Born in 1927 in Czechowice-Dziedzice, died in 2001 in Berlin. Composer and teacher, one of the most important figures  of avant-garde music in Poland and Europe. In 1949 he began studies at the State High School of Music in Katowice with  Wanda Chmielowska (piano) and later, after sustaining a hand  injury, with Bolesław Woytowicz (composition). He continued  his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. From 1967 he taught  composition at the State High School of Music in Katowice. He  also spent time in West Berlin as a DAAD fellow. He led seminars and courses on his own compositional techniques at music  academies and universities, including in Denmark, Germany,  Finland, Poland, and Slovakia. In 1972 he was nominated Rector of the State High School of Music in Katowice, but declined  the position. A year later, after winning a competition, he was  appointed professor at the University of the Arts in West Berlin,  where he took over the composition class from Boris Blacher.  In West Germany he founded the Karol Szymanowski Society,  whose purpose was to promote Polish music. He is regarded as  one of the pioneers of Polish sonorism. 

After a neoclassical-folkloristic period, from the early 1960s he  pursued research into obtaining new sounds drawn from traditional instruments, particularly woodwinds. He discovered socalled combination sounds: multiphonics of a specific timbre, obtained through particular embouchure and special fingering.  In his compositions from the 1980s and 1990s, meanwhile, he  combined innovative sound effects with elements of early music  and classical forms. His honours include an honorary doctorate  from the University of Münster, the Polish Composers’ Union  award for lifetime achievement, and the Kulturpreis Schlesien  from the government of Lower Saxony.

Selected works: Pastorale for orchestra (1955), Polyphonic  Suite for orchestra (1955), Nocturne for harp and string orchestra (1955), Kurpie Suite for alto and nine instruments (1955),  Symphonic Satire for orchestra (1956), Polyphonic Suite for string  orchestra (1956), Sonata for cello and piano (1958), Confessions  for mixed choir / reciter and orchestra (1959), Concertino for  flute and chamber orchestra (1962), Les Sons for symphonic  ensemble (1965), Mutazioni for chamber orchestra (1966), Quattro monologhi for oboe (1966), Proporzioni for flute, viola and  harp (1967), Mutanza for piano (1968), Improvisations sonoristiques for clarinet, trombone, cello and piano (1968), Oh Fair  Earth for voice and orchestra (1969), Five Little Pieces for flute  and another instrument (1969), Aarhus Music for wind quintet (1970), Proporzioni II for flute, cello and harp (1970), Three  Sketches for harp (1972), Connections for ten instruments (1972),  Proporzioni III for violin, cello and piano (1977), Piernikiana for  tuba (1977), Small Symphony B-A-C-H for piano and symphony  orchestra (1981), Take the Game… for six percussionists (1981),  Five Ghoulish Dreams for alto saxophone (1985), Inside?–Outside?  for bass clarinet and string quartet (1987), Toccata e corale for  organ (1988; rev. for piano, 1990), Elegy for the Death of a Friend  for clarinet and piano (1989), Invocazioni for two guitars (1992), Sept épigrammesmodernes after G. Hoffnung for saxophone  quartet (1993), Medusa Dreams of Pegasus for horn and recorder  (1997), Hautbois mon amour for oboe, two harps, timpani and  string orchestra (1999).