Labunski, Félix 1892-1979

Felix Labunski was a Polish born American composer. He studied with Lucjan Marczewski and Witold Maliszewski at the Warsaw Conservatory (1922-24) and with Paul Dukas, Nadia Boulanger (composition) and Georges Migot (musicology) at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris (1924-34). In 1927 he helped found the Association of Young Polish Composers in Paris. He moved to the United States in 1936 and became an American citizen in 1941. In 1940-41 he was professor of counterpoint and composition at Marymount College in Tarrytown, NY, and in 1945 joined the faculty of the Cincinnati College of Music.

Felix Labunski was a Polish born American composer.

Labunski studied with Lucjan Marczewski and Witold Maliszewski at the Warsaw Conservatory(1922-24) and with Paul Dukas, Nadia Boulanger (composition) and Georges Migot (musicology) at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris (1924-34). In 1927 he helped found the Association of Young Polish Composers in Paris. He moved to the United States in 1936 and became an American citizen in 1941. In 1940-41 he was professor of counterpoint and composition at Marrymount College in Tarrytown, NY, and in 1945 joined the faculty of the Cincinnati College of Music.

Felix Labunski was a Polish-born American composer. Born in Ksawerynow, Poland on December 27, 1892, his father was a prominent civil engineer and his mother an amateur pianist. His mother was influential in developing his musical tastes, as well those of his brother Wiktor (later Director of the Kansas City Conservatory of Music), at an early age. After graduation from a private high school in Moscow, Labunski studied architecture at the Polytechnic Institute in St. Petersburg. His studies were interrupted when he was drafted into the Russian army during World War I. By the time Labunski rejoined his family in Warsaw in 1921, he had decided to give up the study of architecture and devote his time to music.

Labunski studied with Lucjan Marczewski and Witold Maliszewski at the Warsaw Conservatory (1922-24) and with Paul Dukas, Nadia Boulanger (composition) and Georges Migot (musicology) at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris (1924-34). In 1927 he helped found the Association of Young Polish Composers in Paris. In 1933 Labunski married Dorothea Gierasch-Boit, an American sculptor who later exhibited under the name Labunska. One year later he returned to Warsaw and was appointed the head of the Department of Classical Music at Polish Radio, Inc.

Labunski moved to the United States in 1936, and settled in New York City, where his son was born in 1937. He was naturalized as an American citizen in 1941. In 1940-41 Labunkski served as professor of counterpoint and composition at Marymount College in Tarrytown, NY. In 1945 he joined the faculty of the Cincinnati College of Music, where he taught orchestration, composition, and form until 1964. Labunski also made appearances as a pianist, often performing his own compositions, and was an active writer and critic. He received an honorary docotorate from the Chicago Music College in 1951 and an award from ASCAP in 1977.

Felix Labunski died on April 28, 1979. For more detailed information on Labunski’s life and work see Wierzbicki, James, “Traditional Value in a Century of Flux: The Music of Feliks Labunski (1892-1979)” in Polish Music Journal, vol. 4, no. 1 (Summer 2001), or the sources listed below.

Sources: Ewen, David. American Composers Today. New York: H.W. Wilson, 1949.

New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. London: Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2001.