Jerzy Maksymiuk

Jerzy Maksymiuk was born in 1936 in the Polish city of Grodno, which after World War II became part of Belarus. His family moved to Bialystok during the war in order to escape from the Russians. The parents, who got divorced when he was 15, were uneducated farmers. Jerzy started his musical education in Bialystok and then moved to Warsaw, where he graduated from the State Academy of Music. He took classes in playing the piano, composing and conducting. Maksymiuk was introduced into the world of films by his cousin, director Czeslaw Petelski, who gave him his first job in the business. For over 30 years Jerzy Maksymiuk was the composer and/or conductor of nearly 100 Polish films. Today Maksymiuk is best known in Poland as well as abroad as an extremely gifted and hard-working conductor. He was responsible for creating the world-famous Polish Chamber Orchestra (Polska Orkiestra Kameralna). After working as its conductor for 13 years, he became the conductor of the prestigious BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. His successful work in Glasgow took him another 13 years.