Polish conductor, composer and an honorary member of the Polish Composers’ Union Stanisław Skrowaczewski died on February 21, 2017 in Minneapolis at the age of 93.
Born in Lviv in 1923, he began studying piano and violin at age 4 and by age 7 he had composed his first work for orchestra. After the war, he moved to Krakow, where he studied at the Academy of Music under Roman Palester (composition) and Walerian Bierdiajew (conducting). In 1947-49 he studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. In the 1940s and 50s, the artist moved through several orchestras in Poland – he conducted the Wrocław Philharmonic, the Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice (1949-54), the Krakow Philharmonic (1954-56) and in 1956 he became the permanent conductor of Warsaw's National Philharmonic Orchestra. His career began to open up internationally after he won the Santa Cecilia Competition in Rome in 1956, which led to an invitation from conductor George Szell to conduct the Cleveland Orchestra in 1958. At that time he began working abroad on regular basis.
In 1960 he moved to the US, where he accepted the position of music director of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (now known as the Minnesota Orchestra). He held that title for 19 years. Skrowaczewski served as a regular guest conductor at orchestras like the New York Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra, as principal conductor of England's Hallé Orchestra from 1984 to 1991, and as principal conductor of Japan's Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra beginning with 2007.
Awarded for his contribution to promotion and preservation of Polish culture, Stanisław Skrowaczewski performed in Poland for the last time at the National Forum of Music in Wrocław in 2016.