Film Music Reporter

Wojciech Kilar has passed away at age 81. The Polish composer was best known for his work for film, including the scores for Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker‘s Dracula, Jane Campion’s The Portrait of a Lady and three collaborations with Roman Polanski on movies including The Ninth Gate, The Death and the Maiden and The Pianist, for which he was honored with a BAFTA nomination and a Cesar Award. His other film scoring credits include James Gray’s We Own the Night, as well as numerous Polish film and TV productions. Kilar was born in 1932 and went on to study piano and composition and graduated from the State Higher School of Music in his hometown Katowice in Southern Poland. Apart from his music for film and television, he has also written a number of symphonies and concertos. The composer died in Katowice following a long illness.