Interview with Kathabela Wilson for "Colorado Boulevard" in Pasadena (Vol. 6, No. 5)

MAJA TROCHIMCZYK INTERVIEW FOR COLORADO BOULEVARD
Short version published in March 2015: 
http://coloradoboulevard.net/mapping-the-artist-maja-trochimczyk/

A Telescope on the Artist

Kathabela Wilson:  As a poet, artist, writer, host, publisher, music historian, I see you as having an unusual scope and vision. How do you see yourself as a poet/artist in the world?

Maja Trochimczyk: Poetry is a window into the soul; an opening into the rift between the earthly and the divine; a unique way of communicating the beauty, and the richness, and the love, and the sorrow of the world. With poetry, first we prove our own existence, then we document the “real” world inside and around us – that has nothing to do with the “reality” created and perpetuated in the media – and then we share the joy of words creating worlds with other poets, listeners and readers. Poetry is written to be read and to be heard, t is best when performed with music. My first, and most favorite musical accompanist is Rick Wilson, flautist extraordinaire, who can set the mood for each poem and describe its trajectory with his music played on a variety of flutes. I was so thrilled to perform my Awakenings poem inspired by Susan Dobay’s painting, City Whispers, with Rick, and you, and Jean Sudbury on the violin at Susan’s salon. It was a group improvisation of the highest caliber. Unfortunately, it was not recorded:  the poem is published in the On Awakening book. Rick played for all of my readings for Poets on Site at the Pacific Asia Museum that included the Illuminata (known as “I want that crown…”) – my humorous take on the Buddhist virtue of renunciation of the worldly riches. Rick was amazing on his Tibetan flute, as he was in many other performances, for instance A Box of Peaches and the recent Woman in Metaphor reading at Beyond Baroque. As one of the original members of Poets on Site, I participated in all Poets on Site  events and have poems in ALL Poets on Site books – this is a perfect marriage of poetry, music and art, by the way. Here’s your “telescope” answer, then, the perfect marriage…

A Compass to the Poet

KAW:  Your Polish roots are strong, and have been set into our local poetic world deeply and with vital expression. What have been the influences of both, the  activities, extensions and blends.

MT: I first read poetry in Polish and my Mom had a huge poetry collection at home in Warsaw, including Rilke, Miłosz, Szymborska, and bilingual editions of Guillaume Apollinaire and Arthur Rimbaud in Polish and French.  (She was learning French until she died in 2013, 13 years after being shot in a 2000 home invasion robbery, that also seriously wounded my father who died after a protracted illness in 2001). I inherited her love of poetry. Interestingly, Apollinaire was a Pole, born Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki, and French was his second language. I still do not speak much French, but when I learned English, I started to read poetry in the original: I had three favorite poets, T.S. Eliot, E.E. Cummings  and Emily Dickinson. 

When I got a copy of Eliot’s Four Quartets from the composer Louis Andriessen, my artistic mentor, I copied its lines into notes and gave them as hand-made cards to people. These were so amazing: “the dove descending breaks the air,” “the end is where we start from” and “the fire and the rose are one.”  Spiritual themes are at the heart of my poetry – as in the Meditations on Divine Names anthology I edited in 2012. Then, the memory of my Polish childhood and its loss, the pain of homelessness that every immigrant feels – these are the basic themes of my poetry. I recently completed my third book of poems based on childhood memories of my parents and my own, lived in the long shadow of the war. It is called Slicing the Bread: A Children’s Survival Manual in 25 Poems and can be found on Finishing Line Press, with selected poems published in the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, Poetry Magazine, Quill and Parchment, Poetry SuperHighway, and others.

Microphone to the Poet

KAW: You have been Poet-Laureate of Sunland- Tujunga, and continue as a gracious host of the Village Poets Reading series at Bolton Hall Museum each month. How does this factor in your life and community? What else in the community, especially Pasadena area has influenced and enlivened your work?

MT: I started writing poetry in English after I emigrated to Canada in 1988; the loss of the “ground under my feet” – my family, language, culture – was just too painful and my first hundred poems were the saddest ever written. It helped – even now I write poems or journal entries for psychotherapeutic reasons and never publish those poems or notes.  I continued after coming to California in 1996, trying to express the inexpressible in a language I started learning in my teens. When my daughter, Anna Harley Trochimczyk (USC Graduate and Ph.D. Candidate at UC Berkeley in Chemical Engineering and an accomplished jazz singer) asked me to enter the competition for the Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga, I read my poems in public for the first time.

A year later, in 2008, I met you and a great poetic and artistic friendship was born. I’ve had many titles and wore many hats – Professor, Director, President – but that title of the Poet-Laureate, mine in 2010-2012, is still my favorite. (I was so delighted I wore a silly grin during most of my Passing of the Laurels ceremony, when I was crowned with an actual laurel wreath at the McGroarty Arts Center, a former home of California Poet Laureate John Steven McGroarty).

