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composer, writer, music life organiser, b. 17th August 1907 in Przeworsk; d. 5th August 1987 in Warsaw. He completed secondary school in Cracow, where he also took music lessons from Father Bernardino Rizzi, the Italian composer-organist and choirmaster. From 1928, following Karol Szymanowski’s advice, he continued music education in École Normale de Musique in Paris with Paul Dukas and Nadia Boulanger. He took part in the activity of the Association of Young Polish Musicians in Paris, whose president he was in 1934-36. In 1936 he returned to Poland, where he was active as a composer, music critic and journalist.
He took part in World War II, first in the September 1939 campaign in Poland, then in 1940 – in France. As a soldier in the Polish army, he became prisoner-of-war in a camp, and then did compulsory work for a German farmer. After the war, he returned to Poland.
In 1946-48 and 1957-59 he was co-editor of "Ruch Muzyczny", in 1960-68: editor-in-chief of that magazine. He was also co-editor of "Res Facta", "Rocznik Chopinowski" ["Chopin Yearly"] and "Chopin Studies". In 1955 in "Przegląd Kulturalny" he published an article in which he criticised the isolation of Polish culture from the work of composers worldwide. After the intervention of the Warsaw Pact armies in Czechoslovakia, in the Parisian “Kultura”, the publishing house of dissident émigrés, he published an open letter to Czech and Polish musicians. Because of this pubication, he was persecuted by the Polish communist authorities: he was dismissed from the post of editor-in-chief in "Ruch Muzyczny", submitted to strict individual censorship and forbidden to leave the country. In 1974, he signed the letter of 15 Polish intellectuals and artists to the communist authorities in Poland, demanding access to Polish culture and independent education for Poles resident in the Soviet Union (more than half of Poland’s pre-war territory now belonged to the USSR). In 1975, he signed a memorial letter of 59 intellectuals to the communist authorities concerning the plan for changes in the constitution. In 1978 he was a founder of the illegal student organisation - Academic Education Society.
In 1947-48 and 1952-54, Zygmunt Mycielski was vice-president, and in 1948-49 - president of the Management Board of the Polish Composers’ Union; in 1985-87 – member of the board. In 1954-57 and 1960-83, he was also a member of PCU’s Member Qualification Committee, from 1983 – honorary member of the Polish Composers’ Union.
Winner of numerous awards: in 1952, he received State Award, 3rd Class for Symphony No. 1 “Polish Symphony” (1951); twice (in 1954 and 1987) – the Award of the Polish Composers’ Union; in 1955 – Minister of Culture and Art Award for Silesian Overture for orchestra and two pianos (1948); in 1961 – special award in the Concours Musical Prince Rainier III de Monaco for Symphony No. 2 (1961); in 1981 - Minister of Culture and Art Award, 1st Class. He was also decorated with the Cavalier’s (1953) and Commander’s Crosses of the Polonia Restituta Order, The Order of the Banner of Labour (1955) and Ordre de mérite culturel in Monaco.
Zygmunt Mycielski was buried in Wiśniowa on the Wisłok River, where in 1988 Andrzej Szypuła initiated the Zygmunt Mycielski Society. Since 1990, the Society has published the periodical "Kamerton" which documents and propagates the composer’s life and work. In 1990, the Polish Television produced a film entitled Zygmunt Mycielski. Szkic do portretu [Zygmunt Mycielski. Sketches for a Portrait].
Zygmunt Mycielski bequeathed his oeuvre to Barbara Zwolska-Stęszewska and Jan Stęszewski in Warsaw. Their archive contains, among others, drafts, manuscript autograph versions and published scores of compositions, Mycielski’s musical and literary writings, as well as his extensive correspondence and his unique diaries, published as Dziennik 1950-1959 [Diary 1950-1959] (Iskry, Warsaw 1999) and Niby dziennik [Mock Diary] (Iskry, Warsaw 1998).

Please visit our new website launched in 2022, dedicated to Zygmunt Mycielski: mycielski.polmic.pl.

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