Winners in the Tadeusz Baird Competition for Young Composers have been announced by the 2014 jury, which consisted of Krzysztof Knittel – chairman, Marek Chołoniewski – secretary, Klaudiusz Baran and Paweł Mykietyn – members. Organized by the Polish Composers’ Union (ZKP), the instrumentation for this year’s submissions was cello and accordion. The 2014 laureates are:
- Grand Prize (shared ex-aequo): Paweł Kwapiński for the piece Przestrzenie akustyczne [Accourstic Spaces] & Tomasz Szczepanik for the piece Gangkhar II
- Distinction: Marek Grucka
These winning compositions plus the other two that made it to the final round of the Competition were performed on June 9 at the Mazowieckie Center for Culture and Art in Warsaw by the TWOgether Duo—Magdalena Bojanowicz, cello and Maciej Frąckiewicz, accordion—with Tadeusz Sudnik providing sound projection.
The Tadeusz Baird Competition for Young Composers (formerly the Youth Competition of Polish Composers’ Union) has been organized annually since 1958. Its aim is to help young Polish composers launch their careers and to encourage their independent activity. Until 1990, the Competition rules stated that its subject was any piece lasting more than 5 minutes. The participants obtained a 3-month scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and Art for work on this composition. The 1st prize was a scholarship in a Western country, the 2nd prize—participation in a music festival in some country of the Eastern block, the distinction—housing and participation in the “Warsaw Autumn” Festival in Warsaw. After 1990, the Ministry ceased to grant artistic scholarships. Since then, the main prize—the Tadeusz Baird Award of 2500 PLN for further compositional study—has been funded by Alina Sawicka-Baird, wife of the late composer. The distinctions are financed by Polish Composers’ Union Management Board.
Since 1990, the Tadeusz Baird Competition is open to all Polish composers who are under 35 until the closing date (earlier, it was reserved only for graduates from state higher schools of music composition classes). The subject of the competition is now different in each year. Since 2003 the competition has been carried out in two stages, with the pieces chosen by the Jury for the second round performed during a public concert, after which ultimate verdict is declared.
[Sources: polmic.pl, zkp.org.pl, zaiks.org.pl]