I marked my tenure with publication of two anthologies – one dedicated to the music of Chopin called Chopin with Cherries: A Tribute in Verse that saw numerous readings and concerts in the Foothills, Los Angeles and even Chicago, and another one about religion, the Meditations on Divine Names that included work of all four of former Poets-Laureate who form the core of the Village Poets. We put together the monthly readings in the Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga, Los Angeles’s Historical Monument No. 2, built of river rocks in 1913. The readings were started during my tenure, but the credit goes to poets Dorothy Skiles, Joe  DeCenzo, and Marlene Hitt, plus our newest addition, current Poet Laureate, Elsa Frausto. I select and invite featured poets with the group’s approval and we rotate the duties of the host. We have one Featured Poet on each fourth Sunday of the month (no readings in December) and have presented many Pasadena poets, we are all a part of the Foothills, after all.

Metronome to the Poet

KAW: You are a music historian by education and inclination. What areas have you explored, what have been your adventures, encounters and how does it  relate to your art and poetry?

MT: I already mentioned the Chopin anthology – of 92 poets and an exploration of the music and life of Frederic (Fryderyk) Chopin (1810-1849) in 123 poems. The book was born from an invitation to the Second International Chopin Congress in Warsaw in 2010 – I hold a Ph.D. in music history and Chopin is among composers that I have often written about. (I have a bibliography of my writings on the website www.trochimczyk.net/bio.html.) All Polish people are raised on Chopin whose music became a symbol of national identity in the dark times of the partitions when the country was divided between Russia, Prussia and Austria for 123 years. Chopin’s music was banned by the Germans during World War II and his monument in Warsaw was destroyed. But we love him not for that, but for the deeply personal, intimate voice with which it speaks to each of us, “expressing the inexpressible” – I could say that my poetry tries to do the same. 

I wrote about so many topics and studied so many composers, from the 19^th to the 21^st century, that I became very hard to classify as a “specialist” that marks his/hers territory like the wolves or dogs mark theirs. I want to know, and I’m most excited when embarking upon a new topic. This intellectual curiosity and restlessness has taken me from the Western avant-garde (the topic of my doctorate on musical space and spatial music), that is Xenakis, Brant, and R. Murray Schafer, back to Bartok and Messiaen. This then led to birdsong and ecomusicology studies – I’m on the Board of the Ecomusicology Newsletter of the American Musicological Society. When I worked as Director of the USC Polish Music Center (1996-2004) I started publishing about Polish music –Bacewicz, Gorecki, Lutoslawski, Paderewski, Szymanowska and Chopin. I just finished co-editing Frederic Chopin – A Research and Information Guide for Routledge in New York, and a book on Witold Lutoslawski for the Polish Institute in Canada.  I’m also on the Board of the Polish American Historical Association documenting the immigrant experience.  Who knows what the future will bring.

Microscope on the Artist/Poet

KAW: What are interior qualities of your artistic  life? Why are you a poet? 

Poetry is a proof that I exist, that I feel, see, experience… I document my life in poetry: even when it is about others, I write about the way I see them. There is an enormous difference with music history: in my books and articles I write about what the others thought, imagined and did. In my poems, I write about what I think, imagine and do.  Poems come to me when I drive and I have to remember the lines until I can write them down. I call these my “freeway poetry.” I love my roses in my garden, I keep photographing them. I’m fascinated with the veins on the petals, veins on the leaves changing colors, shapes of river rocks. I even had a solo exhibition, thanks to the courtesy of Susan Dobay. I write about roses as the symbol of the core spiritual virtue in our lives: love in all of its incarnations. We do not celebrate the Valentine’s Day in Poland (or did not when I was growing up there, like there was no Halloween, but All Souls’ Day), but I wrote a series of meditations on love for my blog, illustrated with poems from my two books of love poetry, Miriam’s Iris, or Angels in the Garden and Rose Always – A Court Love Story.  Since both books were so personal, I did not want any editors to mess with them, and formed my own Moonrise Press in 2008. By now, the press issued seven books and keeps going – Ed Rosenthal, the L.A.’s original “poet-broker” was the most recently published, and Marlene Hitt, a witty and insightful poet from Sunland will be next.

Pulse of the Poet

KAW: You are a mother and also I know your professional work involves supporting and encouraging others to be creative. Can you elaborate, and show how this motivates and extends your creative work? 

MT: I love being a part of the poetry community in California. In addition to being the core member of Poets on Site and Village Poets, I belong to the group of eight Westside Women Writers, so named by Millicent Borges Accardi, our fearless leader.  I am active, sometimes, in the Southern California Haiku Study Group, and attend a variety of readings. My three children are scientists – Marcin graduated from USC with two computer science degrees and moved back to Poland, Ania is a chemical engineering and jazz singer, and Ian studies theoretical physics at UC Santa Barbara and has great hopes for the future.  They are not into poetry and are not the subjects or recipients of my poems, except for a couple of educational ones, about virtues.

These particular poems have proven very useful for my “day job” as the Senior Director of Planning and Research for Phoenix Houses of California. I occasionally organize poetry readings at our various rehabilitation facilities, with residents reading their own poems about their lives and recovery. Poetry is a great tool for therapy.  An unnamed trauma remains horrific, when you name and describe it, you put a limit to it, a border around it – you enclose it in words. That’s what I did after my parents were shot, I wrote about grief and loss. Many poems like that are not for publication during the poet’s lifetime. But you can sublimate the pain into art, and leave the details behind while capturing the essence…

For me it is that late afternoon, with the last golden-red rays of sunlight, and the nostalgic mood of the “waning of the day” – the farewell, the end of life, of time….  I talked about this and other issues in an interview with Lois P. Jones on Poets’ Café, featuring “Tiger Nights” inspired by a nightmare and a concert at the Hollywood Bowl. I wrote about the impossibility of stopping time, in the “Easter Apocalypsis” and the “Three Postcards from Paris ” (featured on Poetry L.A.)  You have to capture the moment, enjoy the here and now: like grains of sand, seconds and minutes slip through your fingers. And poof! We are gone.

