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"Chopin with Cherries" poems found their way into the program of the 24th International Festival Chopin and Friends held in New York in November 2022. The festival featured 6 concerts and ended with “Grand Finale: Polish Frescoes” at the Polish Consulate in New York on November 17, 2022. Hosted, by actress Weronika Wozniak, host, the program featured an AV Installation "Where is Chopin" by Jaroslaw Kapuscinski (Professor at Stanford University).
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The program of November 17 Gala Concert included Franz Liszt - Liebestraum A-flat No.3 played by Matthew Pulick - piano; Fryderyk Chopin - Ballade in G Minor Op.23, Antoni Kontski - "L'lsolement". Meditation op. 47 and Marcel Chyrzynski - Reflection no.8 for Piano (American premiere) played by Slawomir Dobrzanski - piano with poetry readings by Weronika Wozniak of poems by Maja Trochimczyk inspired by the music of Chopin. After the intermission Fei-Fei played Claude Debussy's Suite Pour le Piano " Bergamasque": Prélude, Menuet, Clair de lune, Passapied and Fryderyk Chopin's Andante Spianato et Grande Polonaise in E-flat Major Op.22.
As journalist Elzbieta Popławska wrote in a review in Nowy Dziennik, “Weronika Woźniak, a Polish actress with great charm and talent, hosted the last evening of the festival. Weronika was born and raised in Poland. She graduated from acting school in New York. He is trying to conquer the New York scenes and break into the acting elite. She has already performed in many New York theaters, as well as in the Teatr im. Juliusz Słowacki in Krakow.” The first pianist was a talented sixteen-year-old student who currently studies music and often appears in concerts in New York. In addition to the Ballade op. 23 by Fryderyk Chopin, and a piece by Antoni Kątski, Dobrzanski gave the American premiere of a work by Marceli Chyrzyński, a graduate of the Academy of Music in Krakow, who teaches composition there as full professor since 2020. He holds the full range of Polish academic titles: Prof. dr. hab. In her review, Popławska thus described Prof. Sławomir Dobrzański: “an outstanding Polish pianist who distinguished himself with his playing technique and expressive performance.”
https://dziennik.com/wielokulturowy-pociag-zakonczyl-trase
The reviewer reserved the most enthusiastic praise for the pianist of the second half of the program, Fei-Fei of China, who had won Concert Artists Guild competition and was a finalist of the 14th International Van Cliburn Piano Competition. The non-musical aspects of the evening were provided by an audiovisual installation "Where is Chopin" was prepared by Jarosław Kapuściński, a pianist and composer who studied in Poland at the Chopin Academy of Music and in Paris. He received his doctorate at the University of California and is a professor at Stanford University.
As Kapuściński wrote in the program note for his work, "Where is Chopin (audiovisual projection, 2010, 31 min) explores the relationships between facial expressions of people listening to Chopin's Pre- ludes Op. 28 and the artist's re-composition of the music. To carry out the project Kapuściński traveled to 12 cities around the world where Chopin has never set foot but where his music has a meaningful cultural presence. He conducted interviews and performed the preludes in one-on-one sessions with over a hundred music lovers in Beijing, Buenos Aires, Helsinki, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Mexico City, San Francisco, Santiago, Seoul, Sydney, Tokyo, and Welling- ton. In each city he collaborated with a local photographer who documented the perceptions and emotions appearing on people's faces as they listened to or spoke about the music. The artist wanted to observe the psychological, perceptual and cognitive processes of music in its greatest human richness. The project shows how emotions emerge from music, how musical structures are interpreted, and what they mean to people around the world."
http://www.jaroslawkapuscinski.com/Where_Is_Chopin/index.php
My three poems from the Chopin with Cherries anthology provided interludes for the music. They were recited by actress Weronika Wozniak, a graduate of Acting Conservatory at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. While still in school, Weronika’s first short film Lost In The Wind dir. by Dan L. Nguyen Phan was screened at Cannes Film Festival. Upon graduation, since 2016 she has performed on numerous Off- and Off-Off-Broadway stages as well as in Hollywood Fringe Festival, Juliusz Slowacki Theater in Krakow, and Polish Theater Institute. Currently, Weronika is hosting a radio program “Trochę Kultury” at Nasze Radio USA – a young Polish international radio that boomed during the pandemic. Aside from acting, Weronika is a deshi at Ken Wa Kan Karate where she’s training for her black belt in Kyokushin/Oyama style. www.veronikavozniak.com
The Chopin with Cherries poems have been posted on this blog, but let’s read them again, while listening to Chopin’s music. They are all based on memories of my Polish childhood, saturated with Chopin's music.
