Kaczmarek, Jan

Jan Kaczmarek -- Wins Oscar
Composer Jan Kaczmarek, 52, won the Oscar for original music score for "Finding Neverland," which was presented at the 77th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday, February 27, 2005. While accepting the award, he thanked his Polish collaborators. "Finding Neverland" is the story of how James Barrie came to write "Peter Pan".
From: Polish American News, June/July, 2005
Jan A. P. Kaczmarek
An Oscar for Kaczmarek
Polish composer receives Academy Award in Music
by Jadwiga Inglis
Polish composer Jan A. P. Kaczmarek received an Academy Award for music, Original Score, written for the film "Finding Neverland," directed by Marc Forster.

Nominated for an Academy Award in Music were also John Williams for "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," Thomas Newman for "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events," John Debney for "The Passion of the Christ," and James Newtown Howard for "The Village." "Finding Neverland" is a movie about the author of Peter Pan, James Barrie, who received inspiration for his story through friendship with a widow and her four sons. "I was in Warsaw and very passionate about the film. I've never done a picture of this kind, one that deals with the world of children to such a degree, and a picture with such a gentle message," said Jan Kaczmarek two days before the Oscars at the meeting in Consul General Tokarska -Biernacik residency, organized by Modjeska Art and Culture Club in cooperation with the Consulate General of Poland in Los Angeles.
"All my previous scores like 2002's 'Unfaithful', 1999's 'Aimee and Jaguar', or 1995's 'Total Eclipse', 'Bliss', "The Third Miracle", and 'Quo Vadis' dealt with quite complicated or complex adult relationships. I wanted to show people that I also could use the language of innocence, joy and lightness. I wrote a music piece in two days for the film about J. M. Barrie's inspiration for the Peter Pan story. I hired an orchestra and a boy's choir and created demos to send to Los Angeles. My music submission was accepted."
Jan Kaczmarek used a small boy's choir for Peter's breakdown and a rare Indian flute that sounds a bit like an ocarina. He chooses a small choir to keep the intimate character of the scene. He used exotic woodwinds to give it the flavor of memories of adventure, even within this very sad, emotional moment of extreme closeness between Peter staring Freddie Highmore and James Barrie staring Johnny Depp.
"When everything was leaning toward this." said Kaczmarek during discussion led by Marek Zebrowski, "I was restraining myself all the time. and suddenly, there was a scene where the mother, staring Kate Winslet, goes into Neverland, into the magic garden, and then the music opens up: It's the biggest cue in terms of size of orchestra; that was a moment of release for me when things really happen."
"First l use my instinct, then intellect. I watch the film several times until there arises some kind of unity between the materials and me. I become inspired and this is how my music arises."
Jan Kaczmarek, born in 1953 in Konin, Poland, is the author of music to more than thirty films. He is a successful composer with a tremendous international reputation. He lives and works in Los Angeles, but his music does not resemble that of most contemporary Hollywood composers. Educated as a lawyer, he abandoned his career. That major turning point in his life, he said, was a period of intense workshops with avant-garde theatre director Jerzy Grotowski. Following his need for freedom of expression, Kaczmarek was composing first for the highly politicized underground, the Eight Day Theatre, and then for a mini-orchestra of his own creation, The Orchestra of the Eighth Day.
After composing striking scores for Chicago's Goodman Theatre and Los Angeles' Taper Forum, Jan won two prestigious New York Theater awards: Obie and Drama Desk Award (1992) for music to "Tis Pity She a Whore" directed by JoAnne Akalaitis for New York Shakespeare Festival/ Public Theatre.
He directed three multimedia performances, 'Waiting for Halley's Comet', 'One Man Symphony,' and Tower of Babel.' Having also composed music for films in Poland, he next turned his attention to that medium, achieving recognition as a film composer. Receiving an Academy Award is like entering the magic garden of the film industry. As the story points, Neverland is the world for people of high imagination. Certainly, it is the world of Jan Kaczmarek which he found, and in which he can compose his individual music. In this world of imagination, his talent in fullness was uncovered and the most appreciated. Receiving the Oscar on February 27, 2005 from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science makes Jan A. P. Kaczmarek world-known.
From: Bialy Orzel - White Eagle, Vol..1, Issue 2, March 29, 2005