A SAMPLE POEM

Moon Reality

I watched the Moon around the House 

Until upon a Pane –

She stopped –

                     ~ Emily Dickinson

Long nets of power lines

Stretch out to catch the orange

Ball of the moon that falls, falls, falls

Down to the horizon

It bounces off the mountaintops

A bright white pancake

That floats in silver sky

Above the freeway turning home

What is real? What imagined?

We are caught in the electric net

Of our own devising

Hypnotized

We stare at moving electrons in a black box

We smile at pictures

Looking straight into the eyes on the screen

We practice witticisms on the keyboard

For all to see, no one to hear

Illusion of connection

The flat pancake of full moon

Slides along the taunt wires

Over purple hills, deserted streets

I am going home

To gaze at my pale moon of a screen

Read my personal invitation

To Atlantis

SELECTED POEMS AND LINKS

Illuminata:

http://www.pacificasiamuseum.org/_visit/transcripts/50_himalayan.aspx

A Box of Peaches:

http://www.oldflutes.com/poetsonsite/ptfiles/gau.pdf

The Four Quartets: http://www.davidgorman.com/4Quartets

T.S. Eliot reading the Four Quartets. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga8tQrG4ZSw

Slicing the Bread  http://poetrylaurels.blogspot.com/2014/07/finishing-line-press-to-publish-slicing.html

http://www.moonrisepress.com/divine.html

http://villagepoets.blogspot.com

PAHAnews.blogspot.com

Poets Café – http://www.timothy-green.org/blog/maja-trochimczyk/

Moonday Feature with three poems

http://www.moondaypoetry.com/maja-trochimczyk.htm

Poetry LA reading of Three Postcards from Paris https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVgHby3aKJw

Easter Apocalypsis - http://www.thescreamonline.com/poetry/poetry7-4/trochimczyk.html

moonrisepress.blogspot.com

www.moonrisepress.com/rosealways.html

www.trochimczyk.net/miriamiris.html

Chopin - A Research and Information Guide from Routledge (Vol. 6, No. 4)

http://www.tandf.net/books/details/9780415998840/

Hardback: $150.00

ISBN: 978-0-415-99884-0

Publication Date: June 23rd 2015

I'm pleased to announce the imminent publication of the second revised edition of Frederic Chopin: A Research and Information Guide, that will be issued by Routledge probably in June 2015.  The work on edits took a while, with a variety of corrections and updates being made. The original Guide, by William Smialek, appeared in 1999, and has long since been out of print. Additionally, there was an explosion in Chopin research in the following 15 years, that called for a complete reorganization of the Guide. The newly reorganized chapters are listed below the preface. The cover is based on a 19th century engraving purporting to portray young and strong Chopin, as Poles wanted him to be, not necessarily as he was... The myth, more important than reality. In Chopin's case: the myth is the reality.

FROM MY PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

Starting a research project about Chopin in the 21st century may be a daunting task, given the overwhelming diversity and number of books, studies, editions, articles, and other resources dedicated to this composer.  Five key fields of Chopin studies have recently witnessed a dramatic growth: manuscript and source studies linked to the chronology of works and compositional process; revisions to his biography based on the expanding knowledge of his milieu; performance studies including computer-assisted analysis of recordings; studies of reception in the context of musical culture; and cultural studies, examining the presence of Chopin’s image, music and myths in popular culture as well as providing unconventional interpretations of his life and work.  

The phenomenon of Chopin’s music and life preoccupied music critics and writers for nearly 200 years: the first article was published when the composer was just eight years old, in 1818.  Online catalogs now tell us that there are 2,478 books on Fryderyk Chopin and 6,832 books on Frédéric Chopin in libraries worldwide. This Research and Information Guide organizes a portion of these publications into a manageable scheme of writings that belong to particular traditions or are associated with a specific approach.  
The revised Guide includes 1014 references to books, articles, recordings and electronic databases with information about the great composer. In comparison with the first edition, these references are completely renumbered and reorganized, with numerous additions and some replacements.  

“Researching Chopin” (Chapter I) starts from reference works and internet resources, but quickly takes readers on a tour of the beginnings (publications to 1914) and the current state of research (conference proceedings and edited volumes from the past three decades). Chopin-specific periodicals are singled-out, along with a scattering of Chopin-themed anniversary issues of various journals. Although the major collections of Chopin letters have long ago been edited and published, recent discoveries have added to the corpus of extant correspondence, and the dating of many letters has been revised (Chapter II). Studies of Chopin’s life (Chapter III) have seen a major expansion, especially in the areas of teaching and performance, but also family genealogy, the circles of his friends, and even the history of his pianos. The Calendar of Chopin’s Life is expanded and corrected, taking into account new biographical discoveries. There is a new List of Works, needed for a quick check of the order of their composition and publication (Chapter IV).  

