Grażyna Bacewicz - Joanna Sendłak
A Final Creative Outpouring
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
1964 sees premieres of Bacewicz’s Quartet for Four Cellos (Warsaw Autumn Festival) and her ballet, Esik in Ostend (Poznań Opera). In 1965 her Musica Sinfonica in Tre Movimenti has its premiere in Stockholm and her Violin Concerto No. 7 in Brussels in 1966. Bacewicz starts teaching composition at the State Higher School of Music in Warsaw. Contradizione is premiered in the US (1967) and In Una Parte is premiered in Havana (1968). In December 1968 Bacewicz travels to Armenia as part of a delegation of Polish composers. She finishes work on her collection of autobiographical short stories just days before she dies of a heart attack on 17 January 1969.