Tadeusz Baird

Tadeusz Baird (born July 26, 1928, Grodzisk Mazowiecki, Poland—died September 2, 1981, Warsaw) was a Polish composer with a late Romantic lyrical style, often considered the spiritual heir to Alban Berg, Gustav Mahler, and Karol Szymanowski. Baird was a cofounder, with Kazimierz Serocki, of the annual Warsaw Autumn (Warszawska Jesień) International Festival of Contemporary Music, a nine-day festival held in late September.

Baird studied with Bolesław Woytowicz and Kazimierz Sikorski during World War II and later with Piotr Rytek and Piotr Perkowski at the Warsaw Music Conservatory. With Jan Krenz and Serocki, Baird formed Group 49, whose members in accordance with the state ideology of socialist realism sought to create music for the masses that was nevertheless contemporary. Baird’s later compositions owed more to Western influence. His Four Essays for orchestra (1958) won first prize at the 1958 Grzegorz Fitelberg Competition in Katowice. He won the International UNESCO Composers’ Rostrum in 1959, 1963, and 1966 and the Koussevitzky Prize in 1968, among many other honours. Baird became a professor at the Warsaw Academy of Music in 1974.