Born in 1938 in Warsaw. One of the most important artists of  his generation, an acclaimed composer, esteemed pianist, teacher,  organiser of musical life and juror at more than fifty international  competitions.

His output comprises four categories: the first is unistic music  inspired by the paintings of Władysław Strzemiński; the second,  spatial-musical compositions performed in specially constructed  interiors; the third, “music about music,” characterised by allusion and quotation; and the fourth, subjective, deeply expressive  “music of the return to roots.”

His output comprises more than 100 orchestral, chamber and  solo works, theatre music, and ten operas produced notably at  the National Theatre in Mannheim, Théâtre National de la Colline in Paris, Hamburg State Opera, Grand Theatre – Polish  National Opera in Warsaw, Wrocław Opera, Warsaw Chamber  Opera, Baltic Opera in Gdańsk, Polish Royal Opera in Warsaw,  and Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse. In 2012 the production of  Polyeucte at the latter venue (directed by Jorge Lavelli) received  the French Critics’ Circle Award for best production of the season. Krauze’s works have been commissioned notably by the ministries of culture of Poland and France, Polish Radio, Austrian  Radio, West German Radio in Cologne, South German Radio in  Baden-Baden, Radio France, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation  in Lisbon, Asko|Schönberg ensemble, and Hong Kong Festival.  They have been performed at numerous international festivals and in leading concert venues such as the Vienna Konzerthaus,  Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico  City, Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, and Beethovenhalle in Bonn. Krauze’s music has been released notably by Polskie Nagrania, DUX, Nonesuch, Musical Observations, Collins  Classics, Warner Classics, Recommended Records, and EMI.

The piano holds a particularly privileged place in his music: from  his earliest compositions, through those resulting from experiments with musical notation and instrumental sound as well as  theatrical games, to his four piano concertos, in which virtuosity  coexists with a powerful emotional charge. As a concert pianist, Krauze presents his own works himself. In this role, he was  awarded the 1st Prize at Gaudeamus in 1966, a competition for  performers specialising in contemporary music. Since then, he  has appeared on the most important stages of Europe, the Americas and Asia. He has cooperated with conductors including Gary  Bertini, Jan Krenz, Leif Segerstam, Kazimierz Kord, Kazuyoshi  Akiyama, Ernest Bour, Hans Zender, Péter Eötvös, Antoni Wit,  and Luca Pfaff. In 1967 he founded the Warsztat Muzyczny  (Music Workshop) ensemble, which he led for 25 years and for  which more than 120 works were written by leading composers from around the world, including Louis Andriessen, Morton  Feldman, Michael Nyman, Per Nørgård, Mauricio Kagel, Henryk  Mi k ołaj Górecki, Wojciech Kilar, Kazimierz Serocki, and Witold  Szalonek.

Krauze is a graduate of the State High School of Music in Warsaw.  He completed his composition studies under Kazimierz Sikorski and his piano studies with Maria Wiłkomirska. He furthered  his education as a scholarship holder of the French government  under Nadia Boulanger in Paris. He has himself led seminars and  composition masterclasses since 1965, including in Darmstadt,  Basel, Paris, Tokyo, Stockholm, Jerusalem, Beijing, Hong Kong,  and at universities in the United States: Columbia in New York  and Indiana in Bloomington. He is also the originator and organiser of the International Summer Composition Course SYNTHESIS in Radziejowice. In 1973–74 he was a resident artist in Berlin  at the invitation of the DAAD. In 1981 he was a visiting professor  at Yale University in New Haven, and in 1996 he received the title  of Eminent Corresponding Professor at the University of Daegu.  From 2002 to 2024 he was professor of composition at the Music  Academy in Łódź, and from 2006 to 2010 he taught at the Chopin  University of Music in Warsaw. He has been awarded honorary  doctorates by the National University of Music in Bucharest and  the Music Academy in Łódź.

