Jan Rakowski Viola Competition
Jan Rakowski (viola d'amore) and Margerita Trombini-Kazuro (harpsichord). Poznań, 1935.
Jan Rakowski, outstanding Polish violist, viola d'amore virtuoso, chamber musician and educator, was born on 11 August 1898 in Cracow. Between 1909 and 1914, he studied violin and viola with Prof. K. Wierzuchowski at the Conservatory of the Musical Society in Cracow, where, in 1913, he joined the orchestra of the People’s and Municipal Theatre. Between 1922 and 1926, he mastered his violin, viola and viola d'amore skills with Zdzisław Jahnke at the State Conservatory in Poznań. In years 1922-1939, he was the leader of the viola section of the Wielki Theatre orchestra in Poznań. In the interwar period, he also performed as soloist (incl. the first Poznań performance of P. Hindemith’s Viola Concerto) and chamber musician, member of Poznań String Trio, and String Quartet founded by the Music Society of Poznań in 1934. During World War II he worked with the General Government Philharmonic in Cracow (1940-1945); afterwards, he moved to Poznań to begin work at Stanisław Moniuszko State Opera (until 1957).
His educational career began at the State Conservatory of Music in Poznań (1933-1939, 1945). After the war, Rakowski was head of viola class at the State Secondary School of Music (1945-1948), and State Higher School of Music in Poznań (1950-1962), where he was awarded professorship in 1956. He was also Deputy Dean of the Instrumental Dept. and principal of the String Instrument Chair. He collaborated with Poznań-based secondary schools of music, also in the capacity of viola playing consultant. The list of his students contains such names, as Stefan Kamasa, Włodzimierz Tomaszewski and Błażej Sroczyński.
Jan Rakowski left several arrangements of pieces for violin, viola and viola d'amore, incl. a collection of 17th and 18th-century compositions entitled From the Olden Days, A. Dvorak’s Slavonic Dance, G. Frescobaldi’s Toccata, G. F. Haendel’s Larghetto from Flute Sonata No. 9, J. B. Lully's Minuet, J. Massenet’s Elegy, H. Purcell’s Aria in a minor, or G. Tartini’s Saraband. He was the first performer of the 1926 Classical Concerto for Viola d’Amore and String Orchestra by Stefan Bolesław Poradowski, who dedicated the piece to Rakowski.
Jan Rakowski died on 5 April 1962 in Poznań; he is buried in the Distinguished Person Avenue at the Junikowo cemetery.
