Henryk Sztompka was a Polish pianist and teacher, regarded as one of the finest interpreters of the works of Frédéric Chopin. He was born on April 4, 1901, in Bohuslavtsi, near Lutsk.
He studied at the Warsaw Conservatory, where he trained in piano with Józef Turczyński and also studied philosophy, graduating in 1926. In 1927 he took part in the 1st International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw and received the fifth prize of Polish Radio for the best performance of Chopin's mazurkas. In 1957 he recorded an album titled “All of Chopin's Mazurkas” in his own performance.
From 1928 to 1932 he lived in Paris, where he took piano lessons with Ignacy Paderewski. There he made his debut in a symphonic concert, performing Chopin's Second Concerto with the Colonne Orchestra under the direction of Gabriel Pierné. During the war he lived in occupied Poland and gave clandestine music lessons. After the end of the war, for the first time after a six-year break, he gave a concert in the Roma hall and donated all proceeds to the fund for rebuilding the capital.
From 1945 he was a professor at the State Higher School of Music in Kraków, and from 1958 to 1963 he served as its vice-rector. He toured in European countries, and in 1958 he also toured in the Soviet Union. In 1949 he received the Chopin Prize of the London Chopin Society as one of the best interpreters of the great composer's music.
From 1957 to 1964 Sztompka was vice-president of the Fryderyk Chopin Society in Warsaw. He twice served as a member of the jury of the International Tchaikovsky Competition, in 1958 and 1962. He gave his last concert in 1960 at the National Philharmonic in Warsaw, performing Paderewski's Polish Fantasy for piano and orchestra. After that his illness worsened and he could no longer perform. He died on April 21, 1964, in Kraków.
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