Ignacy Podgorski
Deceased Category – Inducted 1978
Ignacy Podgorski was a musician, composer,
arranger, publisher, recording artist and violinist who conducted his
own orchestra. He was born on February 1, 1886 in Kielce, Poland. As a
boy he lived in Czestochowa where he obtained his musical education and
acquired a love for native folk-lore.
 In 1906 Mr. Podgorski came to the United States
with his wife Alexandra and they settled in the Bridesburg section of
Pennsylvania. In a short time he organized his first orchestra in this
country. The music and publishing business was established in 1922.
The years that followed revealed his capacity for work and they were
rewarding. The Podgorski collection of composer-author arrangements
totaled 1,392 collections and his instrumentation publication arranged
for small bands or orchestra amounts to 25 albums.
Podgorski became a popular recording artist and
during the early years of recordings he was featured by RCA Victor
recordings for ten years. RCA awarded him a replica of the famous dog
named “Little Nipper” which became a world wide RCA trade mark. He also
recorded for Columbia, Harmonia, and Okey records.
Alexandra, the first wife of Podgorski died in
1950. He married the present Sophie Podgorski Namiotka in 1951 and lead
a very productive life until he died November 5, 1957.
As a person Ignacy Podgorski was a jovial outgoing
personality with an exceptional talent for producing music. He could be
justly described as a master phraseologist with a pencil at hand, ready
to capture anything that would pop out of his mind that he could add to
music. His emotional nature revealed a love of the poet, and his music
a distinct style of his day — an event among many events that
contributed its share to his native Polish folk-music. His music speaks
for itself; it is lively and inspiring. Its aim was to please the
people and oddly the source was the people. And yet, he was a modest
man who found happiness in music. |
