1960
May
Baird takes part in the Prague Spring Festival as an observer on behalf of the Polish Composers’ Union.
June
The National Philharmonic Orchestra under Witold Rowicki goes on a concert tour of Switzerland and Austria, during which it performs Baird’s Four Essays. The composer accompanies the orchestra.
1961
May
The Prague Spring Festival features a performance of Baird’s Four Essays .
October
The composer travels to West Germany for a performance of his Erotic Poems.
1962
19 May
Tadeusz Baird is again appointed member of the Culture and Art Council.
He travels to London for a performance of his Erotic Poems.
1963
30 March
Tadeusz Baird receives the City of Cologne Music Prize.
The composer again comes first at UNESCO’s International Rostrum of Composers in Paris, this time with his Variations without a Theme for orchestra.
1964
May
Baird visits the Prague Spring Festival, which features a performance of his Variations without a Theme.
19-24 June
The composer travels to Hamburg to attend the 4th International Congress of the International Music Council.
22 July
Baird receives the State Prize, 2nd class, and the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
The Wiener Festwochen features a performance of Baird’s Variations without a Theme.
The ISCM festival in Copenhagen features a performance of Baird’s Epiphany Music (no fewer than 4 compositions by Polish composers were performed during the festival).
1965
Baird becomes a member of the jury at the ISCM Competition in Madrid and at the International Competition for Composers in Abbaye de Royaumont.
1966
16 January
Tadeusz Baird receives the annual Prize of the Polish Composers’ Union for lifetime achievement.
18 September
Baird’s one-act musical drama, Tomorrow, is premiered during the Warsaw Autumn Festival.
Four Dialogues for Oboe and Orchestra receives the 1st Prize at UNESCO’s International Rostrum of Composers in Paris (the third such prize for Baird).
1967
16 April
Tadeusz Baird goes to Moscow on an official visit as a representative of the Polish musical world.
July
The composer’s first trip to the USA (Hanover), where his Four Novelettes will be premiered (on 16 July).
August/September
Baird travels to Canada.
Towards the end of summer I was going to Canada and we agreed with Poświatowska that when I was back in Poland and she had had her operation, we would meet personally. Her last postcard was more cheerful than many of the previous ones, and I said that I’d visit her – as a convalescent – with a big bouquet of flowers.
October
Unfortunately, when the composer returned to Poland, the poet had already died. She died after another heart surgery, on 11 October in Warsaw.
When I bought a local paper in Gdynia, I read a note that Halina Poświatowska had died the day before. Over a fortnight or so, working almost without a break, feeling great tension, I composed 5 songs for mezzo-soprano and chamber orchestra to her poems.
I wasn’t fortunate enough to meet Halina Poświatowska in person, but I felt her death as a big loss. It’s strange: so many years have passed and I still think about it.
29 May
Baird’s opera Tomorrow is performed at the Prague Spring Festival.
June
The composer’s visit to Budapest as part of a project of collaboration between universities.
1-9 December
Baird’s visits Cuba under a cultural exchange programme organised by the Ministry of Culture and Art. He writes to Alina Sawicka:
Greetings from this beautiful and bizarre country under the – worse – sun. I’ll have so much to talk about.
Baird receives the Serge Koussevitzky Prize for his “outstanding contribution to music of our times”.
1969
10–11 January
Baird’s composer concerts at the National Philharmonic Hall. The ISCM Festival in Hamburg features a performance of Four Novelettes.
November
Baird goes to Cologne for some concerts (their programmes will feature his Symphony No. 3).
The composer decides to resign from the Repertoire Committee of the Warsaw Autumn.
