Jerzy Maksymiuk
- Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
Jerzy Maksymiuk was born in 1936 in the Polish city of Grodno, which
after World War II became part of Belarus. His family moved to
Bialystok during the war in order to escape from the Russians. The
parents, who got divorced when he was 15, were uneducated farmers.
Jerzy started his musical education in Bialystok and then moved to
Warsaw, where he graduated from the State Academy of Music. He took
classes in playing the piano, composing and conducting. Maksymiuk was
introduced into the world of films by his cousin, director
Czeslaw Petelski, who gave him his
first job in the business. For over 30 years Jerzy Maksymiuk was the
composer and/or conductor of nearly 100 Polish films. Today Maksymiuk
is best known in Poland as well as abroad as an extremely gifted and
hard-working conductor. He was responsible for creating the
world-famous Polish Chamber Orchestra (Polska Orkiestra Kameralna).
After working as its conductor for 13 years, he became the conductor of
the prestigious BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. His successful work in
Glasgow took him another 13 years.