nemzeti Színház in Budapest) and Taiwan (Puppet and It’s Double Theater).

From 1994 to 2001 he worked as the musical director of the Polish Theatre in Bydgoszcz. He collaborates with TVP1, TV Polonia, TV Polsat, Polish Radio Channel 2 and 3 and drama theatres in Poland. In 2000-2002 he was performing as a pianist with his own orchestra “Salaber Band” on "Na Każdy Temat" TV show in TV POLSAT. In 2004 the “Joker” TV programme co-created by Salaber was awarded with the Blue Hat Award as the "funniest Polish talk show" at the Festival of the Good Humor in Gdańsk. His music for "Karamazov Brothers′" was awarded as "The best music of 2006/2007" by the "Theater" magazine. His music to Witold Gombrowicz’s Operetta, directed by Andrzej Bubień and performed by the National Theatre of Budapest and Óbudai Danubia Zenekar, won the Grand Prix at the 11th International Gombrowicz Festival in Radom (2014).

As a pianist and conductor, he have been performing in Poland and abroad, including in Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, USA and Canada. He collaborated, among others, with Markus Stockhausen – son of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Since 1997 he has conducted many concerts with the Pomeranian, Kielce, Wrocław, Kalisz, Zamość and Łomża Philharmonic Orchestras. In 1997 he published his first CD Lokomotywa with music for children. He conducts recordings of his theatre and film music.

Since 2006 he has been giving lectures on film music at the Institute of Audiovisual Arts at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, and since 2010 at the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. In 2016 he was a guest lecturer at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Currently, he is the dean of the Faculty of Conducting, Jazz and Music Education at the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz (term of office 2020-2024).

Piotr Salaber has received many awards and distinctions for his artistic work. In 1997 he received the Bydgoszcz Voivode Award for significant artistic achievements, in 1998 the Bydgoszcz Cultural Informant Award, and in 2001 he was honored with the title of the "Bydgoszcz Citizen of the Year". For his activities for the disabled, he received the "Golden Heart" from the “Power of Life” Foundation (2003) and the "Amicus Foundation" title from the Pro Omnibus Foundation (2006). In 2017 he received the Amadeus Prize of the Polish Radio Theatre and the Honorary Pearl of “Polish Market” in the field of Culture.

Since 1997 he has been a member of the ZAIKS Authors’ Association, and since 2003 a member of the SWAP Association of Performers of Music and Music with Lyrics.

updated: 2020 (ac)

Artist's website: www.salaber.com.pl

works

Salaber's compositional work is focused on two types of music: theatre music (up to several dozen theatre performances) and pieces for children (over 100 songs, musical). Other compositions (about 10), of an occasional nature, are intended for choirs, vocalists, electronic media, orchestra. Characteristic for this work is the combination of sounds of traditional instruments (including folk instruments from different regions of the world) with electronic sounds. The problem of spatiality of sound and the principles of perception in building and shaping tensions are also of great importance for the composer.

Anna Nowak, Katarzyna Kliczewska
"Polish Composers 1918-2000", ed. Marek Podhajski

kompozycje