The President Lech Kaczyński Memorial Award has gone to the internationally-renowned composer Wojciech Kilar, known especially for his film scores for movies by Roman Polanski and other Hollywood directors.

In his thank-you remarks during a ceremony in the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw at the weekend Kilar spoke of his sorrow and a sense of loss, and of hope that the newly-initiated award will help preserve the memory of President Lech Kaczyński, who died in the air crash in Russia in April 2010.

The award is to be given every year to an outstanding artist whose achievements consolidate the national tradition and give it a modern interpretation in the light of the nation’s current experiences.

The chapter of the award was appointed by the late President’s mother, Jadwiga Kaczynska, and includes former Prime Minister Jan Olszewski, the lawyer Bogusław Nizieński, one of the founders of the Solidarity Union Andrzej Gwiazda, the writer Janusz Krasiński, Zuzanna Kurtyka – the widow of Janusz Kurtyka, the head of the Institute of National Remembrance, one of the 96 victims of the air crash, and the Director of the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra Joanna Wnuk-Nazarowa.

Born in 1932, Kilar was one of the founders of the Polish school of avant-garde music in the early 1960s.

In the 1970s he began to use a simplified musical idiom, turning to tradition and looking for inspiration in folk music and religion.

In many works he attempted to revive a national style in Polish music. The folk music of the Tatras and the Tatra foothills inspired Kilar in such works as Kościelec 1909, Grey Mist, Orawa and, first and foremost, Krzesany, his most popular orchestral piece, performed with much success all over the world.

Wojciech Kilar has written soundtracks to over 150 films, collaborating with leading Polish directors such as Krzysztof Kieślowski, Andrzej Wajda, and Krzysztof Zanussi, as well as with such household names as Francis F.Coppola (Bram Stoker’s Dracula), Jane Campion (Portrait of a Lady) and Roman Polański (Death and the Maiden, The Pianist). (mk)