poet, pianist, percussionist, and composer; born March 9, 1968, in Skierniewice. Initially, he studied piano at the Karol Kurpiński Primary State Music School in Warsaw. He began his percussion studies at the Józef Elsner Secondary State Music School in Warsaw, and subsequently graduated with a degree in percussion from the Academy of Music in Warsaw. In 1991, he participated in an interpretation course for the music of Elliott Carter in Avignon, earning the acclaim of French percussionist Sylvio Gualda and the composer himself.

In 1992, he received the main prize and a special award for his performance of Elliott Carter's Four Compositions for Timpani at the 20th Century Music Competition for Young Performers, organized on the occasion of World Music Days by the Polish Society for Contemporary Music, making him the first percussionist laureate in the history of the competition. Following the competition, an album was released featuring the artist's performances of works including Iannis Xenakis's Psappha and Kazimierz Serocki's Fantasmagoria.

He collaborated with Andrzej Mysiński's Concerto Avenna ensemble, giving performances at the Poznań Musical Spring and the Łańcut Music Festival. He also participated in recording Joseph Haydn’s Oboe Concerto in C major (with Krzysztof Wroniszewski on oboe) and Joseph Horowitz's Jazz Harpsichord Concerto alongside harpsichordist Elżbieta Chojnacka. As a member of the Sinfonia Varsovia orchestra, he took part in recordings, concerts (including at the Berlin Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic, and in Gstaad, Switzerland), and festivals (such as in Gran Canaria, the Yehudi Menuhin Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, and the Warsaw Autumn) under the batons of conductors like Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Jan Krenz, Wojciech Michniewski, Justus Frantz, and Volker Schmidt-Gertenbach. The artist also performs as a soloist—f. eg., at the 1994 Warsaw Autumn Festival, he presented Yasuhiro Takenaka's Memory of the Universe for percussion and tape, marking its Polish premiere, and during the second edition of the Masters of 20th Century Music Festival, he performed Mauricio Kagel's Konzertstück for Timpani and Orchestra, accompanied by the Polish Radio Orchestra conducted by Bruno Ferrandis.

Cezary Maciej Dąbrowski's repertoire encompasses various musical styles, ranging from classical and contemporary music to jazz, rock, and improvised music.

In 2014, he debuted as a poet with the volume Wiersze sercem pisane ("Poems Written from the Heart"), published by the Warszawska Firma Wydawnicza; this collection contains poems written between 1983 and 2014. In September 2014, his poem entitled Miłość ("Love") was published in the "Magazyn Literacki KSIĄŻKI". This publication also featured a review of the volume Wiersze sercem pisane and an interview with the author.

In 2015, Cezary Maciej Dąbrowski released the album Zaplątany w Twoje włosy – Wiersze i miniatury fortepianowe ("Entangled in Your Hair – Poems and Piano Miniatures"), which features recitations of selected poems and piano miniatures performed by the author. The year 2015 also saw the premiere of his second volume of poetry, entitled Brudnopis ("Rough Draft"), about which editor Tomasz Zbigniew Zapert (Magazyn Literacki KSIĄŻKI 7/2015) wrote: "64 poems make up the second poetic volume by an author who burst into domestic literature a year ago with the force of a tsunami. Thematically and formally diverse, they confirm the author's extraordinary gift for rhyming...".

The artist regularly presents his poetic and musical work during his original recitals, Słowo jak muzyka ("Word Like Music").

His third poetry volume, entitled Ech, żywocie… ("Ah, Life…"), was published in June 2016 by the Oficyna Wydawnicza „Agawa”. Subsequent published books include: Wierszem i Prozą (LTW Publishing House, Łomianki 2017 / Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature, Warsaw 2017), Osobliwości (ADAM Publishing and Printing House, 2017), Dalej (LTW Publishing House, 2018), Zbiór nieaspirujący (LTW Publishing House, 2019), Skrawki życia (Volumen Publishing House, 2019), W dalszym ciągu (LTW Publishing House, 2020), the satirical volume Polityczny dzik (Osobliwości II) published by the ADAM Publishing and Printing House (2020), the poetry volume Sztafeta (LTW, 2020), Wiersze aforystyczne (ADAM Publishing and Printing House, 2021), Pieśni Polskie (A Ty ciągle o tych wierszach...) — a collection of poems and essayistic texts (LTW, 2022), and Wiersze niepoprawne (LTW, 2022). On March 30, 2023, published by the LTW Publishing House and funded through the support of his readers, the book Zimno nadchodzi was released — a poetry volume by Cezary Maciej Dąbrowski based on the paintings of the Young Poland masters. Dąbrowski's book entitled MITY was published by LTW in April 2024. On October 6, 2025, the Lublin-based Norbertinum published Niewczas, a poetry volume constituting the first part of Cezary Dąbrowski's triptych; the second part, Spinoza i inne duchy, premiered on December 22 of the same year, and the third, the poetry volume Jaźnie, on March 4, 2026. On July 1, 2026, Norbertinum published another volume of poems by Cezary Maciej Dąbrowski, entitled Poezje.

