Alexandr
Alexander Szydlowski was born on June 18, 1911 in a village of Minski, Smorgon’ region, at that time Vilna Governorate, Russian Empire, into a poor peasant family. They had 5 children. During the World War I, the family evacuated to Russian city Simbirsk (today's Ulyanovsk), and stayed there from 1914 to 1921.
Szydlowski studied at the Karl Marx boarding school in Simbirsk together with his younger sister. In 1923, the family returned to their homeland. The village was burnt, so in the beginning they lived in German trench shelters, later built own house. Alexander finished local Polish 7-year school. In 1927, he entered Vilnius Belarusian Gymnasium, where he met many Belarusian cultural activists, including well-known choir director Ryhor Shyrma. Szydlowski joined Belarusian underground communist movement, became member of the Communist Party of Western Belarus, banned by Polish authorities. In 1929, he was expelled from the Gymnasium for this. Later, he studied by correspondence at Lomonosov Moscow State University, and graduated from it in 1950 with the qualification “Scientist in the field of historical sciences, Lecturer, Teacher.”
In 1928, Szydlowski became an instructor at the Belarusian parliamentary club of the Polish Sejm "Zmaganne” (Competition). In 1930, he was a delegate to the Congress of peasant youth in Berlin. In the same year, for his revolutionary activities Szydlowski was arrested and sentenced by the Vilnius Regional Court to five years' imprisonment and deprivation of civil rights for 10 years (1931-1936). Then, he worked as a seasonal worker in Vilnius, Warsaw (at a coal bin, mental hospital, construction site). In 1937, he was sent to prison again.
In 1938, Szydlowski with his brother Joseph Urbanowicz founded the latest in Poland legal Belarusian organization - Belarusian Cultural Society in Warsaw. The organization led a great patriotic work among Belarusian workers in Warsaw. At the same time, Szydlowski collected Belarusian folk songs, arranged them, sang in the choir.
In September 1939, after the reunification of Western and Eastern Belarus, he returned to native village. In the early 1940s, he went to Bialystok, where Ryhor Shyrma founded Belarusian State Song and Dance Ensemble. Alexander Szydlowski became an artist-soloist of the ensemble. During the war period, they toured a lot, sang in hospitals. In June 1944, after the liberation of Belarus from Nazi invaders, the ensemble moved to Minsk, in Autumn 1944 - to Grodno, and in 1952, the ensemble was finally transferred to Minsk, and became State Academic Chapel Choir of the Belarusian SSR, but Alexander Szydlowski stayed in Grodno. In 1950, upon graduation from the Lomonosov Moscow State University, Szydlowski worked as a teacher of music and singing at the Grodno secondary school No 10, headed the school choir, and many vocal circles at the enterprises of the city.
In 1960-1995, Alexander Szydlowski worked at the Grodno Regional House of Folk Art (since 1991, it was renamed as the Grodno Regional Scientific and Methodological Center for Folk Art). In 1960, he became its director (up to 1970) and was awarded the title "Honored Worker of Culture of the BSSR." In 1972-1995, he was the leading specialist of the Center. His first collection of compositions "Songs" (32 songs) was published in 1964, the second collection "Fly, our song" (28 songs) - in 1990.
Alexander Szydlowski largely determined development of music and folk art of the Grodno region. In 1965, at the initiative and with the active assistance of Szydlowski, the Museum of Contemporary Folk and Amateur Art at the Grodno Regional House of Folk Art. Szydlowski organized many choirs, including the Choir of the Song and Dance Ensemble “Nieman”, wrote more than 200 songs, such as “Grodno Waltz”, “Oh, Nieman native”, “A song about Grodno” and many other renown compositions.
During his studies at Vilnius Belarusian Gymnasium, Szydlowski joined Belarusian underground communist movement, became member of the Communist Party of Western Belarus, banned by Polish authorities. In 1929, he was expelled from the Gymnasium for this. For his revolutionary activities Szydlowski was arrested and kept in prison several times.
In 1938, Szydlowski with his brother Joseph Urbanowicz founded the latest in Poland legal Belarusian organization - Belarusian Cultural Society in Warsaw. The organization led a great patriotic work among Belarusian workers in Warsaw.
Alexander Szydlowski was an artist-soloist of the ensemble, founded by Ryhor Shyrma. They toured a lot around the country.
