We are very saddened to hear about Ludwik Erhardt’s, our Union friend, death. He passed away on the 12th of March 2022 at the age of 87 in his home in Lower Silesia.
Since 1965 he has been a Polish Composers’ Union member, in the years 1987–1989 as vice president.
In 1985 he was granted the Union’s annual award – the highest distinction, in 2007 Silver Medal Gloria Artis. He was an author of ’50 years of Polish Composers’ Union’ book gathering information on fundamental activities of the Union in the years 1945-1995.
He will be remembered formostly as the chief editor of the most important Polish classical music magazine ‘Ruch Muzyczny’. Associated with it for 50 years, 40 worked as its chief editor. By collecting columns from ‘Ruch Muzyczny’ he created unprecedented two volume publication encompassing music history titled Spacerem po historii muzyki (A walk through the history of music).
He was also an outstanding music writer, an author of great books among others about Brahms and Stravinsky. In 1975 he published a valuable ‘Encounters with Krzysztof Penderecki’. Publications Music in Poland (1974) and Art of Sound (1980) are also worth mentioning. He shared with his readers his vast musical knowledge and rich journalistic experience.
Recently, in his rural house in Lower Silesia, he has been contemplating nature and surely listening to music about which he wrote with such great expertise.
Mieczysław Kominek
President of the Polish Composers' Union