Music, art, and poetry have a special place in the life of prof. Henryk Skarżyński. He is the author of many screenplays of documentary and instructional films, occasional poetry, songs, occasional performances, and others. He is a man of many passions. He started writing poetry in the second grade of secondary school. His most famous poem is “The World That I Can Hear.” It has become the artistic anthem of the Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing. It is performed during numerous anniversary celebrations that are always organized with the participation of the government’s, ministries’ and state offices’ representatives, scientists, experts of different medical fields, representatives of academia, organizations of patients, non-governmental organizations, churches, and media.
Since 2014, he is the leading initiator and organizer of the yearly International Festival of Children, Youths, and Adults with Hearing Disorders “Beats of Cochlea,” which collects hundreds of musically talented hearing implant users from all over the world. The Festival demonstrates the abilities of people who, after cochlear implantation, can communicate with others without any problems and have musical hearing and passion that fills their lives. They develop their artistic talents, sing, compose music, play different instruments, and even record professional albums. They are the living proof that even the most severe hearing impairment doesn’t have to be an obstacle on the way to a career in music. Organizing the Festival, prof. Henryk Skarżyński wanted to help them to make their musical dreams and plans real. To the hearing members of our society, he wanted to demonstrate daily medical achievements. The Festival, successfully organized for six years, is a musical and scientific event recognized worldwide. Its finalists participated with prof. H. Skarżyński in special sessions of the European Parliament in Brussels in 2018 and 2019.
Prof. Henryk Skarżyński is also the author of the libretto for the first in the world music show with patients and cochlear implant users titled “Silence Interrupted,” which had a premiere in the Warsaw Chamber Opera on 14 September 2019. The Musical presents true histories of real patients who were born with deafness or profound hearing loss, or lost hearing later in life, or had other problems with hearing. Application of the newest technologies and surgical methods developed and implemented by prof. Henryk Skarżyński in the World Hearing Center has allowed them to leave the world of silence. The protagonists are the real patients, to whom prof. Henryk Skarżyński dedicated many of his poems describing their challenging and complicated lives. The music is composed by prof. Krzesimir Dębski, the composer and arranger, who is also the musical director of the “Silence Interrupted.” The Musical’s director is the worldwide known director, Michał Znaniecki, who has collaborated with the Warsaw Chamber Opera for many years. Luigi Scoglio created the stage design. The three-acts story presents the lives, the development of hearing, speech, and interpersonal communication, and the artistic journeys of many Professor’s patients. The Musical has won the “Warsaw Award of Education in Culture 2020”.
Professor Skarżyński is also the author of the novel “Beethoven’s Return,” published in 2021. He also wrote a screenplay of a feature film based on that novel. The film is presently in production. It documents the greatest, first on a global scale, Polish science and medicine achievements in diagnostics, treatment, and rehabilitation of different sensory organs disorders, especially total and partial deafness. Its action takes place in many countries on three continents and Poland in the World Hearing Center. In that Center, for 17 years, is performed the largest in the world number of hearing improving surgeries in children, youths, and adults. The screenplay shows applications on the many globally newest technological, organizational, and surgical achievements developed and introduced to the daily clinical practice. Another extraordinary passion of prof. Henryk Skarżyński is his collection of snails. That passion has become a reason for creating the “Museum of Snails” and beating the Guinness World Record. In July 2012, he had won in the category “The Largest Collection of Objects with the image or looking like a snail” with the result of 1377. Today, his collection numbers already more than 5 thousand