Roman Palester

Roman Palester (28 December 1907 – 25 August 1989) was a Polish composer of classical music. Palester composed his most significant work during the 1960s and was the first Polish musician to be awarded the Alfred Jurzykowski Prize in 1964. His work was individual in style and not noticeably Polish in character. Palester was born in Śniatyń of Habsburg-controlled Galicia, in 1907. At the age of seven he started piano lessons and by age twelve was studying at the Music Institute in Kraków. In 1925, he began to study art history at Warsaw University. Palester graduated from the Warsaw Conservatory with a degree in music theory and composition in 1931, having studied under Kazimierz Sikorski. His first recognition came in 1932 when his “Psalm V for Baritone, Choir and Orchestra” was awarded first place in the Competition of the Singers’ Societies Association . Palester travelled extensively during his life and lived at different times in Warsaw, Paris, and Munich. In 1940, during the German occupation of Poland, he was briefly imprisoned in Warsaw’s Pawiak prison. Both before and just after the Second World War he composed film scores for a number of major Polish cinematic productions