Krauze’s activity as an organiser of musical events began in 1970  when he became a member of the Repertoire Committee of  the Warsaw Autumn Festival, a role he held for 11 years. In 1980  he initiated the revival of the Polish Society for Contemporary  Music and was its chairman for two decades. At the invitation  of Pierre Boulez in 1982, he became artistic advisor at IRCAM. 

In 1983–84 he presented a weekly music programme on France  Musique radio. He has been honoured by the Polish musical  community with the Polish Composers’ Union Prize, has twice  received the Ministry of Culture Prize, and holds the Gloria Artis  Gold Medal. He was among the founding members and president  of the Witold Lutosławski Society in Warsaw. He also founded  the Musical Gardens Foundation, which organises the Musical  Gardens Festival in Warsaw.

Selected works: Fünf Klavierstücke (1957–58), Two Inventions  for piano (1958), Small Variations for piano (1958), Six Folk Melodies for piano (1958), Three Etudes for piano (1958), Reed Trio  for oboe, clarinet and bassoon (1958), Prélude, intermezzo, postlude for piano (1958), Seven Interludes for piano (1958), Dance  of the Gnomes for piano (1959), Monody and Fugue for piano  (1959), Ohne Kontraste for piano (1960), Prime Numbers for two  violins (1961), Malay Pantuns for three flutes and alto (1961),  Five Unistic Compositions for piano (1963), Triptych for piano  (1964), String Quartet no. 1 (1965), 5× for objects, instruments  and radio, with audience participation (1966), Esquisse for piano  (1967), Spatial-Musical Composition no. 1 for six tapes (1968),  Polychromy for clarinet, trombone, piano and cello (1968), Piece  for Orchestra no. 1 (1969), Spatial-Musical Composition no. 2 for  two tapes (1970), String Quartet no. 2 (1970), Piece for Orchestra no. 2 (1970), Fallingwater for piano (1971), Stone Music for  amplified piano (1972), Gloves Music for piano with theatrical  elements (1972), Voices for 15 instruments ad libitum (1972),  Folk Music for orchestra (1972), One Piano Eight Hands for four  musicians playing an out-of-tune piano (1973), Aus aller Welt  stammende for ten string instruments (1973), Automatophone,  spatial composition for 15 playing mechanisms and 15 amplified  plucked instruments (1974), Song for 4–6 melodic instruments  ad libitum (1974), Idyll for four soloists playing folk instruments  (1974), Fête galante et pastorale for orchestra and four soloists  (1975; spatial composition / installation, 1974–84), Soundscape  for four soloists (1975), Automatophonefor plucked instruments  and music boxes (1976), Piano Concerto no. 1 (1976), Suite de  danses et de chansons for harpsichord and orchestra (1977), Music  Box Waltz for piano (1977), Ballade for piano (1978), Violin Concerto (1980), Dyptychoschos for organ (1981), Commencement for  harpsichord (1982), Tableau vivant for chamber orchestra (1982),  String Quartet no. 3 (1982), Piece for Orchestra no. 3 (1982), Arabesque for amplified piano and chamber orchestra (1983), Blancrouge – Paysage d’un pays for two large orchestral forces (1985), Je  préfère qu’il chante for bassoon (1985), Quatuor pour la naissance  for clarinet, violin, cello and piano (1985), Symphonie parisienne  for orchestra (1986), Nightmare Tango for piano (1987), Rivière  souterraine for seven performers and seven tapes (1987), From  Keyboard to Score for piano (1987), A Postcard from the Mountains for soprano and eight instruments (1988), La chanson du mal-aimé for piano (1990), Blue Jay Way, arrangement of  the song by The Beatles for piano (1990), For Alfred Schlee,  with Admiration for string quartet (1991), Marcia for orchestra  (1991), Refrain for piano (1993), Piano Quintet (1993), P-53 for  two pianos, guitar, turntables, percussion, electronics and computer (1994), Terra incognita for ten string instruments and piano  (1994), Rhapsody for string