Baird was born in Grodzisk Mazowiecki, in Poland. His father Edward was Polish, while his mother Maria Russian. Tadeusz Baird studied composition, piano and musicology in Warsaw under Kazimierz Sikorski, among others teachers. In 1949 he founded Group 49 along with Kazimierz Serocki and Jan Krenz. The aim of Group 49 was to write communicative and expressive music according to socialist realism, the dominant ideology in the Eastern Bloc at the time. In 1956, along with Kazimierz Serocki, he founded the Warsaw Autumn international contemporary music festival. In 1974 he began to teach composition at the National College of Music in Warsaw. In 1977, now a full professor, he was offered a post to teach a composition class at the Warsaw Academy of Music, and also a membership of the Academie der Künste der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik – Berlin in 1979. He died in 1981, aged 53.
Compositions
He wrote both large scale symphonies and chamber music, however, of great importance in his output are numerous vocal cycles inspired by poetry. He wrote Tomorrow, a musical drama based on a short story by Joseph Conrad. He was also a composer of a film and theatre music. Baird's music is usually lyrical, very expressive, and intensely subjective. It is often rooted in the post-Romantic tradition, despite serial techniques.
Music for solo instruments
Sonatina I for solo piano
Sonatina II for solo piano
Little Suite for Children for solo piano
Chamber music
Two Caprices for Clarinet and Piano
Cztery Preludia for Bassoon and Piano
Divertimento for Flute, Clarinet, Oboe, and Bassoon
Four Dialogs for oboe and chamber orchestra - UNESCO Prize 1966
Oboe Concerto
Scenes for cello, harp and orchestra
Concerto Lugubre for viola and orchestra
Vocal-instrumental works
Four Love Sonnets for baritone and orchestra to texts by Shakespeare
Exhortation for reciting voice and orchestra to old Hebrew texts
Erotyki for soprano and orchestra to texts by Małgorzata Hilar
Five Songs for mezzo-soprano and six instruments to texts by H. Poświatowska - National Prize, 1970
Goethe Letters: Cantata for Baritone for mixed choir and orchestra to texts by Goethe and Charlotta von Stein
Głosy z oddali for baritone and symphony orchestra to texts by J. Iwaszkiewicz
Tomorrow'', a musical drama to a libretto by J. S. Sito
Recordings
Baird's works have limited exposure on record, the principal recordings being a trio of CDs, focusing on his orchestral output and including the one-act opera Tomorrow. The Colas Breugnon suite has been recorded twice, notably by the Polish Chamber Orchestra under Jerzy Maksymiuk on EMI.