Due to the explosive growth of the number and type of research projects, the studies of works have been divided into two chapters: Manuscripts, Editions and Transcriptions in Chapter IV, and Surveys, Studies and Analyses in Chapter V.  Catalogs and facsimiles of manuscripts are accompanied by research studies; first and early editions now form a separate field; various critical and complete editions are noted. Studies and Analyses (Chapter V) range from general surveys to close readings of individual works, organized by genre, and seen through a variety of lenses, from Schenkerian analysis to narratives, subjectivity, and gender.  Chapter VI, Reception and Performance Studies, brings a dizzying diversity of interpretations of Chopin’s life and work, including appropriations by composers and ideologues, and portrayals by artists, writers, and filmmakers. Like a chameleon, he changes from an effeminate youth; to a sick and dying visionary; to a heroic, patriotic Pole; a sublime spiritual “bard;” or a revolutionary artistic genius. 

Studies of performance issues include discussions of Chopin traditions, inherited by generations of students of his students, and portrayals of individual pianists. Instead of an extensive discography, the Guide provides an alphabetic list of names of excellent Chopin pianists, several complete works editions (including a set recorded on period instruments), and a handful of discographies of historical recordings, as well as information where to look for more... The Guide ends with a survey of Chopin societies and institutions providing material support and preserving Chopin documents and artifacts.  

While my doctoral dissertation was not about Chopin, or not even the 19th-century, I owe my grounding in Chopin studies to professors at the University of Warsaw, my – and Chopin’s – alma mater: Zofia Helman, Irena Poniatowska, Wojciech Nowik, Maciej Gołąb, and Benjamin Vogel. I’m also grateful to my childhood neighbor, Dr. Zofia Chechlińska of NIFC and the sound of her grand piano filling our suburban streets with Chopin. I would not have become aware of the scope and intensity of expansion in Chopin research, if not for my participation in two International Chopin Congresses in Warsaw (1999 and 2010) that opened my eyes to the richness of new ideas, while I brought my own reception studies and poetry to the table.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

CALENDAR OF CHOPIN’S LIFE

I. RESEARCHING CHOPIN
I.A. Entries in Reference Works
I.B. Resources and Bibliographies (including Traditional Bibliographies)
I.C. Books and Studies to 1914
I. D. Collected Essays and Conference Proceedings (Chopin Congresses and Conferences and Essay Collections)
I. F. Chopin in Periodicals (Journals Dedicated to Chopin and Special Issues of Other Journals)

II. CHOPIN’S CORRESPONDENCE
II.A. Lists of Letters
II.A.1. Main Letter Editions
II.A.2. A Chronology of Letters
II. B. Letter Facsimiles and Studies
II. C. The Potocka Controversy

III. CHOPIN’S BIOGRAPHIES
III.A. General Biographies
III.B. Chopin as a Student
III.C. Chopin as a Teacher
III.D. Chopin as a Performer
III.E. Pianos and Other Instruments
III.F. Chopin in Context – Places (Poland, Warsaw, Other Locations in Poland, France, Travels)
III.G. Chopin in Context – People (Circles of Family and Friends, and Individuals, with a list of names)
III. H. Health, Illness and Death

IV. WORKS – MANUSCRIPTS, EDITIONS, AND TRANSCRIPTIONS
IV.A. List of Works (Chopin’s works with opus numbers published during his life; Chopin’s works without opus numbers published during his life; Posthumously published works with opus numbers; Posthumous works without opus numbers)
IV.B. Classification and Chronology
IV.C. Manuscripts (Catalogs of Manuscripts, Facsimile Editions, Manuscript and Sketch Studies, including specific works)
IV.D. Editions (Collected Works - historical and critical editions, first editions and their catalogue and studies)
IV.E. Publication History
IV.F. Transcriptions

V. WORKS – SURVEYS, STUDIES AND ANALYSES
V.A. Surveys of Works
V.B. Style and Aesthetics (national style, inspirations, opera and bel canto, the late/last style)
V.C. Narrative and Meaning
V.D. Music Analysis
V.E. Form and Genre
V.F. Harmony and Tonality
V.G. Melody and Counterpoint
V.H. Rhythm and Meter
V.I. Tempo and Tempo Rubato
V.J. Dynamics and Expression
V.K. Texture
V.L. Timbre and Instrumentation
V.M. Individual Works by Genre

VI. RECEPTION AND PERFORMANCE STUDIES
VI.A. Reception Studies (sources, appropriations, myths in Poland, musicians, regional reception studies)
VI.B. Chopin in the Arts (iconography, exhibitions, sites and monuments)
VI.C. Chopin in Literature
VI.D. Dance, Opera, and Theater
VI.E. Chopin and Film
VI.F. Performance Studies (performance practice, ornamentation, pedaling, tempo rubato, pianists, specific works)
VI.G. Discography (historical recordings and collected works)
VI.H. Chopin Institutions (competitions, societies and museums)

Celebrating Chopin's Birthdays (Vol. 6, No. 3)

Was Chopin born on March 1 or February 22? According to the biography on the website of the National Chopin Institute in Poland (NIFC.pl), we will never know. The official entry is for March 1 and NIFC biography (http://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/life/calendar/year/1810) states the following:

"The question of the date on which Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin entered the world has never been satisfactorily resolved: according to his own written testimony –  1 March; according to the official entry in the baptismal register of Brochów parish church – 22 February. The place of birth is beyond dispute: Żelazowa Wola, a Mazovian village lying on the River Utrata, close to the Kampinos Forest, 54 kilometres west of Warsaw, belonging at that time to the family of Count Skarbek."

