Eminent composer and longtime friend of the Polish Music Center, Marcel Chyrzyński, has had a busy academic year. Honored as the PMC’s Paderewski Lecturer in 2017, his career has been on a non-stop rise ever since. Below are just some of the honors that have been bestowed upon him in recognition of his work as an artist, citizen and cultural organizer.
On October 4, 2023, during the ceremonial inauguration of the 2023/2024 academic year at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków, Chyrzyński was awarded with the Silver Medal for Merit to Culture Gloria Artis (pictured above and below, right). It was given by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Piotr Gliński, in recognition of Chyrzyński’s musical output, artistic activity and many contributions to Polish culture.
On April 20, 2024, during the 36th Kraków International Festival of Composers—of which Maestro Chyrzyński has been the general and artistic director for 11 years—the composer was honored with the city’s “Honoris Gratia” badge (pictured above, left). The honor was bestowed by the Mayor of Kraków, Jacek Majchrowski, in recognition of Chyrzyński’s services to Kraków and its citizens. The decoration was performed by the Vice-President of the City of Kraków, Anna Korfel-Jasińska (pictured below).
On May 9, 2024, the Annual Awards of the Polish Composers’ Union (ZKP) were announced. Chyrzyński has served as President of the ZKP Kraków Branch since 2016. The 2024 ZKP Award Jury, composed of Krzysztof Baculewski (chairman), Agnieszka Draus, Monika Kędziora, Mieczysław Kominek and Jerzy Stankiewicz, named the following winners:
- Marcel Chyrzyński (composer) – for his outstanding compositional work, recognized in the music circles of Europe, Asia and both Americas; for his artistic and organizational management of the Kraków International Festival of Composers and for his many years of activity and collegial attitude in the Polish Composers’ Union.
- Katarzyna Dadak-Kozicka (musicologist) – for her many years of inspiring the musicological and compositional community to work together for Polish music in Poland and abroad, for the reconstruction of the history of the Polish Composers’ Union in the book “Defenders of the Entrusted Good”, for the renewal of the Union’s scientific journals: “Polski Rocznik Muzykologiczny” and “Musicology Today”.
- Violetta Przech (musicologist) – for her fundamental monograph on the life and work of Zbigniew Bargielski, to which she devoted many years of her work and professional life.
The annual Award of the Polish Composers’ Union has been granted since 1949—until 1991 to honor “creators and performers for their outstanding achievements in the field of music” and, since 1991, to “Polish composers, performers, musicologists, teachers and organizers of musical life for outstanding achievements.” This year’s official ZKP Award ceremony will take place on September 25, 2024 in Warsaw.
ZKP also submitted an award application to the Minister of Culture and National Heritage on behalf of Chyrzyński, which was positively received. Thus on July 12, 2024, he was granted the Minister of Culture and National Heritage Award for Creative Achievements, which is both a financial award and a diploma received by mail.