Skrowaczewski was born in
Lwów,
Second Polish Republic (now Lviv,
Ukraine). His parents were Paweł and Zofia (Karszniewicz) Skrowaczewski. His mother, an amateur pianist, began giving him lessons at the age of four, and he composed his first symphony by age eight. The
Lwów Philharmonic performed one of his symphonies that same year. He gave his first piano recital at age eleven, and then, at age thirteen, he conducted and was the soloist in
Beethoven's
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor. His complete set of recordings of the symphonies of
Anton Bruckner, made with the
Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, has received much acclaim, as has his 2005/06 complete
Beethoven symphony cycle with the orchestra. Another noted recording is his
Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 with the
London Symphony Orchestra in collaboration with soloist
Gina Bachauer. Skrowaczewski's
Passacaglia Immaginaria, completed in 1995, was nominated for the
Pulitzer Prize in 1997. Commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestral Association to honor the memory of Ken and Judy Dayton, it was premiered at
Orchestra Hall in
Minneapolis in 1996. His Chamber Concerto was commissioned by the
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in memory of
Leopold Sipe, their first music director. Skrowaczewski received his second Pulitzer nomination in 1999 for his
Concerto for Orchestra. He received the Commander
Order of the White Eagle, the highest order conferred by the Polish government, as well as the Gold Medal of the Mahler-Bruckner Society, the 1973
Ditson Conductor's Award, and the
Kennedy Center Friedheim Award's third prize in 1978 for his
Ricercari Notturni for saxophone and orchestra. He was the father of
Paul Sebastien, founder of electronica groups
Psykosonik and
Basic Pleasure Model, and of Nicholas Skrowaczewski. He lived in
Wayzata, Minnesota, and died in
St. Louis Park on February 21, 2017.
Frederick Harris, Jr., director of the
MIT Wind Ensemble, wrote Skrowaczewski's official biography. == Recordings ==