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

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 pianist

Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

 and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

.

Life

Born near the city of Kielce

Kielce

Kielce ) is a city in central Poland with 204,891 inhabitants . It is also the capital city of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship since 1999, previously in Kielce Voivodeship...

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

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

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

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

's Piano Concerto No. 3

Piano Concerto No. 3 (Beethoven)

The Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37, was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1800 and was first performed on 5 April 1803, with the composer as soloist. During that same performance, the Second Symphony and the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives were also debuted. The composition...

 with the local orchestra.

At the age of eighteen he moved to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 and studied piano with Louis Diemer

Louis Diémer

Louis-Joseph Diémer was a French pianist and composer.- Life :Diémer studied at the Paris Conservatoire, winning premiers prix in piano, harmony and accompaniment, counterpoint and fugue, and solfège, and a second prix in organ...

 and composition with Léo Delibes

Léo Delibes

Clément Philibert Léo Delibes was a French composer of ballets, operas, and other works for the stage...

. Two years later at the Paris Conservatoire, 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

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

 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

Ignacy Jan Paderewski GBE was a Polish pianist, composer, diplomat, politician, and the second Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland.-Biography:...

.

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

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra

The Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra , one of Poland's premier musical institutions, was established in 1901 on the initiative of an assembly of Polish aristocrats and financiers, as well as musicians...

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

Emil Mlynarski

Emil Szymon Młynarski was a Polish conductor, violinist, composer, and pedagogue.-Life:Młynarski was born in Kibarty , Russian Empire, now in Lithuania. He studied violin with Leopold Auer, and composition with Anatoly Lyadov and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov...

, 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

Camille Saint-Saëns

Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...

' Piano Concerto No. 4

Piano Concerto No. 4 (Saint-Saëns)

Piano Concerto No. 4 in C minor , Op. 44 by Camille Saint-Saëns, is the composer's most structurally innovative piano concerto. It follows the typical concerto format of three movements, but the central Andante section is usually attached seamlessly to the preceding Allegro moderato. In fact, the...

 in January 1902.

In October 1905, Stojowski sailed on the SS Moltke to the USA on the invitation of Frank Damrosch

Frank Damrosch

Frank Heino Damrosch was a German-born American music conductor and educator.-Biography:He was born on June 22, 1859 in Breslau, and came to the United States with his father, Leopold Damrosch, and brother, Walter Damrosch in 1871. He had studied music in Germany under Dionys Pruckner. He studied...

, 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 Bauer

Harold Bauer was a noted pianist who began his musical career as a violinist.Harold Bauer was born in London; his father was a German violinist and his mother was English. He took up the study of the violin under the direction of his father and Adolf Pollitzer. He made his debut as a violinist in...

 and cellist Pablo Casals

Pablo Casals

Pau Casals i Defilló , known during his professional career as Pablo Casals, was a Spanish Catalan cellist and conductor. He is generally regarded as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest cellists of all time...

. New York became his home for the rest of his life.

The institute would later merge in 1924 with the Juilliard Graduate School to form the Juilliard School of Music, where Stojowski would also teach during the summers of 1932 and 1940-46. In New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, 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

New York Philharmonic

The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...

.

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

Mischa Levitzki was a Russian-born American concert pianist.Levitzki was born in Kremenchuk, Ukraine , to Jewish parents who were naturalised American citizens on a return trip to Ukraine...

, Alfred Newman

Alfred Newman

Alfred Newman was an American composer, arranger, and conductor of music for films.In a career which spanned over forty years, Newman composed music for over two hundred films. He was one of the most respected film score composers of his time, and is today regarded as one of the greatest...

, Antonia Brico

Antonia Brico

Antonia Brico was a conductor and pianist.Brico was born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. She and her foster parents immigrated to the United States in 1908 and settled in California. On leaving high school in Oakland in 1919 she was already an accomplished pianist and had experience in conducting...

, Arthur Loesser

Arthur Loesser

Arthur Loesser was an American classical pianist and writer.Born into a musical family, Loesser received early training from his father until he began lessons with Sigismund Stojowski at the Institute of Musical Art, now called the Juilliard School.Loesser was the author of the books Humor in...

, and Oscar Levant

Oscar Levant

Oscar Levant was an American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor. He was more famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and in movies and television, than for his music.-Life and career:...

.

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), Henry (1921) and Ignace (1923–1984).

External links