Marek Stachowski

(1936, Piekary Śląskie, Poland – 2004, Kraków, Poland)

Marek Stachowski was a Polish composer and educator. He began his musical studies in 1952 at the State Music School in Kraków, where he studied piano with Stanisław Czerny. From 1963 to 1968, he attended Krzysztof Penderecki's composition class at the State Higher School of Music in Kraków. From 1967, he began teaching in the composition class at the Academy of Music in Kraków, later attaining the rank of professor and serving as rector. During the 1970s and 1980s, he taught composition courses at Yale University and gave composition lectures in Durham and Jerusalem. In his later years, he also taught at various universities in South Korea. Alongside his educational activities, he served as a juror for numerous composition and performance competitions.

Stachowski's compositions received numerous awards in various Polish and international competitions. He won prizes at competitions such as the Gaudeamus Foundation International Competition (1968) and the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers (1974, 1979, 1990), and was awarded the Second Degree Prize of the Minister of Culture and Art (1984). Furthermore, in recognition of his contributions to the development of Polish culture, he received prestigious state awards from the Polish government (Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, and the Gold Medal 'For Merit to National Defence' from the Minister of National Defence).

Among Marek Stachowski's compositions, some show inspiration from the works of Krzysztof Penderecki. An example is the connection between his Musica per quartetto d’Archi (1965) and Penderecki's Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima. While Stachowski's early works generally maintained a neoclassical style, his mature compositions were dominated by sonorism and avant-garde techniques. Some of Stachowski's works skillfully combine contemporary sound effects such as clusters and noise with traditional functional harmony.