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BARBARA CHMARA-ŻACZKIEWICZ
Jarecki, Tadeusz
(b Lwów, 1 Jan 1889; dNew York, 2 May 1955). Polish-American composer and conductor. A son of Henryk Jarecki, who was a pupil of Moniuszko, he took his first music lessons with his father and then studied composition with Niewiadomski in Lwów. He was a pupil of Taneyev in Moscow and of Jaques-Dalcroze in Hellerau (1912–13) where he remained for some time as a teacher. Besides composition he also studied the piano and conducting. In 1917 he went to the USA and in 1918 won first prize at the Berkshire Festival for his String Quartet op.16. After returning to Poland for two years (1918–20) he settled in New York, conducting the orchestra of the NBC before joining the Chamber Ensemble as their director. In 1929 he became general secretary of the Committee to Foster Friendly Relations between the Arts in Poland and America. From 1932 to 1936, his last years in Poland, he directed the Stanisławów Musical Society and conducted the Lwów SO. During World War II he was in Paris and London, where he formed the association Polish Musicians of London, which he directed until 1943. He went back to New York in 1946 to continue his conducting and composing and to lecture at Columbia University. Jarecki's creative work, which has its roots in the music of Wagner and Richard Strauss, gradually evolved in the direction of a more sublimated sound. His early works are characterized by wide melodic sweeps, but in later works this type of melody gives way to more colouristic effects. In some of his pieces Jarecki makes use of Polish elements stemming from folklore (Symphony no.4), or motifs from the medieval Polish song Bogurodzica (Symphony no.5). Jarecki's works were performed mostly in Poland and the USA, but also in Paris. His most frequently performed works include: Chimere, his only symphonic work to be published; the String Quartet op.16; and Trzy pieśni (op.5), a cycle for solo voice with orchestra on texts by Polish poets. Most of his works were not published. The manuscripts are in the USA. EMuz (W. Berny-Negrey)