The prominent Polish composer, Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki, has been granted honorary citizenship of the city of Katowice.

Born in the village of Czernica, not far from Katowice, in 1933, Gorecki studied composition in Katowice and taught at the city’s Music Academy, serving as its Rector in 1975-79.

Having lived in Katowice for many years, he now spends most of his time in the beloved Tatra foothills. On December 6, Gorecki will celebrate his 75th birthday.

Gorecki is acclaimed as one of the most original voices in contemporary music. In the mid-1950s – at the time of the post-Stalinist cultural thaw – he found himself at the forefront of the Polish avant-garde. He also explored the folk music traditions.

The simple yet monumental style for which he is today renowned became fully established in the 1970s with such works as Symphony No. 2 ‘Copernican’ (1972), Symphony No. 3 ‘Symphony of Sorrowful Songs’ (1976) and the Psalm setting Beatus vir.

In the early 1980s, Gorecki concentrated on choral settings and chamber music. In the 1990s, the recording of his Third Symphony achieved unprecedented international success, becoming the most successful recording ever of a work by a contemporary composer. He has worked closely with the Kronos Quartet, which performed all of his three string quartets.