Zbigniew Preisner

Zbigniew Preisner (born May 20, 1955) is Poland's leading film score composer, best known for his work for the director Krzysztof Kie?lowski.

Related Topics:
May 20 - 1955 - Poland - Film score - Composer - Director - Krzysztof Kie?lowski

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Preisner was born in Bielsko-Bia?a, Poland. He studied history and philosophy at Krakow, and never received formal lessons in music, instead teaching himself by copying down parts from records.

Related Topics:
Bielsko-Bia?a - History - Philosophy - Krakow - Music - Record

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Preisner is best known for his work on Kie?lowski's movies. Some of those movies make reference to a fictitious Dutch composer by the name of Van den Budenmayer, and Preisner writes the music which in the plot of the movie is said to be by Budenmayer.

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After working with fellow Pole, Agnieszka Holland on Kie?lowski's ', Preisner was hired by producer Francis Ford Coppola to write the score for The Secret Garden, directed by Holland.

Related Topics:
Agnieszka Holland - Francis Ford Coppola - The Secret Garden

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Although Preisner is most closely associated with Kie?lowski, he has written for other directors, winning a César in 1996 for his work on Jean Becker's Elisa. He has won a number of other awards, including another César in 1994 for ', and the Silver Bear from the Berlin Film Festival in 1997 for The Island on Bird Street.

Related Topics:
César - Jean Becker - Berlin Film Festival - The Island on Bird Street

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Joni Mitchell's symphonic-rock CD "Travelogue," released in 2002, includes a version of Preisner's "Song For The Unification of Europe" written for Three Colors: Blue.

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In 1998, Requiem for My Friend, Preisner's first large scale work not written for film, was premiered. It was originally intended as a narrative work to be written by Krzysztof Piesiewicz and directed by Kie?lowski, but after Kie?lowski's death, it instead became a sort of memorial to him.

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He composed the theme music for the People's Century, a monumental twenty-six part documentary made jointly in 1994 by the BBC television network in Great Britain and the PBS television network in the United States.

Related Topics:
People's Century - Documentary - BBC - Great Britain - PBS - United States

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Preisner's style is basically Romantic, with Jean Sibelius being an acknowledged influence.

Related Topics:
Romantic - Jean Sibelius

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