Grażyna Bacewicz - Joanna Sendłak
Distant Travels and Family Matters
Grażyna Bacewicz - Joanna Sendłak
Joanna Sendłak [+]
Writer
Joanna Sendłak is the grand-daughter of Grażyna Bacewicz. She was born and studied in Warsaw - first painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, then philosophy at the University. She has exhibited paintings in Warsaw galleries, published stories in literary magazines and is the author of a number of novels, most recently The Dreamer of 76th Street (Nowy Świat, 2016), With Fire: Grażyna Bacewicz in Love on the Eve of War (Skarpa Warszawska, 2018) and Symphony of Stars (Skarpa Warszawska, 2019). Two volumes of her short stories were published by Fundacja Światło Literatury in 2019: Atotsi and Labirynt.
Description
In 1956 Bacewicz spends a month in India as part of an artistic delegation. Her String Quartet No. 5 wins second prize at the 1956 International String Quartet Competition in Liège. In 1960 her Music for Strings, Trumpets and Percussion wins third prize at UNESCO’s International Rostrum of Composers. Her String Quartet No. 6 (her first composition to embrace serial technique) is premiered at the 1960 Warsaw Autumn Festival. Her mother and her husband die within a few years of each other.