tubist, born in 1937 in Płowce; a graduate of the Chopin State High School of Music in Warsaw. In 1974–78 he was a fellow of the National Theatre in Warsaw and in 1983–88, of the National Theatre in Łódź. Since 1983 he has also worked as an educator. He has taken part in the International Music Meetings in Bayreuth as well as in music festivals such as Warsaw Autumn, Witten, Cologne, Darmstadt, Los Angeles, Bourges, Stockholm, Salzburg, Lisbon, Washington, and Metz. Since 1978 he has been Poland’s permanent representative in the International Tuba Euphonium Association in the USA. As a soloist he has given hundreds of symphonic and chamber music concerts. His concert repertoire is extremely varied, from his own transcriptions of old masters’ works to the most recent contemporary compositions. The leading contemporary classical music composers have composed for and dedicated works to him. Following a several years’ interim, he has now returned to the stage, performing with the younger generation of improvising musicians, such as double bassist Sławomir Janicki, clarinettist Michał Górczyński, and guitarist Andrzej Izdebski. Zdzisław Piernik has performed worldwide, notably in Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, France, Portugal, Sweden, Japan, Mexico, and the United States, winning acclaim for his originality and expressive power. He has also recorded extensively both as soloist and with piano and symphony orchestras, for record labels such as Polskie Nagrania, Pro-Viva, and Sonoton, radio broadcasters in Germany, Belgium, France, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the televisions of Munich and London, as well as Polish Radio and Polish TV.