Lucia Dlugoszewski

Lucia Dlugoszewski (June 16, 1925 – April 11, 2000) was a Polish-American composer, poet, choreographer, performer, and inventor. She developed a unique approach to the grand piano called the “timbre piano,” which involved using objects on the strings and playing the piano’s interior with percussion mallets, hands, or other methods. She also invented many percussion instruments, including Unsheltered Rattles, Tangent Rattles, Square Drums, and Ladder Harps. She is known for her long association with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company, for which she first composed in 1951. She served as the company’s music director until Hawkins’s death in 1994, after which she became its artistic director. Background and early years The daughter of Polish immigrants, Dlugoszewski was born and raised in Detroit. Beginning at the age of six, she studied piano under Agelageth Morrison at the Detroit Institute of Musical Arts, also known as the Detroit Conservatory of Music. Later in life, she studied pre-med at Wayne State University, where she also took physics courses. In 1950, Dlugoszewski moved to New York City, where she became based for the rest of her life. In New York, she took piano lessons from