Conrad Saskowski was born March 17, 1908 in Milwaukee (Wisconsin), one of 13 children to Polish immigrant parents. He was raised in the Polish-American community of South Milwaukee. From an early age, music played an important role in his life.
In 1931, he earned a BA degree from Marquette University. Beginning in 1934, he taught history and served as a guidance counselor at South Division High School in Milwaukee for 38 years. In 1942, Saskowski enlisted in the U.S. Army. After World War II, he returned to his studies, earning an MA in History from Marquette University in 1947. He also studied music at the Julliard School of Music and at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (though there is no evidence of this in the collection).
In addition to being a teacher, Saskowski helped produce various school musicals and revues. He was active in the community, especially in disseminating Polish-American culture to Milwaukee (in which a significant Polish population resided). He was a tireless promoter of both his compositions and the activities of the Polish Fine Arts Club, an organization he helped to found and which he served, on numerous occasions, as president. In 1949, the Polish Fine Arts Club disbanded due to declining interest by the membership.
Saskowski was a very ambitious composer whose pieces ranged from songs (religious and secular), operas, operettas, and orchestral parts and arrangements. He was most productive from the late 1930s to the late 1940s. His early compositions Yours to Command (1934) and Polonaise (1939) helped establish his role within the musical landscape of Milwaukee. Polonaise was performed in the Pabst Theatre in 1939 to sold-out audiences.
He scored a minor success in Milwaukee in 1948 through an invitation by the mayor, Frank P. Zeidler, to perform an original operetta entitled Blond Squaw as part of the Wisconsin State Centennial celebrations in the city of Milwaukee. This operetta was reprised the following year at the Pabst Theatre to two sold-out performances.
In the late 1970s, Saskowski petitioned the Milwaukee Parks Commission and the Milwaukee City Council to help fund a revival of Blond Squaw. After numerous leads and dead ends in staging the operetta, Saskowski's determination paid off when he revived Blond Squaw after retitling it Spring Song. The title was changed due to pressure from the coordinator of Native American studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and from a variety of other persons whose help Saskowski enlisted.
In addition to his operettas, Saskowski composed many sacred music compositions throughout his life. These compositions provide another dimension to Saskowski's creative output. His earliest sacred work, Our Lady of Victory Mass (1950s), is a piece for piano and voice. Saskowski expanded this work with an orchestral arrangement by the famous Polish conductor Jerzy Bojanowski (1893-1983), a Milwaukee resident and confidant of Saskowski and entitled it Latin Mass in A (1978). These sacred works eventually culminated in Saskowski's final composition Mass in Honor of Our Lady of Czestochowa which held its world premiere after Saskowski's death.
There is little evidence in the collection that Saskowski was a major figure in music, but he did achieve some local fame. In 1939, the pre-war government of Poland awarded Saskowski a medal of citation for fostering the musical works of Polish composers (this is not in the collection). In 1978, the Milwaukee Common Council passed a resolution recognizing Saskowski's contribution to Milwaukee.
Saskowski died on April 22, 1984 in Milwaukee. His own composition, Sanctus, from the Mass in Honor of Our Lady of Czestochowa was performed at his funeral. In October of 1984, the full mass was performed by the Bach Chamber Choir.