orchestra (1995), Pastorale for flute,  oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn (1995), La Terre for soprano  and orchestra (1995), Piano Concerto no. 2 (1996), Trois chansons for mixed choir (1997), Serenade for orchestra (1998), Silesian Divertimento for string quartet (1998), Emille Bell for strings  (2000), Five Songs for baritone and piano, to poems by Tadeusz  Różewicz (2000; rev. for baritone and chamber orchestra, 2015),  Balthazar, opera to a libretto by Ryszard Peryt (2001), Adieu  for out-of-tune piano and orchestra (2001), Yvonne, Princess of  Burgundy, opera to a libretto by Grzegorz Jarzyna and Zygmunt  Krauze (2004), Ode for eight instruments (2004), La naissance  et le déroulement d’un rêve for piano (2005), Ball at the Opera  for chamber choir and 12 instruments (2006), The Star, opera  to a libretto by Helmut Kajzar (1981–2006), Voices for Ljubljana  for violin, cello, flute, clarinet, trombone, piano and percussion  (2007), Aria for 21 sound sources (2007), Hymn to Tolerance  for orchestra (2007), Fanfare for the Unveiling of the Monument  to Tolerance in Jerusalem for four trumpets (2007), Pour El for  harpsichord (2008), Fields and Hills – Silence for instruments  ad libitum and keyboard instrument (2009), Polyeucte, opera to  a libretto by Alicja Choińska and Jorge Lavelli (2010), Chopin’s  Journey for chamber choir a cappella or with folk instrument  ensemble (2010), Letters for four pianos / two pianos eight hands  and orchestra (2010), The Trap, opera to a libretto by Grzegorz  Jarzyna and Zygmunt Krauze (2011), Canzona for instrumental ensemble (2011), Eleven Preludes for instrumental ensemble  (2012), Memories of the East for orchestra of 80 Chinese instruments (2012), Underground River 2 for orchestra (2013; rev. for  electronic sound and chamber orchestra, 2015), Olimpia from  Gdańsk, opera to a libretto by Krystyna and Blaise de Obaldia  (2015), Idyll 2 for folk instruments, four vocalists and electronic  layer (2015), Concerto for accordion and orchestra (2016), Preludes to the Bucolics for orchestra (2016), Apollinaire’s Poem for  reciting pianist playing an out-of-tune piano and 12 instruments  ad libitum (2016), Exodus 2016 for chamber orchestra (2016),  Rondo for Fender Rhodes and string orchestra (2017), Francesco,  cantata for choir, chamber orchestra and organ (2018), Declaration for mezzo-soprano, baritone and chamber orchestra (2018),  Fragments of Memory for harpsichord (2018), Portrait of a Lover  for accordion (2018), Yemaya – Queen of the Seas, family opera to  a libretto by Małgorzata Sikorska-Miszczuk (2019), Piano Concerto no. 3 (2019), Exordium for baritone and symphony orchestra (2020), Copernicus – Our Planet for six mixed voices and  string orchestra (2020), Bugle Call for carillon (2021), In Memory of Krzysztof Penderecki, threnody for two pianos and string quartet (2021), Elegy 2022 for piano trio (2022), De ira, de dolore for  electronic sound and eight instruments (2022), Night of Ravens,  opera to a libretto by Małgorzata Sikorska-Miszczuk (2022), In  Memory of Krzysztof Penderecki, threnody for piano and string  orchestra (2023), Requiem “In Memoriam” for mixed choir, four  soloists and chamber orchestra (with six other composers, 2023),  Piano Concerto no. 4 (2023), Underground River 3 for piano, electronic sound and chamber orchestra (2023), String Trio (2024),  Listen for soprano, clarinet, violin, percussion and piano (2024),  The Wedding, opera to a libretto by Krzysztof Cicheński (2024),  Bona Sforza, opera to a libretto by Vincenzo de Vivo (2024), Listen and Think for baritone and instrumental ensemble (2025),  Children’s Requiem for soprano, baritone, children’s choir, mixed  choir and orchestra (2025), Écoute for soprano and string quartet (2025), Three Unistic Compositions (1964) for 30 wind instruments (2025), De arte, de homine for orchestra (2025).