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 Wladyslaw Kedra

Born on 16 September, 1918 in Lodz.
     Musical talents began to shine when he was four years old. In 1924, he became a student at Helena Kijenska’s Music School in Lodz. His teacher was the owner of the school, who supervised the development of the boy’s talents for ten years.

    In 1933, Kedra was accepted to advanced studies at Helena Kijenska’s Music Conservatory into piano class. In May of the same year, the 15 year-old pianist debuted in Lodz at a symphony concert, performing Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D major and Saint-Saëns’ Rhapsodie d’Auvergne Op. 73 for piano and orchestra. The public and musical critics alike received Kedra’s performance enthusiastically. In February and March 1937 the pianist attempted III International Chopin Competition. Although he did not win any price, his performance did lead to one of the jurors, Prof. Magda Tagliaferro, to take a special interest in Kedra who invited him to study under her at the Paris Conservatory.

    In June 1937, Kedra graduated with honours from the Conservatory in Lodz and following summer vacations left to study in Paris for two years. In 1938, Ignacy Jan Paderewski offered him artistic consultations. That same year, the young artist debuted on Polish Radio in Lodz.

    The artist spent the war years mainly in Lublin supporting himself by playing popular music in restaurants. In Warsaw he played private and secret concerts, performing the works of Polish composers banned by the Nazis (such as Chopin, Szymanowski, Maciejewski, Jurdzinski, etc.) Frequent travelling, practice in inappropriate conditions, war troubles, caused illness in the pianist’s hands. However, thanks to a strong will and proper medical treatment, Kedra shortly minimised the effects of the illness and returned to working on his repertoire.

    After the Warszawa Uprising (1944), the artist along with his family found themselves on a Nazi deportation transport. He escaped from the train and made his way down to southern Poland. He returned to his hometown of Lodz in 1945, after the Nazi capitulation.

    The pianist spent 23 September through 5 October 1946 in Geneva, where he took part in the International Competition of Musical Performance and was awarded a finalist’s prize. However, his performance at the Fourth Chopin Competition, in Warszawa (1949) earned him 5th prize. He took full advantage of this high award in a prestigious competition and performed intensively in Poland and several other European countries.

    Wladyslaw Kedra lived in Poland until 1957. On 1 October 1957, he moved to Vienna, where he was given a class at the Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst. He increased the number of performances. Shortly, his name became so popular in Europe that he had to pick and choose between the numerous invitations he received. He gave several dozen performances in Europe and the USA annually.

    Wladyslaw Kedra was an artist of exceptional merit. He possessed the ever-readiness to play, which meant that he didn’t need to spend many tedious hours every day practising. Moreover, he was gifted with a lightness of touch, great hearing, musicality and a photographic memory, which allowed him to learn a piece without benefit of a keyboard. He could improvise on any given theme in any style required. He had a broad repertoire at his disposal covering piano music from all periods. He was particularly fond of playing virtuoso works, which allowed him to showcase his fantastic range and talents as a pianist.

    The pianist served on the juries of international piano competitions in Budapest (1961) and Zwickau (1963, 1966). He died of cancer having reached 50 years of age 26 September 1968 (Warsaw) .