Jan Kuma (b. 1922) – outstanding theater and television director, musician, philosopher and writer; Home Army soldier, participant in the Warsaw Uprising; husband of the poet Joanna Kulmowa, co-founder of the Warsaw Chamber Opera – has passed away on 30 August 2019.
During the Warsaw Uprising, Jan Kulma belonged to the platoon 125 of the second company of Captain Tadeusz Bartoszek "Cegielski". He took part in the battles for the Botanical Garden and the Gestapo building at Szucha Avenue. After the war, he studied at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University In Krakow. He was the artistic director at the national board of the Puppet Theatres (in the Board of Theatres, Operas and Philharmonics). He and his wife hosted many representatives of the artistic community at their house in Strumiany, and during the martial law they sheltered the "renovation team" – a group of oppositionists in hiding. Jan Kulma cooperated with Solidarity leaders (from Szczecin and other cities). He earned a living by working in churches as an organist, children's choir conductor and head of the vocal and theater group, who regularly performed also in the Vatican, at the invitation of John Paul II.
After 1989 Jan Kulma moved to Warsaw. As a director, he cooperated with theatres in various cities in Poland. He directed over 20 theater and opera plays, including Lucifer's Palace by Karol Kurpiński (Stanisław Moniuszko Opera in Poznań), Karmaniola or from Sas to Las by Stanisław Moniuszko, Charlatan by Karol Kurpiński and In medio vero omnium residet by Jerzy Maksymiuk (Warsaw Chamber Opera).