"His father, Mikołaj (1771–1844), 'the lawful son of Franciszek Chopin, wheelwright, and Małgorzata Delfin, his wife', born in Marainville (Lorraine), had resided in Poland since 1787. He is known to have taken part in the Kościuszko Rising. He became Polonised, and discharged the functions of governor, first to the Łączyński family, then to the Skarbeks. Fryderyk held his father in respect and esteem, and his death caused him considerable grief. His mother, Tekla Justyna (1782–1861), 'born of noble parents: Antonina (nee Kołomińska) and Jakub Krzyżanowski, lawful spouses', in Długie, in the Kujawy region, was raised as an orphan (a distant relative?) by the Skarbek family, with whom she resided." 

"The wedding of Justyna and Mikołaj took place in 1806, in Brochów. Their first child, three years older than Fryderyk, was his sister Ludwika (1807–1855), later Jędrzejewiczowa, who displayed considerable musical and literary talents; she would care for him and watch over him all her life."

23 April was the date of Chopin's baptism in the church of St Roch in Brochów, near Sochaczew. Chosen as godparents were Anna Skarbek, later Wiesiołowska, of Strzyżew, and Fryderyk Skarbek, a pupil of Mikołaj Chopin, a future scholar and writer."

Now that we know what happened, we can celebrate in concerts - here's information for the West Coast. Other concerts are listed on the website of NIFC

The Polish Music Center presents…

CRACOW DUO PERFORMS CHOPIN, MEYER, OPAŁKA & TANSMAN

USC’s Polish Music Center kicks off its 30th Anniversary season with a concert by the acclaimed Cracow Duo in a recital of works for cello and piano by Polish composers. The program includes a world premiere by Tomasz J. Opałka and an American premiere by Krzysztof Meyer, as well as works by Frederic Chopin, Alexandre Tansman and more

TUESDAY, 24 February 2015, 7:30 p.m.

Alfred Newman Recital Hall (AHF)

3616 Trousdale Pkwy, Los Angeles, CA 90089

Free admission

A reception at the PMC in Stonier Hall (STO) will follow the concert

More info: music.usc.edu/events/details/?event=913749

Frederic's Birthday

SATURDAY, Feb 28th @ 7:30 pm

Polish Hall

3832 N Interstate map

Tickets at the door:

$15 general/ $10 senior, student, PLBA member

BUY TICKETS

on line: http://fredbirthday.bpt.me/ 

     Frédéric François Chopin was born between the 22nd of February and 1st of March 1810 - different sources cite different dates. We choose to celebrate his birthday on Feb. 28 with music dance and more! Since Chopin was a child prodigy, we invited some VERY young pianists - along with seasoned artists, to celebrate with us. Birthday cake included!
Tickets: Regular: $15.00; senior, student, PLBA members: $10.00
on line: http://fredbirthday.bpt.me.

Colleen Adent - piano:
1. Waltz in Db Major (Minute Waltz),Op 64, No 1
2. Nocturne in Eb Major, Op 55, No 2
3. Barcarolle, Op 60
Excerpts from "On an Overgrown Path" - a Spring 2015 concert at the Alberta Rose Theater by the Lyrical Strings Duo, (Lucia Conrad - violin and Stephen Osserman - classical guitar) with ALDancers. Chopin's preludes #4, #7 and #12 from Op. 28
Mitchell Falconer - piano + ALDancers, choreography by Agnieszka Laska; Chopin's preludes #1, #14 and #17 from Op. 28
Matthew Kaminski - piano, will play his own composition: "At the Top of the World" inspired by Chopin
Sebastian Stenfert Kroese - piano, Little Prelude #18 in C Minor by J.S. Bach
-----------------------------

Colleen Adent, Mitchell Falconer - piano
Lyrical Strings Duo: Lucia Conrad - violin and Stephen Osserman - classical guitar
ALDancers in Chopin Project
Matthew Kaminski (age 13) - piano/ composition
Sebastian Stenfert Kroese (age 12) - piano
music by: Chopin, Bach, Kaminski
concert piano thanks to Michelle's Pianos

Informacja - Agnieszka Laska
Supported in part by: Polish Library Association, Polish Festival, Saint Stanislaus Parish, Multnomah County Cultural Coalition, Oregon Cultural Trust. Piano thanks to Michelle's Pianos.
http://portlandpolonia.org/

Venetian Love Songs - Barcarolles by Chopin and Szymanowska (Vol. 6, No. 2)

First there was Venice,..

The Grand Canal in Venice from Palazzo Flangini to Campo San Marcuola, 

Canaletto, about 1738. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

... and then there was the most exquisite of love's songs, permeated with the lilting motion of the gondolas on the canals in Venice: Chopin's Barcarolle...


...
 

