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Eugeniusz Morawski-Dąbrowa
A composer, pedagogue and painter (2 November 1876 in Warsaw - 23 October 1948 Warsaw)

Between the years 1899-1904, Eugeniusz Morawski-Dąbrowa studied piano under Antoni Sygietyński, and composition under Zygmunt Noskowski at the Music Institute in Warsaw. In 1903, he took up studies at the artistic school of Warsaw, where he took part in Jan Kauzik’s Drawing Course. In 1904, Morawski-Dąbrowa enrolled into the newly founded School of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where through to 1907 learned from some of Poland’s most acclaimed painters: Kondrad Krzyżanowski (portrait course), Ferdynand Ruszczyc (landscape course) and Karol Tichy (applied arts course). As a student of the School, the artist also took part in three plainer sessions organised in Arkadia (1904), Zwierzyniec (1905) and in Istebna (1906).

From 1903, Morawski-Dąbrowa took part in the militant organization called the Polish Socialist Party – Revolutionary Faction. He become close friend to Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis. In November, 1907, due to taking part in a plot of assassinating the police, he was emprisoned at the Cytadela fortress in Warsaw. Following a year in jail, he was condemned by the Tsarist Military Court for four years of exile in Siberia. Thanks to the efforts of his father, this sentence was alleviated and changed to emigration. Thus from 1908 Morawski-Dąbrowa resided in Paris, where he continued to study. He was a student of André Gédalge (counterpoint) and Camille Chevillard (instrumentation). He also took up painting at the Académie Julien and sculpture under the direction of Émile Antoine Bourdelle.

He returned Poland in 1930 to take up work as a pedagogue. In March, Morawski-Dąbrowa became a director of the Music Conservatory in Poznań, and in June 1930, he relocated to Warsaw, where he took up the post of the director of Musical Middle School of the Warsaw Conservatory. Between 1932-39, following Karol Szymanowski's leave, he took on the function of a rector of the State Music Conservatory, where he also lectured in instrumentation. During his work as the rector, he took an active part in creating the Musicology Department, as well as the Teaching Department under Stanisław Kazura's direction. He also helped to start the Opera Course with Walerian Bierdiajew. During the Second World War, Morawski-Dąbrowa conducted classes in a secret Conservatory lead by Kazura. In 1944, he moved to Ruda Pabianicka, where he taught music, and in 1948, shortly before his death, he returned to Warsaw.

Eugeniusz Morawski was the founding member of the Société des Artistes Polonais in Paris (1909), the National Opera Society (1932), and the Friderick Chopin Institute (1934). He received the Musical Award of the Poland's Ministry of Religious Beliefs and Public Enlightment for his ballet Świtezianka (1933), and was also honoured with the Officer's Cross of Poland's Renaissance (193), the Medal of Independence (1933) and the Golden Laur of the Polish Academy of Literature (1938).

Morawski wrote a great deal, much of which appears to have been lost in the destruction that laid waste to Warsaw in the 1940s. His works include:


 * Operas: Lilla Weneda, Aspazja, Salammbô, Pan Tadeusz (unfinished), Dafnis i Chloe (unfinished)
 * Ballets: Krak and the Dragon, Love, Świtezianka
 * 6 symphonies
 * Symphonic poems: Don Quixote, Nevermore , Ulalume, Vae victis, Fleurs du mal
 * Two piano concertos
 * Violine concerto