Marek Zebrowski
Known for SoundBorn 1953-05-05Poznań, Poland
Marek Zebrowski began studying piano at the age of five. After graduating with the highest honors from the Poznań Music Lyceum, he studied with Robert Casadesus and Nadia Boulanger in France and Russell Sherman at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Hailed as “firm and eminently musical” by the Boston Globe, “strong and noble” by the Washington Post and accorded highest accolades by the world press, Zebrowski has appeared as a soloist in recital and with symphony orchestras throughout the world. He has recorded works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, Scriabin and Prokofiev for the Polish Radio and works by Ravel and Prokofiev for Apollo Records in Germany. His performances and compositions are featured on the Titanic Records and Harmonia Mundi labels.
Recognized as a composer with a catalogue of orchestral and chamber works, piano compositions and transcriptions and film and stage scores, Marek Zebrowski has received commissions from Meet the Composer and The New England String Quartet among others, as well as composition prizes in the Netherlands. Zebrowski’s works were premiered throughout the United States, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland and South Africa. For the past several years, he has collaborated with director David Lynch, and their album of free improvisations, Polish Night Music, was released in April 2008.
Read full bioShow less
Zebrowski has lectured at the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Harvard University, and the New England Conservatory of Music, and for several years, he was a contributing writer for the Boston Book Review. He has given master classes and has coached various chamber music ensembles and chamber orchestras. His academic career included teaching at the University of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and UCLA. He has authored Celebrating Chopin and Paderewski, Paderewski in California and several other books about film directors and cinematographers published by the Tumult Foundation. The 2007 recipient of the Silver Gloria Artis medal from Poland’s Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Zebrowski was recognized in 2011 with the Telly Award for his score to a documentary film, The Labyrinth, and was awarded the Golden Cross of Merit by the president of Poland. In April 2012, together with President Lech Wałęsa and Professor Władysław Bartoszewski, Zebrowski was honored by TV Polonia with the Award for the Promotion of Poland and Polish Culture abroad.
Currently, Zebrowski resides in Los Angeles and serves as the director and curator of the Polish Music Center at USC and the artistic director of the Paderewski Festival in Paso Robles, California. Zebrowski is a Steinway artist.