musicologists (B)

musicologist as well as aphorist, essayist and prose writer; b. 5th June 1946 in Wrocław. In 1964–66 he studied law at the University of Wrocław, and in 1966–71 musicology at the Faculty of History of the University of Warsaw, where in 1972 he defended his master's thesis under the supervision of Zofia Lissa. As part of the State Committee for Scientific Research grant he conducted a project on the Polish cadence in Fryderyk Chopin’s music under the supervison of Mieczysław Tomaszewski and based on it he defended his doctoral dissertation at the Academy of Music in Kraków in 2008.

In 1972 he cooperated with the Polish Radio Experimental Studio in Warsaw, and at the end of the year he started working at the PWM Edition in Kraków and at the same time he started studies at the Higher Vocational School of Music Editing at the Kraków State Higher School of Music in Krakow (diploma in 1978). In the years 1974-2002 he was employed at th Polish Scientific Publishers in Warsaw (PWN), where he ran music department in universal encyclopedias (since 2002 he has again collaborated with PWN). He also served as an organist in Warsaw’s churches. In the years 2008-2012 he ran the sections of history and theory of music, book reviews, and editorial column in the biweekly "Ruch Muzyczny".

In 1979 he became a member of the Polish Composers' Union. He was a member of the Peer Court (from 2005) and served on the Board of the Musicologists Section as: deputy member (1991–93), vice president (1995–97) and treasurer (2001–03). He was also (from 1975) a member of the Polish Book Publishers’ Association and a branch of NSZZ "Solidarność" at PWN (since its inception). In 1998, he founded the Literary Quartet with the poets Marek Czuku, Tadeusz Lira-Śliwa and Janusz Mrzigód.

He participated in several dozen national and international musicological conferences, and co-organized several of them, including “Polish music during the partitions” (Warsaw 1997), “Around the category of nationality, multiculturalism and universalism in Polish music” (Warsaw-Podkowa Leśna 2002). He published dissertations and articles in, among others, “Muzyka” quarterly, publications of the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and scientific journals of music academies in Kraków, Gdańsk, Wrocław and Warsaw. He wrote or edited about 10,000 musical entries and articles for PWN universal and multimedia encyclopedias (including biographies of numerous members of the Polish Composers' Union). He also publishes essays, correspondence, columns and music reviews in the following magazines: “Dysonanse”, “Nowe Państwo”, “Opcje”, “Ruch Muzyczny”, “Solidarność”, “Sycyna”, “Twórczość”, “Tygiel Kultury” and others. In the years 1991–92 he wrote columns for the Polish Radio Channel 2. At the same time, he published his own aphorisms in magazines (“Politechnik”, where he debuted in 1968, “Pomorze”, “Arkana”, “Wybrzeża”, “Tysol” – a supplement to “Tygodnik Solidarność”, where in 1998–99 he wrote for the column “Trzy po Trzy”), and anthologies: 1001 aforyzmów polskich II (1997), Aforyzmy polskie (2001), Kuchnia polityczna (2001), Księga aforystyki polskiej XXI wieku (2002), Prawdziwki aforystyczne (2004), Księga aforyzmów (2005), and others. He runs his own columns with aphorisms: Z głowy... Krzysztofa Bilicy in “Przekrój” (since 2002), Powiem wprost i kulturalnie in “Wprost i Kultura” (WIK), a supplement to “Wprost” (since 2005). He also publishes other small literary forms, including in “Magazyn Literacki”, “Tygiel Kultury”, and “Przekrój”.

As a well-known critic, essayist and prose writer, he has received numerous awards, including the Witold Hulewicz Award “for outstanding achievements in the field of chopinology and musical lexicography” (2012), and the MEAKULTURA Foundation Award “for outstanding achievements in the field of music criticism” (2016).

updated: 2020 (ac)