Founder and artistic director of Wratislavia Cantans (1966–1977). He was born on 22 August 1924 in Lublin and died on 30 October 1986 in Warsaw. In 1939–1941, he studied composition in Lublin, and in 1943–1944, he studied piano in Warsaw. He participated in the Warsaw Uprising as a soldier of the Home Army. After the Warsaw Uprising, he was deported to the Murnau camp. After the end of World War II, he first went to Italy with Anders' Army, and then to London. In 1946–1947, he studied at Trinity College of Music in London (composition with Alec Rowley), and in 1947–1955, he studied at the State Higher School of Music in Warsaw under Piotr Rytel and Tadeusz Szeligowski (composition) and Witold Rowicki (conducting).

In 1955–1959, he was the conductor of the Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice, and in 1959–1964, he was the artistic director and principal conductor of the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 1959, he founded a chamber orchestra in Krakow, and then organised a series of concerts entitled Musica Antiqua et Nova and the Krakow Spring of Young Musicians, during which he premiered many works by Krzysztof Penderecki, Grażyna Bacewicz and others. With the Krakow ensemble, he toured Italy, Belgium and the United States.

A great promoter of Polish music in Poland and abroad. He conducted several times in Berlin, at La Scala in Milan, in Amsterdam with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Brussels at the Palais des Beaux Arts, in Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Cologne, Florence, Leipzig, Dresden, Montreux, Frankfurt, Tehran, Beirut, Melbourne, Moscow, Copenhagen, Oslo, Darmstadt, Buenos Aires and Mexico City. He became famous as an irreplaceable performer of early music, conducting works such as Monteverdi's Il Vespro della Beata Vergine and Combatimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, Debussy's Pelleas and Melizanda, and Handel's Messiah and Judas Maccabaeus for the first time in Poland.

In 1965, he decided to take up the position of director of the Wrocław Philharmonic and oversaw the opening of its new headquarters. In 1966, he established the Wratislavia Cantans oratorio and cantata festival and served as its artistic director (1966–1976); at the same time, he directed the Polish Contemporary Music Festival in Wrocław and the Organ and Harpsichord Music Festival.

In 1970, he toured the Far and Middle East with the National Philharmonic Orchestra, and in 1971–1977 he became its conductor and deputy artistic director.

He also became famous as an outstanding performer of Baroque and contemporary music. He has conducted many times at the Venice Biennale and in Perugia during the Sacra Musicale Umbria festival. He has conducted concerts with world-famous artists such as Artur Rubinstein, David Oistrakh, Isaac Stern, Maurizio Pollini, Henryk Szeryng, Krystian Zimerman, Stefan Askenase, Julius Katchen and Vlado Perlemuter.

He promoted contemporary music on Polish and foreign stages, performing over 25 times at the Warsaw Autumn Festival and sitting on its repertoire committee (1971–1981). There, he gave world premieres and first performances in Poland of works by Krzysztof Penderecki, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Kazimierz Serocki, Tomasz Sikorski, Kazimierz Sikorski, Bolesław Szabelski, Witold Szalonek, Paweł Szymański, György Ligeti, Pierre Boulez, Hans Werner Henze, Charles Ives, Iannis Xenakis, Luigi Nono and Bruno Maderna.

As a composer, he gained enormous renown, writing music for over 35 short and feature films, including: Pokolenie (The Generation), Popioły (Ashes), Andrzej Wajda's Przekładaniec, Jerzy Hoffman's Pan Wołodyjowski, and experimental films by Andrzej Munk, Walerian Borowczyk, Jan Lenica and Tadeusz Makarczyński. He also inspired Andrzej Wajda to make the film Dyrygent (The Conductor). He also wrote music for the theatre. In 1965, he received the 2nd degree award of the Ministry of Culture and Art, in 1974 the 1st degree state award for outstanding artistic creations at the Warsaw Autumn Festival, and twice the critics' award – the Orpheus statuette (1968, 1971).

In 1969 and 1971, he was the winner of the annual award of the Polish Composers' Union, and in 1974 he received the Grand Prix du Disque Charles Cros record award in France for his recording of Krzysztof Penderecki's Jutrznia. From 1980, he was a conductor in Groningen in the Netherlands. In 1982, he became the artistic director of the Philharmonic in Łódź.

Marta Kępińska was responsible for editing and selecting the materials for the exhibition.