Witold Maliszewski (Russian: Витольд Осипович Малишевский, Ukrainian: Вітольд Йосифович Малішевський; 20 July 1873 – 18 July 1939)[1] was a Polish composer, founder of Odessa Conservatory, and a professor of Warsaw Conservatory.[2][3]
Maliszewski was born in Mohyliv-Podilskyi, Russian Empire (now Ukraine). He graduated from Saint Petersburg Conservatory, in the class of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.[4] He was a member of Belyayev circle. In 1913 he became a founder and the first director of the Odessa Conservatory, which gave the world a number of outstanding musicians, such as David Oistrakh, Emil Gilels and Yakov Zak.
After the Russian revolution, because of the imminent threat of Bolshevik persecution, Maliszewski immigrated to Poland in 1921. In 1925–1927 he was teaching at the Chopin Music School and was the Director of the Warsaw Music Society. In 1927 he served as Chairman of the First International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition. From 1931 to 1934 Maliszewski was the Director of the Music Department at the Polish Ministry of Education. From 1931 to 1939 he was a professor at the Warsaw Conservatory. He died in Zalesie near Warsaw.
Maliszewski's early symphonic and other works were largely shaped by the St. Petersburg composition school which produced a number of outstanding composers. His symphonies (I-III) belong to the non-programmatic (Glazunov's) type, and only the Fourth symphony in D Major op. 21 contain elements of Polish dances.[3][5]
In the Soviet Union, Maliszewski's name was prohibited, and in 1950 the conservatory which he founded in Odessa was renamed after Antonina Nezhdanova, who had no links with the institution.[6]
His students included Witold Lutosławski, Mykola Vilinsky, Shimon Shteynberg, Boleslaw Woytowicz, Feliks Roderyk Łabuński, and Feliks Rybicki.