In the introduction to Chopin's Op. 60 (in F-sharp Major, composed in 1845-6), Prof. Mieczyslaw Tomaszewski calls it "a work that intoxicates with the beauty of its sound and thrills with its seethingly ardent expression."  As the case should be for a piece both searing and soaring, the Barcarolle evoked a whole range of nearly ecstatic descriptions from typically rather somber scholars. Tomaszewski himself wrote:

Musicologist Hugo Leichtentritt called it "a work of bewildering beauty;" Marceli Szulc heard in the music "a duet between a couple of lovers – threatened for a moment by death." Writer Andre Gide was attunted to its "languor in excessive joy." A fellow composer, Maurice Ravel found it to be “the synthesis of the expressive and sumptuous art of this great Slav.”

Chopin was well aware of the barcarolle as a genre, primarily from the operas of Rossini (Guillaume Tell, and Daniel Auber (Fra Diavolo), but also from its rendition by Mendelssohn in his Songs without Words. Yet, his take is thoroughly different and completely modern, especially in its seemingly pointless wondering, loss of continuity, and suspensions of musical narrative at the end of the central section.  This is one of the most sublime moments in all pianistic repertoire. It occurs deep in the piece, where the score is marked with "dolce sfogato" - a rare Italian expression, "sweet like a breeze" - that has not been known to grace the pages of other compositions. He reaches the boundaries of atonality in this prophetic moment of timelessness.

The overall formal scheme is traditional for a nocturne: ABA' song-form, with the main sections in F-sharp Major and the central episode in A Major and a prominent 12/8 lilt. This is music overflowing with light - reflections, waves, interference, brief, passing shadows and a myriad of stars scattered on the water at midnight...

The Fryderyk Chopin National Institute in Poland (NIFC) selected a recording by Tatiana Shebanova, that fully modernizes the Barcarolle, emphasizing is modernist discontinuities, interruptions and irruptions, while sustaining an overall tone of  melancholy mixed with passion.

There are many other interpretations of this sublime piece of music. Five are gathered in one YouTube post by a music lover, Ashish Xiangyi Kumar: Pollini, Zimerman, Kissin, Argerich.... (I wish he skipped Horowitz...). Over 40 minutes of otherworldly romanticism. A perfect gift for St. Valentine's Day, especially for musicians: the recording is accompanied by the score.

As Kumar writes, placing the recordings in a chronological order:

00:00 -- Pollini (Warm and lyrical. He has a reputation for technicality and coldness that is not deserved.)
08:37 -- Zimerman (Hushed and worshipful, occasionally rising to majesty)
17:30 -- Kissin (Tender and surprisingly meditative)
26:23 -- Horowitz (Scriabinesque, aching, enigmatic, some nice voicing)
35:21 -- Argerich (Intimate, and as you would expect, relatively free and occasionally tempestuous.)



Listen for yourself. And let the music take you to the breathtakingly beautiful and melancholy canal-streets of Venice - that Chopin never visited himself... Here's the gift of

As an encore, let us turn to another Barcarolle, far less known and much smaller in size:




Maria Szymanowska wrote her Barcarolle as a farewell gift to the poet Adam Mickiewicz on the day of his departure from St. Petersburg, in May of 1829.  He left for Paris, banished from his temporary residence in Russia, destined for exile until his death 25 years later. She gave him recommendation letters to famous poets and influential nobility that earlier delighted with her performances.

The work has never been published and was preserved only in manuscript. Elisabeth Zapolska-Chapelle, President of the Société Maria Szymanowska, Paris, France, provided a copy of the sheet music of this unknown composition to pianist Slawomir Dobrzanski, a Szymanowska specialist. This is a live recording from October 11, 2014, his concert in Paris.

Szymanowska's Barcarolle is just a violet, compared with the glorious bouquet of velvety red roses blossoming in Chopin's... still both are welcome in the perennial world of Valentines:

Na gorze roze

Na dole fijolki

Kochajmy sie

Jak dwa aniolki!

Chopin with Cherries in English and Polish (Vol. 6, No. 1)

On January 10, 2015, the Foothill Poetry Festival at the Sunland-Tujunga Library presented five poets reading their work in the original, native languages and in English. We heard Vietnamese (Teresa Mei Chuc), Serbian and Russian (Mira Mataric), Spanish (Elsa Frausto, who organized the event), Armenian ( ) and Polish.  In addition to the four poems I managed to read, I prepared a translation into Polish of "A Study with Cherries" - the title poem from "Chopin with Cherries" anthology published in 2010.  That poem and its translation were finally read at the Village Poets Monthly Reading at the Bolton Hall Museum, on January 25, 2015.

A pomegranate flower bud by Maja Trochimczyk

The story is a compilation of several childhood memories, from long hours spent in the attic of my grandparents house in Trzebieszow, and in the comfortable branches of a walnut tree. Nobody could climb the cherry trees: we were not allowed, the branches were too fragile and would crack easily. Instead, adults could climb a very tall ladder and bring down sour cherries to stain our fingers and chin. But the walnut was strong, with thick smooth limbs, ideal for climbing even by a clumsy little girl. The green, smooth, fresh walnuts were drying on layers of newspapers in the warm attic, and the children spent rainy mornings and afternoons trying to peel the yellowish skin off the white, sweet nuts, quite different from the shrivelled brains of the dried ones. 

"White" - for those rare individuals endowed with the phenomenon of synaesthesia, color hearing, was the "neutral" key of C-major, hence the association of the whole poem with that key, though the dark red cherries called for a piece of music in an entirely different set of harmonies, I'd think A-Flat Major. For Oliver Messiaen, Alexandre Skriabin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Liszt and Marta Ptaszynska, keys and sound complexes were of different colors, not the same from one author to the next. 

