Bogdan Wodiszko |

Bogdan Wodiszko

This artist is one of the most prominent masters of Polish music who came to the fore and gained fame after the war. But the first performances of Vodichka took place in the pre-war period, and he immediately showed himself to be a highly erudite and versatile musician.

Growing up in a hereditary musical family (his grandfather was a famous conductor, and his father was a violinist and teacher), Vodichko studied violin at the Warsaw Chopin School of Music, and then theory, piano and horn at the Warsaw Conservatory. In 1932, he went to improve in Prague, where he studied at the conservatory with J. Krzhichka in composition and M. Dolezhala in conducting, attended a special conducting course, held under the direction of V. Talich. Returning to his homeland, Vodichko studied at the conservatory for another three years, where he graduated from the conducting class of V. Berdyaev and the composition class of P. Rytl.

Only after the war, Vodichko finally began independent activities, first organizing a small symphony orchestra of the People’s Militia in Warsaw. Soon he became a professor of the conductor class, first at the Warsaw School of Music named after K. Kurpiński, and then at the Higher School of Music in Sopot, and was appointed chief conductor of the Pomeranian Philharmonic in Bydgoszcz. At the same time Vodichko in 1947-1949 worked as the musical director of the Polish Radio.

In the future, Vodichko led almost all the best orchestras in the country – Lodz (since 1950), Krakow (1951-1355), Polish Radio in Katowice (1952-1953), the People’s Philharmonic in Warsaw (1955-1958), directed the Lodz Operetta Theater (1959 —1960). The conductor makes numerous tours to Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany, Belgium, the USSR and other countries. In 1960-1961 he worked as artistic director and chief conductor of the orchestra in Reykjavik (Iceland), and after that he headed the State Opera in Warsaw.

The authority of B. Vodichko as a teacher is great: among his pupils are R. Satanovsky, 3. Khvedchuk, j. Talarchik, S. Galonsky, J. Kulashevich, M. Nowakovsky, B. Madea, P. Wolny and other Polish musicians.

L. Grigoriev, J. Platek, 1969