In April 2021, we celebrated the 90th birth anniversary of the distinguished Polish composer Krzysztof Komeda. This celebrated jazz musician has tied his artistic life with the “Medyka” Club, a students’ life rallying point for many well-known today medics. Among them was Prof. Henryk Skarżyński, who became an otolaryngologist like Komeda. When Komeda died in 1969, the “Medyka” Club, and later the “Hybrydy” Club, organized a series of concerts “Muzyka pozostała” [Music remains] commemorating his artistic work. Prof. H. Skarżyński remembers these musical meetings with emotion.

– The avant-garde place at 7 Oczki Street, the legendary “Medyka” Club, played a vital role in my life. Before becoming a doctor, I was interested in history and wrote poems. In the third grade at high school, I wrote my first three-act play; I made an electric guitar in the fourth grade. Music has always been hugely important to me. During my studies, I was actively involved in the “Medyka” Club, where we organized, among others, meetings dedicated to Krzysztof Komeda. I returned to my artistic interests many years later thanks to implanted patients – remembers Prof. H. Skarżyński.

Prof. Henryk Skarżyński is the author of several hundred stories and poems, several dozen scripts for documentary and scientific films, and recently a fiction film and musical libretto, as well as song lyrics dedicated to his patients. I initiated and organized the world’s first International Music Festival of Children, Youths, and Adults with Hearing Disorders, “Beats of Cochlea.”

Prof. Skarżyński’s passion for music, though in a completely different climate, can also be seen in the film novel “Powrót Beethovena” (Return of Beethoven), which he wrote. The book interweaves fictionalized biographies of real people, autobiographical motives, and memories of Ludwig van Beethoven.

– I like saying that we need music to live like we need the sun. It moves us often and almost always when performed by patients who used to be deaf. I am happy that I can experience that, and I’m not merely a passive receiver of these sensations  –  adds Prof. H. Skarżyński.