Wiktor Tychowski

Biography

Wiktor Tychowski was born on August 30, 1903 in Lviv. He was a member of the Association of Silesian Insurgents. For his participation in the uprising in Silesia, he was awarded the Cross of Valor. He was the first musician to promote the Hawaiian guitar in Poland. He was one of the most popular guitarists (alongside Wawrzyniec Zywolewski and Jan Zawrusiewicz), and was engaged by many respected orchestras, including: dancing. In the early 1930s, he founded the Hawaiian Guitar Orchestra and, together with Wiktor Osiecki, he also led a salon orchestra. He performed in front of the microphone of Polish Radio stations in Warsaw, Poznan and Lviv. As a soloist, accompanist and conductor, Tychowski recorded for as many as four record labels. His orchestra made its first recordings at the end of 1932 for the Syrena-Record company. Shortly afterwards, in the spring of 1933, he and his orchestra made a series of recordings for the Cristal-Electro company. As a conductor, he also collaborated with the composer Mieczyslaw Wróblewski - in 1934, Mieczyslaw Fogg, Tadeusz Faliszewski and the debuting Wiera Gran recorded with their orchestra. In later years, Wiktor Tychowski also recorded as a soloist (with the orchestras of Wladyslaw Eiger, Henryk Gold, Iwo Wesby and Henryk Wars) and accompanist (including those of Olga Kamienska and Adam Aston). In 1935, he led the dancing orchestra at the Monopol Hotel in Katowice. In 1936 he led a dance orchestra, with which he also made numerous recordings. His last recordings come from the end of 1938. In the last years before the war, he performed on Polish cruise ships (including dancing on the Kosciuszko ship during a cruise through Scandinavia, Great Britain and Iceland). Just before the outbreak of the war, in the summer of 1939, he gave concerts in Warsaw with his guitar trio. Tychowski took part in broadcasts of the Warsaw station of Polish Radio, Radiowy tea, artistic afternoon tea, broadcast live, among others. from Dolinka Szwajcarska, he also played in the radio Dance Mosaics. He composed several songs. The most popular are the tangos My guitar (Singing Lviv) and the tangos devoted to the Polish American community, I had to leave you. He also appeared on the silver screen several times. During World War II, Wiktor Tychowski served in the navy as a chief petty officer. In 1944, he was the chef on the Polish ship Stefan Batory, transporting soldiers of the 2nd Polish Army Corps in the East from Egypt to Italy. His further fate is unknown.