Grzegorz Fitelberg

Grzegorz Fitelberg (18 October 1879 – 10 June 1953) was a Polish conductor, violinist and composer. He was a member of the Młoda Polska group, together with artists such as Karol Szymanowski, Ludomir Różycki and Mieczysław Karłowicz. Fitelberg was born into a Jewish family (father Hozjasz Fitelberg, mother Matylda Pintzof, sister Leja Wacholder, 1881—1941, died in the Holocaust), in Daugavpils, Russian Empire (now Latvia). In 1908 he conducted in the Warsaw Opera, in 1912 in the Vienna Opera. During the first war he collaborated with Ballets Russes; he conducted the first performance of Mavra of Igor Stravinsky. From 1921 to 1934 he was the chief conductor of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, where he excessively promoted new music. In 1935 he organized the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. He died in Katowice, Poland in June 1953. His son was the Polish-American composer Jerzy Fitelberg, who predeceased him. His second wife, Halina Schmolz, was a ballet dancer who died in 1939, from wounds suffered during the bombing of the Poniatowski Bridge. Their home, Willa Fitelberga, has recently been restored.The Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors, one of the most important music competitions in Poland, takes place in the Silesian Philharmonic since 1979.