Zbigniew Preisner

Preisner became attracted to music when he discovered the cabaret scene in Krakow while a university student. In 1977 he began composing music for the famed Krakow cabaret Piwnica Pod Barabnami (The Cellar Under the Ram), and two years later he began working in Polish film and TV. His collaboration with Kieslowski began in 1984 with "Bez Konca/No End" (1984). He created the scores for all ten parts of Kieslowski's challenging, acclaimed "Decalogue" (1988) series of films based on the ten commandments, including the spare use of a limited range of notes for the powerful "Dekalog 5/A Short Film About Killing." His work with Holland, meanwhile, began with her political drama, "To Kill a Priest" (1988), and continued through such international successes as "Europa, Europa" (1990), "Olivier, Olivier" (1992), and the American remake of the classic children's story "The Secret Garden" (1993). The winner of multiple awards in the 90s from the Los Angeles Film Critics, Preisner has shown particular aptitude for embellishing the psychological states of his characters with his diverse chords, and has been at home amid the strong, complex passions surging through Kieslowski's tricolor trilogy ("Red," "White" and "Blue" 1993-94) and Hollywood efforts like "When a Man Loves a Woman" (1994).