Zbigniew Preisner

Zbigniew Preisner is Poland's leading film music composer and is considered to be one of the most outstanding film composers of his generation. For many years Preisner enjoyed a close collaboration with the director Krzysztof Kieslowski and his script-writer Krzysztof Piesiewicz. His scores for Kieslowski's films - Dekalog, The Double life of Veronique, Three Colours Blue, Three Colours White and Three Colours Red - have brought him international acclaim. Other feature films which he has scored include Hector Babenco's At play in the fields of the Lord, Louis Malle's Damage, Luis Mandoki's When a man loves a woman, Agnieska Holland's The Secret Garden and Charles Sturridge's Fairytale: a true story. Most recently he has provided the music for The People's Century, BBC TV's 26-part series documenting the history of the twentieth century; The last September, directed by Deborah Warner and featuring Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon and Fiona Shaw; Aberdeen, directed by Hans-Petter Molland; and Between Strangers written and directed by Edoardo Ponti and starring Sophia Loren, Gerard Depardieu, Malcom McDowell and Peter Postlethwaite. Preisner has received many awards and citations including the Silver Bear from the Berlin Film Festival in 1997 for The Island on Bird Street; two Cesars from the French Film Academy - one in 1996 for Jean Becker's Elisa and one in 1995 for Three Colours Red - and three consecutive citations in 1991, 1992 and 1993 as the year's most outstanding composer of film music in The Los Angeles Critics Association awards. In 1992 he received the Award of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for outstanding achievements in the presentation of Polish Culture abroad. Requiem for my Friend, dedicated to the memory of Krzysztof Kieslowski, is Preisner's first large-scale work specially written for recording and live performance. It was premiered in October 1998 at Teatre Wielki, Warsaw. The recording was released on Erato in 1998 and has sold more than 180,000 copies to date. (Image Photo © Warner Classics)