When he was a teen, it was known that the defiant young man had an innate musical talent. Numerous successes in school piano competitions, led Kilar to continuously improve his skills, including in the art of composition. After graduating from high school, he began his studies at the State Higher School of Music in Katowice, where he studied with the renowned musician and educator Bolesław Woytowicz. The early stage of Kilar's career was closely associated with his teacher.

After practising music alongside Woytowicz at the Kraków Academy of Music, Kilar decided on further studies. Thanks to the scholarships he received, Kilar visited Germany and France, where he became acquainted with the latest trends and theories of contemporary music. As a result of these foreign inspirations, Kilar composed many interesting pieces, including the innovative, sonoristic orchestral work Riff 62 from 1962.

The flourishing of artistic craftsmanship of Wojciech Kilar occurred in the seventies. It was then, as now a fully mature musician and a leading representative of the Polish avant-garde music, that Kilar composed his greatest work. It was a symphonic poem Krzesany (1974) - shocking contemporary music lovers, kept in the style of the so-called minimal music, characterized by the simplicity of melody and harmony of remarkable clarity.

Kilar also used his great musical skills in film. The soundtrack to the film The Promised Land by Andrzej Wajda (1975) earned him international recognition and opened the way for cooperation with foreign film-makers. In 1992, Kilar received the Award of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Producers for the music to the American horror film Bram Stoker's Dracula, directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

While still living, Wojciech Kilar was awarded the highest Polish state distinction - the Order of the White Eagle. The composer died at the end of 2013 in Katowice and was buried at the cemetery at Sienkiewicza street.

Do you know?

• Wojciech Kilar is one of the leading representatives of the so-called Polish avant-garde music school, next to Krzysztof Penderecki and Henryk Mikołaj Górecki.
• The composer was part of the Program Committee of the International Festival of Contemporary Music Warsaw Autumn - one of the biggest musical events of this type in the world.
• In 1991 director and screenwriter Krzysztof Zanussi made a movie called Wojciech Kilar. It was a kind of tribute to the composer, with whom Zanussi had worked for over forty years at numerous film productions.
• Initially it was Kilar who was supposed to write the music for the blockbuster mega-hit The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Despite the support of film director Peter Jackson, the producers chose a Canadian composer Howard Shore.