ABOUT COURSES

Founder and Artistic Director of International Music Courses in Łańcut 1975-1992

Professor Zenon Brzewski was born on June 3rd 1923 in Ulanów. Spent childhood years in Cracow, where he attended the renowned Nowodworski junior high school (hence his command of Greek and Latin) and began his music education followed by studies at the Conservatory under Władysław Syrewicz. The war cut his studies short.
Zenon Brzewski joined the wartime underground as part of the Military Warfare Union (Związek Walki Zbrojnej) and the Home Army (Armia Krajowa). Soldier of the well-known Ponury and Nurt partisan groups in the Świętokrzyski region. Despite being wounded in action twice, he remained with the formation until it was disbanded.
After the war he graduated from the St. Jacek Humanist College in Cracow and moved to Warsaw to continue his music studies at the Conservatory, later the State College of Music, in professor Irena Dubiska's violin class. Following his graduation in 1956, he remained with his alma mater until his death - as an assistant, assistant professor, and professor (1983 - 1993).
He spent the years 1961-1963 attending post-graduate studies under professors Max Rostal in Bern, Wolfgang Schneiderhan in Lucerne, and Andre Gertler in Brussels.
During his university studies he began giving concert performances as an orchestral musician: the Mazovia (Mazowsze) Song and Dance Ensemble, the Warsaw Opera, and the National Philharmonic, and as a string quarter member (with Irena Dubiską, Włodzimierz Tomaszewski, and Kazimierz Wiłkomirski.
In 1958 he joined Stefan Sutkowski and Juliusz Borzym to found the Musicae Antique Collegium Varsoviense, ensemble, with whom he performed until 1965.
Teaching remained his life's passion, however. He began working for the Central Training Facility for Art Instructors in Skolimów as early as 1952, then joined staff teams of a number of music schools in Warsaw. He was the headmaster of the Frederic Chopin Secondary Music School in the years 1965-1972.
In 1991 his initiative and effort resulted in the founding of an Experimental Instruments Department at the Józef Elsner Secondary Music School in Warsaw. The Department was opened for musically gifted young people, who could thus improve their performance while gaining sound general knowledge, working intensely under top pedagogues. In 1993, after the professor's death, the Department was converted into the Zenon Brzewski State Secondary School, where the professor's ideas continue to provide talented young people with particularly favourable conditions for education and development.
Regardless of his work for secondary music schools, Zenon Brzewski had close bonds with the State College of Music and later the Music Academy in Warsaw, where he headed the violin class and was head of the String Instruments Department and the deputy rector (1972-1975). As a pedagogue, he also cooperated with the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, and headed the violin class at the Music Academy in Łódź. He cofounded a branch of the Warsaw Music Academy in Białystok, primarily training future music school teachers; professor Zenon Brzewski had always considered teacher training of top importance; he himself was a marvellous example to follow.
As a tutor of a plethora of excelling Polish violinists and pedagogues, he initiated a variety of competitions and courses for young people in Poland. He held music interpretation courses at the international Jeunesses Musicales courses in Olsztyn (Poland), Arvika and Ingesund (Sweden), and Freiburg (Germany). A member and later chairman of the Expert Committee for National Primary and Secondary Music School Auditions.
Professor Brzewski was a juror at numerous national (Zdzisław Jahnke Young Violinists' Competition in Lublin, Russian Music Competition in Gdańsk, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Competition in Gdańsk), and international competitions (Henryk Wieniawski Competition in Poznań, Young Violinists' Competition in Paris, Karol Lipiński and Henryk Wieniawski Young Violinists' Competition in Lublin, Yehudi Menuhin Competition in Folkstone, Nicolo Paganini Competition in Genoa, Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig, Pablo Casals Competition in Barcelona, String Instruments Competition in Sofia, Peter Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Young Violinists' Competition in Peking, Franz Kreisler Competition in Graz, Louis Spohr Competition in Freiburg, Balys Dvarionas Competition in Vilnius, Louis Spohr Young Violinists' Competition in Lahr, and Young Violinists' Competitions in Kloster-Schontal and Mark-Neukirchen).
The professor's major achievements include the founding of the International Music Courses in Łańcut, as well as the coorganisation of the National Stanisław Serwaczyński Violin Competition, and the Karol Lipiński and Henryk Wieniawski Young Violinists' Competition in Lublin; moreover, he organized a state music school for talented students (today the Zenon Brzewski State Secondary Music School); primarily, however, he educated and trained eminent Polish violinists and pedagogues in great numbers.
The majority of professor Zenon Brzewski's many students followed in his footsteps; today, they are pedagogues in music schools and academies around the globe; they include Mirosław Ławrynowicz, Robert Szreder, Krzysztof Węgrzyn, Andrzej Grudzień, Michał Trojanowski, Paweł Urstein, Danuta Głowacka, Kazimierz Olechowski, Iwona Koter, and others. Ali the students found their professor a model teacher and educator, as well as friend and coach. He was a tremendously cultured person, extremely friendly and open to all those surrounding him.
Professor Zenon Brzewski attended numerous congresses of the European String Teachers Association (ESTA); established and chaired the Polish ESTA chapter. In the years 1973-1981 he was deputy chairman of the Polish Musicians' Association, and during the period of 1972-1992 chairman of the Association's Pedagogues Section. As part of his work for the Board of the National Children's Fund, he co-established a programme to assist the development and promotion of musically gifted young people. He was chairman of the Primary and Secondary Music Education Council at the Ministry of Culture and Art and he co-operated with the Main Pedagogy Centre for Artistic Education (today's Artistic Education Centre). He published papers and articles on the methodology of violin teaching.
For his patriotic, pedagogic and artistic activities professor Zenon Brzewski was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, the Silver Cross of Merit with Swords, the Golden Cross of Merit and the Home Army (Armia Krajowa) Cross; he also received the following distinctions: of Merit to the Białystok and Rzeszów Regions, of Cultural Merit, an Honorary Golden Distinction of the City of Warsaw, the Polish Musicians' Association Golden distinction, two first Class Awards of the Minister of Culture and Art, and the Order of the Smile.

Katarzyna Jaskowska