Bakst Ryszard (4 April 1926, Warsaw – 25 March 1999, Manchester) – pianist, teacher.
Bakst was first given music lessons by his mother. Later, in the years 1932–1939, he studied under Józef Turczyński at the State Conservatory in Warsaw. In 1943, he graduated from the Musical School in Sverdlovsk, USSR. In the years 1945–1947, he studied under the direction of Konstantin Igumnov and Harry Neuhaus at the P. Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. He became active in Wrocław in 1947, initially working as a teacher in the secondary music school and then as a lecturer at the State Higher School of Music in the years 1950–1953. In 1953, he started to teach piano at the State Higher School of Music in Warsaw. In 1947, he made his debut as a soloist in Warsaw. In 1949, he prepared for the 4th Chopin Piano Competition under the direction of Zbigniew Drzewiecki, eventually becoming its laurate. Over the following years, he gave concerts in France (1949), Czechoslovakia (1950), Norway and Denmark (1951), Bulgaria (1951, 1959), Romania (1953), Finland (1955), China (1954/55), Israel (1957), the USSR (1958). In the years 1959–1960, he toured the United States, Canada, Japan, Indonesia, and India. In the years 1966–1968, he was the president of the Warsaw branch of the Association of Polish Musicians. In 1968, he was stripped of his professorship at the Academy of Music in Warsaw and settled in England. He became a professor at the Royal Manchester College of Music in 1969. He also cooperated with the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 1990, he was a member of the jury of the 12th International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.
Bibliography:
- 150 lat Państwowej Wyższej Szkoły Muzycznej w Warszawie, ed. S. Śledziński, Krakow 1960.
- Dybowski S., Słownik pianistów polskich, Warsaw 2003.
- Encyklopedia Muzyczna PWM supl., Krakow 2012.
- Leksykon polskich muzyków pedagogów narodzonych po 31 grudnia 1870 r., ed. K. Janczewska-Sołomko, Krakow 2008.
- Niewiarowska, Kronika Międzynarodowych Konkursów Pianistycznych im. Fryderyka Chopina 1927-1995, Gdańsk 2000.
- Osińska I.E., “Mój profesor Ryszard Bakst,” Ruch Muzyczny 1999, no. 11.
- Słownik Muzyków Polskich, vol. 1, Krakow 1964.
L.T. Błaszczyk, “Żydzi w kulturze muzycznej działający na ziemiach polskich w XIX i XX wieku”, a book published with the support of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage and the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute in Poland.
