Composer and pianist born on 17 July 1932 in Lviv. Kilar attended the State College of Music (currently the Music Academy) in Katowice, where he studied piano performance and composition under Boleslaw Woytowicz. He graduated with top honors and was awarded his diploma in 1955. Between 1955 and 1958 he was a post-graduate student under Woytowicz at Krakow's State College of Music (currently the Music Academy). In 1957 he participated in the International New Music Summer Course in Darmstadt. Kilar expanded on his musical education in Paris in 1959-60, when a scholarship from the French government allowed him to study composition under Nadia Boulanger. In 1977 he was one of the founding members of the Karol Szymanowski Society, based in the mountain town of Zakopane.
Kilar chaired the Katowice chapter of the Association of Polish Composers for many years and from 1979-81 was vice chair of this association's national board. He was also a member of the Repertoire Committee for the "WARSAW AUTUMN" INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC. In 1991 Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Zanussi made a biographical film about the composer titled WOJCIECH KILAR.
Wojciech Kilar has received numerous awards for his artistic activity and achievements, including prizes from the Lili Boulanger Foundation in Boston (1960), the Minister of Culture and Art (1967, 1975), the Association of Polish Composers (1975), the Katowice province (1971, 1976, 1980), and the city of Katowice (1975, 1992). He has also been awarded the First Class Award of Merit of the Polish Republic (1980), the Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation Prize in New York (1984), the "Solidarity" Independent Trade Union Cultural Committee Arts Award (1989), the Wojciech Korfanty Prize (1995), the "Lux ex Silesia" Prize bestowed by the Archbishop and Metropolitan of Katowice (1995), and the Sonderpreis des Kulturpreis Schlesien des Landes Niedersachsen (1996). Kilar's film scores have also won him many honors. He received the best score award for the music to ZIEMIA OBIECANA / THE PROMISED LAND (dir. Andrzej Wajda) at the FESTIVAL OF POLISH FILMS in Gdansk in 1975. This was followed by the Prix Louis Delluc, which Kilar was awarded in 1980 for the music to an animated film titled LE ROI ET L'OISEAU / THE KING AND THE MOCKINGBIRD, (dir. Paul Grimault). One year later he collected an award at the Cork International Film Festival for the music to PAPIEZ JAN PAWEL II / POPE JOHN PAUL II / DA UN PAESE LONTANO: PAPA GIOVANNI PAULO II (dir. Krzysztof Zanussi). Perhaps his greatest success came with his score to Francis Ford Coppola's DRACULA, for which Kilar received the ASCAP Award 1992 from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Producers in Los Angeles and the prize for best score in a horror film in San Francisco in 1992. The Polish State Cinema Committee honored Kilar with a lifetime achievement award in 1991, while in 1976 he was decorated with the Cavaliers' Cross of the Order of the Restitution of Poland.
Until 1974, when he composed the symphonic poem KRZESANY, possibly his most famous work, Kilar was viewed as a leader of the Polish musical vanguard. His achievements included RIFF 62 (1962), a composition that was ultra-modern in both sound and form and a work became a symbol of rebellion against tradition, a manifesto of progress. Kilar's timing with RIFF 62 was excellent and the piece brought him success at the "WARSAW AUTUMN" FESTIVAL when the Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra under Karol Stryja offered several encores, something that was unheard of in contemporary music. Kilar repeated this success with his subsequent two compositions - GENERIQUE (1963) and DIPHTONGOS (1964). Then came a fascination for a different avant-garde - minimal music, as a result of which he produced two works: UPSTAIRS-DOWNSTAIRS (1971) and PRELUDE AND CAROL (1972).
Kilar was quoted as saying that he believed he had discovered the philosopher's stone, and that "there was nothing more beautiful than the solitary sound or concord that lasted eternally, that this was the deepest wisdom, nothing like our tricks with sonata allegros, fugues, and harmonics." In his twelve-minute composition UPSTAIRS-DOWNSTAIRS, we hear two sounds, uninterrupted, from the very beginning to the very end of the piece.
The perspective that comes with time shows us that KRZESANY was a logical consequence of this minimalist chapter in Kilar's life: it is in itself a type of minimal music in reverse. However, KRZESANY caused a shock when first performed a quarter century ago. It proved exceedingly popular among rank-and-file music lovers, while professionals viewed it as something false. In spite of this the work gained popularity over time and continues to be performed and to draw significant audiences.
Kilar was unwilling to give audiences and critics a rest and two years after KRZESANY wrote another piece inspired by the mountains. Titled KOSCIELEC 1909 (1976), the work was dedicated to Mieczyslaw Karlowicz, a renowned composer who perished in an avalanche on the slopes of Mount Koscielec in 1909, at the relatively young age of 33 years. This was followed by SIWA MGLA / GREY MIST, for baritone and orchestra (1979), and ORAWA, for chamber ensemble (1986).
Kilar remains faithful to the style he defined for himself in these works to this day. Having abandoned avant-garde technical means almost entirely, he continues to employ a simplified musical language, in which sizeable masses of sound serve as a backdrop for highlighted melodies that are often emotionally potent. This occurs in those compositions that reference folk music (especially Polish Highlander folk melodies) and in patriotic and religious pieces that reflect the composer's deep religious faith and devotion to his country. The building blocks for Kilar's film music are similar, and this specialization has helped the composer gain far-reaching fame throughout the world. Although it was his cooperation with Francis Ford Coppola on DRACULA (1992) that consolidated the composer's position in the film world, it seems that the films of Krzysztof Zanussi have inspired Kilar to the highest levels artistic achievement.
