Marian BORKOWSKI was born in 1934 in Pabianice (Poland). Composer, musicologist, pianist, teacher.
He studied composition with Kazimierz Sikorski and piano with Jan Ekier and
Natalia Hornowska at the Academy of Music in Warsaw (1959 -1965;
Master of Arts in 1965). At the same time studied musicology at
Warsaw University under Jozef M.Chominski (Master of Musicology
in 1966). In the years 1966 -1968, as a French Government grantee,
he continued postgraduate studies in composition with Nadia
Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen at Paris Conservatory
and in musicology under Jacques Chailley and Barry S.Brook at Paris University.
Simultaneously, he studied philosophy with Jean Hyppolite and Jules Vuillemin at the Sorbonne
and the College de France. Moreover, he took part in the International Courses of New Music in Darmstadt
(1972, 1974) and in the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena (1973, 1975 Diploma di
Merito), where he worked with Gyorgy Ligeti, Iannis Xenakis, Karlheinz Stockhausen and
Franco Donatoni. Since 1968 he has been teaching composition and orchestration at the
Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw: lecturer (1968 -1971), assistant professor (1971-1976), associate professor (1976 -1989), full professor (since 1989); deputy dean of the
Faculty of Composition, Conducting and Music Theory (1975 -1978), vice-president of the
Academy (1978 -1981, 1987-1990), head of the Chair of Music Theory (from 1993), dean of
the Faculty of Composition, Conducting and Music Theory (from 1996), organizer and head
of the Postgraduate Studies in Music Theory (from 1998). Since 1989 he has also held visiting
professorship in composition and guest artist at Concordia University and the University of
Montreal in Canada; at the National Conservatory of Music in Boulogne-Billancourt (Paris); at
the Accademia Musicale Chigiana (Siena) in Italy; at the University of Kansas (Lawrence), the
University of Southern California (Los Angeles), San Francisco State University, Eastman
School of Music (Rochester), Georgia State University (Atlanta), Tulane University of
Louisiana (New Orleans), the University of North Texas (Denton), Bowling Green State
University, Shenandoah University (Winchester), the University of Charlston, Rice University
(Houston), the University of Miami, the William Paterson University of New Jersey (Wayne),
the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory (Berea, Ohio) and the Southwest Missouri State University
(Springfield) in the U.S.A.; at Hanyang University (Seoul), Seoul Conservatory of Music, and
the Keimyung University (Taegu) in Korea. Among his pupils there are many outstanding
Polish composers of young and middle generation (a.o.: Marcin Blazewicz,
Renata Kunkel, Maria Pokrzywinska, Alicja Gronau-Osinska, Jerzy Kornowicz, Marcin
Wierzbicki, Dorota Dywanska, Pawel Lukaszewski, Maciej Zoltowski, Tadeusz Trojanowski, Maciej
Zielinski, Aleksander Kosciow, Emilian Madey), as well as postgraduate foreign
students in composition, a.o.: Fanny Tran (Belgium), Choi Chun-Hee (Korea), Daniel Luzko
(Paraguay), Lee Chong-Man (Korea), Joe Cutler (Great Britain), Hong Jin-Pyo (Korea). From
1971 to 1977 he was a deputy chairman of the Warsaw Branch of the Polish Composers Union.
Since 1985 founder and artistic director of the Festival Laboratory of Contemporary
Music and a chairman of Academic Council of the Polish Institute of Music. From 1995
president of the Laboratory of Contemporary Music Association

His compositions have been presented at chamber and symphonic music concerts in 25
European countries as well as in Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Columbia, Cuba, Iran, Jamaica,
Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and U.S.A. His pieces were also performed at many music
festivals: St. Petersburg, Darmstadt, Aix-en-Provence, Witten, Paris, Los Angeles, Utrecht,
Mexico-City, Munich, Salzburg, Lisbon, Geneva, Lvov, Pusan, Viitasaari, Taegu, Metz,
Warsaw, Madrid, Berlin, Seoul, a. o. Many of his compositions were recorded for the radio
and television (in more than 20 countries) by such record companies as: Muza, Veriton,
Olympia, ProViva Intersound, Polonia Records, Sound-Pol, Dux, MTJ, Acte Prealable.

Appeared in piano recitals in Poland, France, Italy, Canada, U.S.A., Austria, Russia. Jury
member of international competitions in composition in Poland and abroad, e.g. in Belgrade,
Florence, Paris, Esztergom, New Orleans. He is author of several scholarly works on
contemporary music. Marian Borkowski is a prize winner of the Young Composers
Competition in Warsaw (1966), the International Composers Competition B. Viotti in Vercelli
(1969), the K. Szymanowski Competition for Composers in Warsaw (1974), the International
New Music Composers Competition in New York (1990), and the Award of the Minister of
Culture and Art (1976, 1980, 1982). Holder of Silver Cross of Merit of the Republic of Poland
(1977), Silver Medal Premio Vittorio Gui (Italy, 1979), Medal of the Chopin Academy of
Music (1981), Knights Cross of Order Polonia Restituta (1984).