composers (L)

composer, pianist, conductor and music teacher; b. 10 November 1951 in Siemianowice Śląskie. In 1970-74 he studied at the State Higher School of Music (now the Music Academy) in Katowice at the Faculty of Jazz and Popular Music, and, subsequently, composition with Józef Świder (an honours degree in 1979). Winner of the 4th Piano Improvisation Contest in 1972. In 1976 he won 2nd prize in the Grzegorz Fitelberg Competition for Composers for his Symphony No. 1 for wind instruments, percussion and two pianos (1975), and in 1978 - a prize in the composers' competition organised as part of the "Young Musicians for the Young City" Festival in Stalowa Wola.

In 1980 he received the 2nd prize in the Young Composers' Competition of the Polish Composers' Union for his Mountains for symphony orchestra (1979-80). In the same year, he was granted the Beethoven Prize of the City of Bonn for Symphony No. 2 "Concertante" for piano and orchestra (1977-79). During the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris, Aleksander Lasoń received three coveted awards: in 1980 - Symphony No. 1 was selected in the "composers under 30" category; in 1988 - his String Quartet No. 2 (1987) and in 1997 - his Concerto festivo for violin and orchestra (1993-95) were recommended. 

For his artistic achievements, he was honoured with the "Silesian Polyhymnia" Award (1985), the S. Wyspiański Artistic Award (1986), The "Exclusiv" Prize of Tonos Music Publishers in Darmstadt (1988-91) and the Witold Lutosławski Scholarship-Award in 1987 and 1989. He was also granted prizes by the cities of Mikołów (1999), Bytom (2000) and Tarnowskie Góry (2001). In 2002 he was honoured with Polish Composers' Union Annual Award for "great artistic achievements and performances of contemporary music". He was nominated two times to OPUS - the public media award: in 2008 for String Quartet No. 7 (2007) performed by Silesian Quartet andin 2009 for Called Back for singing voices and string (2008) performed by The Hilliard Ensemble and AUKSO Orchestra directed by Marek Moś.

Aleksander Lasoń was active as a pianist-improviser before concentrating on composition and conducting. In 1996 he was the initiator of the New Music Orchestra in residence at the Music Academy in Katowice. The orchestra's aim is to promote most recent compositions, as well as 20th-century classics. The orchestra consists of the graduates, lecturers and talented students of the Academy.

Since 1975, Lasoń has also been an active teacher. He is a professor at the Cieszyn branch of the Silesian University, as well as at the Music Academy in Katowice. In January 2000, the academic title of Professor of Musical Arts was conferred upon him. In 1986-89 he was vice-president of the International Society for Contemporary Music, Polish Section, and in 1990-93 - president of the Katowice branch of the Polish Composers' Union. For many year he was a chair of the membership committee of the Polish Composers' Union.

His compositions are published by PWM Edition in Kraków, EUTERPE in Kraków, TONOS Music Publishers in Darmstadt and Edition Modern in Munich.

updated: February 2016 (wa)

works

Aleksander Lasoń formed, together with Eugeniusz Knapik and Andrzej Krzanowski, a group of composers named “Generation ‘51” because of the date of their birth. All the three made their debuts at the “Young Musicians for a Young City” Festival in Stalowa Wola, which played a major role in the development of Polish music in the late 1970s. It was at this festival that the new artistic generation defined its identity. The main representatives of the generation were Lasoń, Knapik and Krzanowski, and their shared objective – to oppose the 1950s and 1960s avant-garde, and revert in a creative way to the same tradition that the avant-garde had radically rejected. In 1975-80 in Stalowa Wola, eleven compositions by the “Generation ‘51” composers, also known as the “Stalowa Wola Generation”, were first performed. Of Aleksander Lasoń’s works, the following had their first performance at this festival: Sonata for solo violin (1975), Music for any voice and magnetic tape (1975), Concerto for piano and three magnetic tapes (1975), Chamber Music II (1976) and Chamber Music III (1978).

Among the composers of “Generation ‘51”, Lasoń was probably the one least involved in the ideological dispute. He always treated composing primarily as craftsmanship, and music – as a spontaneous interplay of the instrumental forces, an attitude which may well have originated in his training as an improvising pianist (apart from composition, he studied jazz and popular music at the State Higher School of Music in Katowice). His early compositions are characterised by vitality, rich palette of sound colour and an optimistic mood. With time, however, his music has become more profound in expression, darker in sound and more powerful in dynamics, though he still presents a preference for pure, absolute music.

Read more:

Elżbieta Widłak, composer's leaflet, PWM Edition

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