Borowski, Felix

Borowski, Felix, English-American composer, music critic, and teacher; b. Burton, March 10, 1872; d. Chicago, Sept. 6, 1956. He studied violin with his father, a Polish émigré; took lessons with various teachers in London, and at the Cologne Cons.; then taught in Aberdeen, Scotland. His early Russian Sonata was praised by Grieg, which provided impetus to his progress as a composer. In 1897 he accepted a teaching engagement at the Chicago Musical Coll.; was its president from 1916 to 1925. Subsequently he became active in musical journalism; in 1942 he was appointed music ed. of the Chicago Sun; also served as program annotator for the Chicago Sym. Orch. (from 1908). He also taught musicology at Northwestern Univ. (1937–42). Among his many musical works, the violin piece Adoration became widely popular. Borowski revised G.P. Upton’s The Standard Operas in 1928, and The Standard Concert Guide in 1930.

Works

DRAMATIC: Boudour, ballet-pantomime (Chicago, Nov. 25, 1919); Fernando del Nonsensico, satiric opera (1935). orch.: Piano Concerto (Chicago, 1914); Allegro de concert for Organ and Orch. (Chicago, 1915); Peintures (Chicago, Jan. 25, 1918); Le Printemps passionne, symphonic poem (Evan-ston, Ill., 1920); Youth, fantasy-overture (Evanston, Ill, May 30, 1923); Lece Homo, symphonic poem (N.Y., Jan. 2, 1924); Semira-mis, symphonic poem (Chicago, Nov. 13, 1925); 3 syms.: No. 1 (Chicago, March 16, 1933), No. 2 (Los Angeles, July 22, 1936), and No. 3 (Chicago, March 29, 1939); The Little Match Girl for Narrator and Orch., after Andersen (1943); Requiem for a Child (1944); The Mirror, symphonic poem (Louisville, Nov. 27, 1954). chamber: 3 string quartets; many pieces for violin, organ, and piano. vocal: Songs.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire