Andrzej Czajkowski

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Andrzej Czajkowski (also Andre Tchaikowsky) (November 1, 1935 in Warsaw – June 26, 1982) was a Polish composer and pianist.

Czajkowski first exhibited his talent for music at age four but only began taking lessons at age ten since as a child of Jewish heritage he had to be hidden by a Polish family for the duration of World War II (and lost both parents during the war, his mother in Treblinka)^[1]^[2]. In 1945, he began learning piano at the State Music School in Łódź under Emma Altberg. Three years later, he left for Paris where Lazar Levy took over his education.

After his return to Poland (1950), he studied at the State Music Academy in Sopot under Prof. Olga Iliwicka-Dąbrowska, and later at the State Music Academy in Warszawa under Prof. Stanisław Szpinalski. Already during his studies he began developing his concert career, displaying his showmanship through public performances of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto and astounding listeners with improvisations on any given theme. From 1951, he took composition classes with Prof. Kazimierz Sikorski.

After his success at the fifth Chopin Competition, where he won the 8th award (1955), Czajkowski left to study in Brussels under Stefan Askenase^[1]. As a result of his co-operation with the famous Polish pianist, Czajkowski took part in the Queen Elizabeth of Belgium Competition, winning third prize (1956).

In 1957, he gave a series of recitals in Paris, performing all of Ravel’s compositions for piano in honor of the twentieth anniversary of the French composer’s death. During the same time, he consulted Nadia Boulanger at Fontainbleau in matter of composition, as well as establishing contacts with Arthur Rubinstein.

Despite his success as a pianist, Andrzej Czajkowski’s greatest passion was composition. He wrote a Piano Concerto, String Quartet, a setting of Shakespeare’s Seven Sonnets for voice with piano, a Piano Trio and several compositions for piano solo. He began work on an opera, a setting of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.
He made several recordings of his work for the label EMI, including works by J. S. Bach (Goldberg Variations), Joseph Haydn (two Sonatas, Variations in F minor), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Concerto in C major, two Sonatas and minor works), Franz Schubert (waltzes, ländlers, German dances), Frédéric Chopin (15 mazurkas) as well as Gabriel Fauré (Piano Quartet in C minor).

He died of colon cancer at the age of 46^[3].

In his will he donated his skull to the theater.^[2]