Witold Lutos艂awski was born in Poland in 1913. He studied piano starting at the age of six and received private lessons in theory and composition. He studied mathematics from 1931 to 1933 at the University of Warsaw. In 1933, he discontinued his mathematics studies to concentrate on the piano and composition.
During the Second World War, Lutos艂awski spent the occupation period in Warsaw earning a living playing piano in the caf茅s. Immediately after the War, he was elected as secretary and treasurer of the newly constituted Union of Polish Composers. His Concerto for Orchestra, performed in 1954, established him as an important composer of art music.
Lutos艂awski鈥檚 stature as a composer of international renown grew in the late 1960s and developed over the next decade. In 1985, he was awarded the first Grawemeyer Prize from the University of Louisville, Kentucky, which came with a $150,000 cash prize. In 1987, he was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society's Gold Medal, and in 1994 he was awarded Poland's highest honour, the Order of the White Eagle.
He delivered the Beatty Lecture on October 29, 1993, titled 鈥淎bout the Element of Chance in Music鈥�.
Image: Witold Lutoslawski Society, photographer Jan Styczy艅ski
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