A Study with Cherries
After Etude in C Major, Op. 10, No. 1 and the cherry orchard
of my grandparents, Stanisław and Marianna Wajszczuk
I want a cherry,
a rich, sweet cherry
to sprinkle its dark notes
on my skin, like rainy preludes
drizzling through the air.
Followed by the echoes
of the piano, I climb
a cherry tree to find rest
between fragile branches
and relish the red perfection –
morning cherry music.
Satiated, sleepy,
I hide in the dusty attic.
I crack open the shell
of a walnut to peel
the bitter skin off,
revealing white flesh –
a study in C Major.
Tasted in reverie,
the harmonies seep
through light-filled cracks
between weathered beams
in Grandma’s daily ritual
of Chopin at noon.
Here's the famous Etude in White, Chopin's Etude in C Major, Op. 10, No. 1 played by Maurizio Pollini: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMM6h9Yf348
Harvesting Chopin
~ for my Grandma Nina Trochimczyk and father Aleksy Trochimczyk, who took me harvesting
The straw was too prickly,
the sunlight too bright,
my small hands too sweaty
to hold the wooden rake
my uncle carved for me.
I cried on the field of stubble;
stems fell under his scythe.
I was four and had to work –
Grandma said – no work no food.
How cruel! I longed for
the noon’s short shadows
when I’d quench my thirst
with cold water, taste
the freshly-baked rye bread
sweetened by the strands
of music wafting from
the kitchen window.
Distant scent of mazurkas
floated above the harvesters
dressed in white, long-sleeved shirts
to honor the bread in the making
The dance of homecoming
and sorrow – that’s what
Chopin was in the golden air
above the fields of Bielewicze
where children had to earn their right
to rest in the daily dose of the piano –
too pretty, too prickly, too bright
My most popular and most often read poem from the Chopin with Cherries anthology is a recipe for mazurka of emigrants, a recipe - since the word "mazurka" refers both to a cake and the dance. More information about the anthology is here: https://moonrisepress.com/chopin-with-cherries.html
How to Make a Mazurka
After Mazurka in A Minor, Op. 17, No. 4,
for my Grandparents, Stanisław and Marianna Wajszczuk,
who could play and bake their mazurkas like no one else
Take one cup of longing
for the distant home that never was,
one cup of happiness that danced
with your shadows on the walls
of Grandpa’s house, while he played
a rainbow of folk tunes
on his fiddle, still adorned
with last wedding’s ribbons
mix it – round and round to dizziness
stir in some golden buzz of the bees
in old linden tree, add the ascent
of skylark above spring rye fields,
singing praises to the vastness of blue
mix it – round and round to dizziness
add chopped walnuts, figs, dates
and raisins, pour in some juice
from bittersweet grapefruit
freshly picked in your garden
mix it – round and round to dizziness
add dark grey of rainclouds in Paris
that took Chopin back to the glimmer
of candles in an old cemetery
on the evening of All Souls’ Day
mix it – round and round to dizziness
bake it in the cloudless heat
of your exile, do not forget to sprinkle
with a dollop of sparkling crystals,
first winter’s snowflakes at midnight
Here’s the Mazurka Op. 17 no. 4 played by Helen Grimaud: https://youtu.be/KMg3mSk-BF8.
After the concert, Slawomir Dobrzanski commented: "Your poems are beautiful! The festival audience in New York City loved them. Dzięki!" The poems were also noted by Stan Borys and Marek Probosz who both attended the concert. Thank you for the kind words and special thanks to Jakub Polaczyk for including my work in the program.
He earlier interviewed me, Jarek Kapuscinski, and Marek Zebrowski for his radio program, now available in podcast format.
