Warner Classics & Jazz

Biography

ZBIGNIEW PREISNER - the official current biography

Zbigniew Preisner (b. 1955) 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.

During the last twenty years Preisner has scored many international feature films including Hector Babenco's At Play In The Fields Of The Lord, Louis Malle's Damage, Luis Mandoki's When A Man Loves A Woman, Agnieszka Holland's The Secret Garden, and Charles Sturridge's Fairytale: A True Story.

Preisner's soundtrack album for The Double Life Of Veronique and the three CDs of the soundtracks for Three Colours Blue, White and Red have sold more than two million copies around the world. The Double Life Of Veronique CD - originally released on the Sideral label in 1991 and re-issued on Virgin in 1998 - was awarded a Gold Disc in France in 1992. Preisner's Music, the live recording of the suite drawn from the music he has created for films, achieved Platinum Disc status in Poland (more than 80,000 copies sold). The soundtracks to the Three Colours Trilogy have now been re-issued on MK2 Music, together with a new compilation titled Preisner-Kieslowski, featuring tracks from Dekalog, The Double Life of Veronique and the Three Colours films.

In 1994 Preisner was commissioned to write the title music for People's Century, BBC TV's 26-part series documenting the history of the twentieth century, co-produced by WGBH Boston. The series was shown on PBS in the USA and has now been seen by television viewers in more than 30 countries.

Preisner's more recent film scores include: The Last September, based on the novel by Elizabeth Bowen, directed by Deborah Warner and featuring Maggie Smith, Keeley Hawes, Michael Gambon and Fiona Shaw; Aberdeen, directed and written by the Norwegian director Hans-Petter Moland, with Lena Headey, Stellan Skarsgard, Charlotte Rampling and Ian Hart; Between Strangers, written and directed by Edoardo Ponti, starring Sophia Loren, Mira Sorvino, Deborah Kara Unger, Gerard Depardieu, Malcolm McDowell, Klaus Maria Brandauer and Pete Postlethwaite; It's All About Love, directed by Thomas Vinterberg, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Claire Danes and Sean Penn; Effroyables jardins, directed by Jean Becker, starring Jacques Villeret, Andre Dusollier, Thierry Lhermitte and and Benoit Magimel; Supertex, directed by Jan Schütte, starring Jan Decleir, Stephen Mangan and Maureen Lipman; The Beautiful Country, directed by Hans Petter Moland, starring Nick Nolte; Un Secret, directed by Claude Miller, starring Cécile De France, Patrick Bruel and Mathieu Amalric; and Anonyma: eine Frau in Berlin, directed by Max Färberböck, starring Nina Hoss.

Requiem for my friend, Preisner's album of music dedicated to the memory of Krzysztof Kieslowski is his first large-scale work specially written for recording and live performance. Released on Erato Disques (Warner Classics) in October 1998 the work received its world premiere at the Teatr Wielki, Warsaw, on 1st October 1998. The recording features the Sinfonia Varsovia and the Varsov Chamber Choir, with the Polish soprano Elzbieta Towarnicka, whose singing is a trademark of Preisner's film scores.

Preisner’s latest orchestral project, Silence, Night and Dreams, for orchestra, choir and soloists, was released internationally by EMI Classics in September 2007. The work incorporates texts from the Book of Job and the Gospel According to St. Matthew, and has a Preface by the Polish lawyer, screenwriter and politician Krzysztof Piesiewicz. The performers are the Aukso Chamber Orchestra of Tychy, under the baton of Marek Moš, Camerata Silesia, boy soprano Thomas Cully (from Libera) and Teresa Salgueiro, star singer of the Portuguese group Madredeus.

Preisner’s orchestral arrangements can be heard on nine of the ten tracks on David Gilmour’s album “On An Island”, released in 2006 and on the live concert CD and DVD “Live In Gdañsk” released in 2008.
Principal awards and citations

1991
THE LOS ANGELES CRITICS ASSOCIATION AWARD: the year's most outstanding composer of film music, first citation: The Double Life Of Veronika, Europa Europa, At Play In The Fields Of The Lord.

1992
THE LOS ANGELES CRITICS ASSOCIATION AWARD: the year's most outstanding composer of film music, second citation: Damage.

GOLDEN GLOBE AWARD: nomination for At Play In The Fields Of The Lord.

CESAR AWARD OF THE FRENCH FILM ACADEMY: nomination for Dekalog and The Double Life Of Veronique.

AWARD OF THE POLISH MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS: for outstanding achievements in the presentation of Polish culture abroad.

1993
THE LOS ANGELES CRITICS ASSOCIATION AWARD: the year's most outstanding composer of film music, third citation: Three Colours Blue, Olivier Olivier and The Secret Garden.

GOLDEN GLOBE AWARD: nomination for Three Colours Blue.

1995
CESAR AWARD OF THE FRENCH FILM ACADEMY: for Three Colours Red.

1996
CESAR AWARD OF THE FRENCH FILM ACADEMY: citation for Elisa.

THE ROYAL TELEVISION SOCIETY CRAFT & DESIGN AWARD: for Original music for the title music of People's Century.

1997
THE SILVER BEAR, BERLIN: for The Island On Bird Street.

Zbigniew Preisner is a member of the French Film Academy and is President of the jury for the International Dramatic Competition for the Krakow Film Award at the Off Plus Camera Festival of Independent Cinema.