Aleksander Michalowski

Aleksander Michalowski
(b Kamieniec Podolski, 5 May 1851; d Warsaw, 17 Oct 1938). Polish pianist, composer and teacher.

He studied with Reinecke and Moscheles at the Leipzig Conservatory and with Tausig in Berlin. He made his début in Leipzig in 1869 and lived in Warsaw from 1874, giving concerts mainly in Poland and Russia. Though possessing a vast repertory, he concentrated on Chopin and was notable for his delicacy of touch. Between 1891 and 1917 he held piano classes at the Warsaw Music Institute and then at the school of the Warsaw Music Society, establishing a school of his own in the Polish piano tradition. His pupils included Wanda Landowska. Michałowski composed a few dozen piano miniatures; they are influenced by Chopin and not unlike works by Moszkowski and Anton Rubinstein. He also made some virtuoso arrangements of works by Chopin, and prepared for publication a collected edition of Chopin’s works; the études, waltzes, ballades and impromptus were published by Gebethner & Wolff, Warsaw.