Cezary Maciej Dąbrowski became a finalist for the Father Jan Twardowski Literary Award (2017) and received an Honorable Mention for his poem Wolność ("Freedom") in the International Kościuszko Bicentenary Competition (2017) in Sydney, Australia. He has served as a juror for the Contemporary Poetry Festival at the Stanisław Staszic High School in Warsaw. He is a member of the Polish Writers' Association (Warsaw Branch).

update: Wiktoria Antończyk (2026)

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Critics on the Work of Cezary Maciej Dąbrowski

With his subsequent volumes, Cezary Maciej Dąbrowski proves the distinctness and independence of his poetry from all fashions, schools, and trends. He remains uncompromising in his work, the rhythm of which is tapped out by a Herbertian knocker, flawlessly pointing out what is white and what is black. Intermediate states are nowhere to be found here and, one would like to say, thank God—we have more than enough relativism in life. Dąbrowski is as much interested in the present, which he follows very closely, as he is in the past, with particular emphasis on national history. For him, events from decades or even centuries ago are just as important as those happening here and now; the heroes of his pieces are figures such as Witold Pilecki or Tadeusz Kościuszko, because, after all, "to write a poem about Kościuszko is like describing Poland".

Krzysztof Masłoń, Po stronie dobra, weekly "Do Rzeczy", 2020, No. 30

This is a body of work that is also important in the recent history of Polish literature, even though it is not always properly appreciated (overlooked, for example, during successive "Nike" competitions). I sense that many more readers, and future generations, will yet hear of Cezary Maciej Dąbrowski’s poetic output. He is a poet for our times, a contemporary Mr. Cogito.

Marcin Tadeusz Łukaszewski, Zimno nadeszło? Perły poezji Cezarego Macieja Dąbrowskiego, "Pisarze.pl", 2023, No. 546

Cezary M. Dąbrowski’s volume "Zimno nadchodzi" is characterized by the craftsmanship of poetic imagery, the uniqueness of stanzas and metaphors. Against the background of the author's entire body of work, this poetry book is a kind of philosophical synthesis. It shows struggles with the word, stirs sensations, evokes emotions, and touches the heartstrings. And let us not forget that the background for the volume is Young Poland painting, which still remains a living organism in mythical Polish national thinking.

Tadeusz Karabowicz, Filozoficzna autogeneza i literacka przeszłość, "Pisarze.pl", 2023, No. 535

A generational community, connecting artists who do not know each other, will not, however, fully explain the phenomenon—I use this word consciously—of Cezary Maciej Dąbrowski’s poetry, which remains an independent phenomenon and will defend itself outside and beyond generational contexts, which obviously does not mean that they are not worth invoking. Dąbrowski, as the author of Mity, remains conservative in the sense that he not only insists that poetry should delight, but he writes the kind that actually does so.

Łukasz Perzyna, Słuch absolutny. O najnowszym tomie wierszy Cezarego Macieja Dąbrowskiego “Mity”, pnp24.pl, October 9, 2024

Probably since the days of the New Wave leaders Stanisław Barańczak and Adam Zagajewski, no one in Polish poetry has been able to build subsequent levels with similar finesse, and moreover, in such a way that the resulting structures do not collapse. This obviously does not mean that Dąbrowski immediately becomes equal to them (or more precisely, to their ghosts, but that is his domain, not mine), or even that he proves to be a better poet than Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki, who is slightly older than him and was deservedly honored with the Nike Award. It is not about hierarchy here, but about literary scope.

Łukasz Perzyna, Duch Spinozy. O najnowszym tomie wierszy Cezarego Macieja Dąbrowskiego, pnp24.pl, January 27, 2026