Zygmunt Stojowski and Ernest Schelling in 1917

Zygmunt Denis Antoni Jordan de Stojowski (May 4, 1870November 5, 1946) was a Polish

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

Life

He was born on May 4, 1870, near the city of

Kielce Kielce (; ) is a city in south-central Poland and the capital of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. In 2021, it had 192,468 inhabitants. The city is in the middle of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (Holy Cross Mountains), on the banks of the Silnic ...

. Stojowski began his musical training with his mother, and with Polish composer Władysław Żeleński. In

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

, as a seventeen-year-old student, he made his debut as a concert pianist performing

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the local orchestra. At the age of eighteen he moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and studied piano with

Louis Diémer Louis Joseph Diémer (14 February 1843 – 21 December 1919) was a French pianist and composer. He was the founder of the Société des Instruments Anciens in the 1890s, and also gave recitals on the harpsichord. His output as a composer was exten ...

and composition with

Léo Delibes Clément Philibert Léo Delibes (; 21 February 1836 – 16 January 1891) was a French Romantic music, Romantic composer, best known for his ballets and French opera, operas. His works include the ballets ''Coppélia'' (1870) and ''Sylvia (b ...

. Two years later at the

Paris Conservatoire The Conservatoire de Paris (), or the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (; CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue Jean Ja ...

, he would win first prizes in piano performance, counterpoint and fugue. According to Stojowski, however, in a December 1901 interview that appeared in a

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

magazine, the teachers who had the most profound influence on him as a musician were the Polish violinist-composer Wladyslaw Gorski and pianist-composer

Ignacy Jan Paderewski Ignacy Jan Paderewski (;

r 1859 R, or r, is the eighteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ar'' (pronounced ), plural ''ars''. The lette ...

– 29 June 1941) was a Polish pianist, composer and statesman who was a spokesman for Polish independence. In 1919, he was the nation's Prime Minister of Poland, prime minister and foreign minister durin ...

. Stojowski's music was found worthy enough to be included in the first concert of the

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra The Warsaw Philharmonic (full Polish name: ''Orkiestra Filharmonii Narodowej w Warszawie'', "National Philharmonic Orchestra in Warsaw"), as it is legally set up, is a Polish orchestra based in Warsaw. Founded in 1901, its home is the Warsaw ...

, on 5 November 1901. His Symphony in D minor, Op. 21, which was featured in that first concert conducted by

Emil Młynarski Emil Szymon Młynarski (; 18 July 18705 April 1935) was a Polish conducting, conductor, violinist, composer, and pedagogue. Life Młynarski was born in Kibarty (Kybartai), Russian Empire, now in Lithuania. He studied violin with Leopold Auer and ...

, had won first prize (1000 rubles) in a Paderewski Music Competition in Leipzig on 9 July 1898. Besides having his symphony performed at that first prestigious concert, Stojowski appeared as a recitalist in December and again as the soloist in Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No. 4 in January 1902. In October 1905, Stojowski sailed on the SS ''Moltke'' to the USA on the invitation of

Frank Damrosch Frank Heino Damrosch (June 22, 1859 – October 22, 1937) was a German-born American music conductor and educator. In 1905, Damrosch founded the New York Institute of Musical Art, a predecessor of the Juilliard School. Life and career Damrosch ...

, founder and director of the newly formed Institute of Musical Art, to head the institute's piano department; he was recommended for the position by pianist

Harold Bauer Harold Victor Bauer (28 April 1873 – 12 March 1951) was an English-born pianist of Jewish heritage who began his musical career as a violinist. Biography Harold Bauer was born in Kingston upon Thames; his father was a German violinis ...

and cellist

Pablo Casals Pau Casals i Defilló (Catalan: ; 29 December 187622 October 1973), known in English as Pablo Casals,Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...

, where Stojowski would also teach during the summers of 1932 and 1940-46. In

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, he was acclaimed as a great composer, pianist and pedagogue, and had the distinction of being the first Polish composer to have an entire concert devoted to his music performed by the

New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic is an American symphony orchestra based in New York City. Known officially as the ''Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc.'', and globally known as the ''New York Philharmonic Orchestra'' (NYPO) or the ''New Yo ...

. After six years of teaching at the Institute of Musical Art, Stojowski then headed the piano department at the Von Ende School of Music until 1917. Finally, due to the large number of students who wished to work with him, he opened his own 'Stojowski Studios' at his four-story brownstone home at 150 West 76th Street in Manhattan. Among Stojowski's pupils were

Mischa Levitzki Mischa Levitzki (also spelled Levitski; (); May 25, 1898 – January 2, 1941) was a Russian-born U.S.-based concert pianist and composer. Levitzki was born in Kremenchuk, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire), to Jewish parents who were nat ...

Alfred Newman Alfred Newman (March 17, 1900 – February 17, 1970) was an American composer, arranger, and conductor of film music. From his start as a music prodigy, he came to be regarded as a respected figure in the history of film music. He won nine Acad ...

Antonia Brico Antonia Louisa Brico (June 26, 1902 – August 3, 1989) was a Dutch-born American conductor and pianist. Early life and education Born Antonia Louisa Brico to a Dutch Catholic unmarried mother in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Brico was renamed ...

, Alice Marion Shaw,

Arthur Loesser Arthur Adolph Loesser (August 26, 1894 – January 5, 1969) was an American classical pianist, musicologist, and writer. Early life Born into a musical family in New York City, Loesser received early piano training from his German-born father until ...

, and

Oscar Levant Oscar Levant (December 27, 1906August 14, 1972) was an American concert pianist, composer, conductor (music), conductor, author, radio game show panelist, television talk show host, comedian, and actor. He had roles in the films ''Rhapsody in Bl ...

. Here, together with his Peruvian-born wife, Luisa Morales-Macedo, the pianist-composer not only taught until the end of the 1930s, but also raised what he called his "three best compositions": his sons, Alfred (1919–2019), Henry (1921–2018), and Ignace (1923–1984). He died on November 5, 1946, in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Compositions

Recordings

*Piano Concertos 2001 b
Jonathan Plowright
fo
Hyperion Records
*Solo Pieces 2003 by

Jonathan Plowright Jonathan Plowright (born 1959) is an English classical pianist. Life and career Plowright was born in Yorkshire, England. He was educated at Stonyhurst College, in Lancashire. He was a gold medallist at the Royal Academy of Music, London, where h ...

fo
Hyperion Records

References

External links

Polish Music Centre
https://polishmusic.usc.edu/research/publications/polish-music-journal/vol5no2/life-of-zygmunt-stojowski/ *Joseph Herte
'Stojowski Life and Music'
https://www.figueroapress.com/product/zygmunt-stojowski-life-and-music/ * *
Scores by Zygmunt Stojowski
in digital library

Polona Polona is a Polish digital library, which provides digitized books, magazines, graphics, maps, music, fliers and manuscripts from collections of the National Library of Poland and co-operating institutions. It began its operation in 2006. Colle ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stojowski, Zygmunt 1870 births 1946 deaths 19th-century Polish classical composers 19th-century Polish classical pianists 19th-century Polish male musicians 20th-century Polish classical composers 20th-century Polish classical pianists 20th-century Polish male musicians Polish male classical pianists Polish emigrants to the United States Polish male classical composers Polish Romantic composers Pupils of Jules Massenet People from Staszów County Recipients of the Order of Polonia Restituta Musicians from the Russian Empire