ETIUDA Z CZERESNIAMI

A ja chcę czereśnie

Słodziutkie czereśnie

Chce poczuć ciemne nuty soku

Na mojej skórze

Jak krople deszczowego preludium

W mżawce poranka

W obłoku fortepianu

Wspinam się na czereśnię

Szukam ukojeniawśród kruchych gałęzi

Cieszę się doskonałością czerwieni

Czereśniową muzyką od samego rana

Nasycona, śpiąca

Chowam się w ciemnościach strychu

By łupać orzechy, obierać gorzką skórkę

Odsłaniać biały miąższ

Studium w tonacji C-dur

Smakuję marzenia

Akordy płyną przez szpary

Starych belek wypełnione światłem

To codzienny rytuał mojej babuni

Popołudnie z Chopinem

 

Rose bud, by Maja Trochimczyk

Here's the famous Etude in White:

Chopin: Etude in C Major, Op. 10, No. 1 

played by Evgeny Kissin (in a white jacket!)

Played by Maurizio Pollini 

... and now an Etude in a darker color, perhaps the rich burgundy 

of overripe cherries :

Chopin: Etude in A-Flat Major, Op. 25, No. 1  "The Aeolian Harp"

Played by Maurizio Pollini (with the score)

or maybe in an incessant raindrops falling on the leaves 

and round, ripe fruit, glistening when the sun peeks from under the clouds:

Chopin: Etude in A-Flat Major, Op. 10, No. 10

Played by Yulianna Avdeeva 

Or, again, maybe melancholy, in a velvet mood of orchard swapped in the morning fog:

 Chopin: Etude in A-Flat Major, from Trois Nouvelles Etudes

Played by Stephen Malinowski (with a graphic score, just look)

Played by Vladimir Aszkenazy (twice as fast, perhaps too fast)

A STUDY WITH CHERRIES

After Etude in C Major, Op. 10, No. 1 and a cherry orchard of 

my grandparents, Maria Anna and Stanislaw 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.

(c) 2010 by Maja Trochimczyk

Rainy Rose by Maja Trochimczyk

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2015! (Vol. 5, No. 14)

May the blessing of light be on you—

light without and light within.

May the blessed sunlight shine on you

and warm your heart

till it glows like a great peat fire.

Not that we now know what "a great peat fire" is - as we are not Irish and live in the 21st century... 

But, whether we know what we are doing, or not, we will "muddle through somehow...." 

to quote another great song... so... 

Have Yourself a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

And once you do, enjoy some Christmas carols, in Polish and English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo4xJ9iFE-c (Wsrod nocnej ciszy - Poznanskie Slowiki)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-OXruY5Gx8 (Lulajze Jezuniu - Anna German)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWI-EoTfu20 (Have yourself a very Merry Christmas - Ella Fitzgerald)

With some Chopin, of course:

Yundi Li: Chopin's Scherzo in B Minor, Op. 20

Idil Biret: Chopin's Scherzo in B Minor, Op. 20

Vladimir Horowitz: Fragment with Lulajze Jezuniu from the Scherzo

Novi Singers (Jazz Arrangement): Lulajze Jezuniu fragment from the Scherzo

Maja 

Chopin and Paderewski in Raleigh, NC (Vol. 5, No. 13)

Paderewski plays Chopin. Postcard from Krakow, c. 1890. Maja Trochimczyk Collection

Who were the greatest Chopin performers of all times? I wrote a list, once. (I copied it at the end of this post, for those interested). Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941) has a place of honor on my list - not only of Chopin specialists. A great pianist, statesman and a fascinating composer, Paderewski is beloved by Polish Americans, still grateful, after almost a century, for his role in Poland's regaining independence.

On November 13-16, I had a pleasure of participating in the first Annual Paderewski Festival in Raleigh, organized by Dr. A. Mark Fountain II, President of the Festival and Honorary Consul for Poland for North Carolina, his wife, concert pianist Brenda Bruce, and Artistic Director of the Festival, Adam Wibrowski (with intensive support of Polish pianist Barbara Stann, the Festival's European liaison). Three concerts and four lectures were spread over the four days Festival encompassing, so it seemed, the entire city: the City Museum, the Meredith College, Smedes Parlor at St. Mary's School for Girls, and the North Carolina Museum of Art. All halls were filled to capacity and the audiences included both the local Polonia (with many researchers and professors in biological and engineering professions), and the luminaries of cultural life in the so-called Triangle area - the greater Raleigh-Durham, with Duke University and about 2.2 millions of residents.

Ignacy Jan Paderewski in Raleigh

Due to work obligations, I missed the first lecture given by Dr. Mark Fountain on November 13, 2014, but I was happy to later attend a "private tour" of this informative and fact-packed introduction to Polish political and social history before Paderewski, and during his life.  Dr. Fountain's doctoral dissertation was about Roman Dmowski, the leader of the National Democracy movement in Poland, both pre-and-post independence.  He wrote it at Columbia University, but started his graduate work in history with an intent to study German history. A trip through Poland in the late 1960s changed all that, and the country gained a tremendous friend and advocate. His library of books and old prints features items going back to 1591, and consists of thousands of volumes organized in the largest Polish-themed history library I have seen in a private home (PIASA's history library may be larger, maybe, just maybe...).

I asked about the "whys" - why Poland? why Paderewski? "It's really quite straightforward," said Mark Fountain, "I first came to Poland in 1965 from four weeks of travel by bus through Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. We had come straight west from Moscow to Warsaw. The difference in culture was so striking that I had to ask 'Why?' I've been asking that ever since. On the Festival proper, I thank my wife whom I met only twelve years ago. I had done a lot with music, but she is a professional musician; she'd come to Poland by way of Chopin."

Dr. A. Mark Fountain II in his studio in Cory, NC.

The interesting thing about Paderewski and Raleigh - as Dr. Fountain pointed out during his talk - is that the pianist played four times in the area: in 1917, 1923, 1931, and 1939. Each recital was given at a time associated with a major political event.  Dr. Fountain writes: "The first of these performances occurred on the notable date of January 23, 1917, the day following President Woodrow Wilson’s first public statement in support of a free and independent Poland, a statement made at the express request of Paderewski only a few days before.  Almost one year later, on January 8, 1918, President Wilson issued the famous 'Fourteen Points,' of which the Thirteenth Point expressly provided for a free and independent Poland.  The last of Paderewski’s performances in Raleigh occurred April 28, 1939, mere months before Germany invaded Poland and began World War II."

In 1919, Paderewski was Poland's representative at the Versaille meetings to forge the Peace Treaty after World War I and signed the Treaty along with representatives of European countries and world's superpowers. Later that year he was elected the third Prime Minister of newly independent Poland, but left the post after a year to return to his music career. Music making was replaced, again, by political activism when, in 1939, after the start of WWII, he return to touring America to promote the Polish cause. He died along the way, of pneumonia.

A 1939 Portrait of Paderewski by Artur Szyk.

There is another connection between Paderewski and Raleigh: a Steinway piano signed by the great pianist (and personally selected by him) for the secretary of his wife Helena Paderewska, Mrs. Mary Lee McMillan, who returned to her home in Raleigh after years of working for Helena (years that she documented in her memoirs, My Helenka). The Paderewski piano is now found in the music room of Dr. Fountain and his wife, pianist Brenda Bruce. And, yes, it is played daily - as shown in the photograph below. Mark Fountain explains: "Brenda is playing on her own Steinway 'B' which she purchased in Boston in 1968; Krzysztof Książek is playing on the McMillan Steinway 'M' (with the wing up), the piano which Paderewski signed and gave to Mrs. McMillan at 1810 Park Drive, Raleigh, in 1924. A concert grand ('B' or 'D') would have overpowered that relatively modest house and would have been completely beyond the capabilities of Mrs. McMillan herself." For more information about Paderewski's Raleigh and Durham concerts and his piano in  Raleigh, please visit the Festival's website: paderewski-festival.org.

Brenda Bruce presents performance issues to Krzysztof  Książek, seated at Paderewski's piano. 

The First of Three Concerts - Andrew Tyson

The heart of the Paderewski Festival was, of course, the music. Not only by Paderewski. Similarly to the Paderewski Competition in Los Angeles, organized every three years by Ignacy Jan Paderewski Society (2010 and 2013 so far), the pianists presented one or two works by Paderewski among a choice of music by others. In this case: Chopin, Liszt, Mozart, and even Dutilleux. Each recital was different and each presented Paderewski's music and his pianistic achievements in a new light.  For the selection of the pianists we have to thank Prof. Adam Wibrowski, who also serves as Artistic Director of the Paderewski Competition and selected two of the 2013 Competition's winners for presentation in Raleigh. (In Los Angeles, Wibrowski shares his artistic duties with Prof. Wojciech Kocyan, but in Raleigh he makes major musical decisions alone).

L to R: Andrew Tyson, Krzysztof Ksiazek, November 14, 2014. 

Andrew Tyson, a native of nearby Durham, started the concert series on November 13, 2014 at the recital hall of the Meredith College in Raleigh.  Tyson, tall, energetic and handsome, has all the makings of the future piano star: impeccable technique, intellect, and expressive power. In short: charisma.  His program placed Paderewski's music in the context of classical "heavy-weights" - Robert Schumann and Henri Dutilleux.

Tyson began his program with two works by Paderewski, Minuet in G Major, Op. 14, No. 1 and Intermezzo Polacco, Op. 14, No. 5, both from Humoresques de Concert, Op. 14 of 1887-1888.  The Minuet from the first book of the Humoresques, subtitled Cahier I - à l'Antique, is Paderewski's greatest hit, a graceful and virtuosic portrait of the ancient and elegant dance of the aristocracy.  By starting the concert from the work that Paderewski typically played at the end, as the last encore after a grueling three-hour recital, Tyson honored the old master with a look backward, through modern lenses. The Chopin section of the recital showed his prowess as an intellectual-virtuoso in four Mazurkas Op. 30 (C Minor, B Minor, D-flat Major, and C-sharp Minor), the Polonaise in C-sharp Minor, Op. 26, No. 1, and the Ballade No. 3 in A-flat, Op. 47. Tyson, who just released a CD of Chopin's 24 Preludes Op. 28 (on a Zig-Zag label, distributed by Naxos), may be called a Chopin specialist.

Andrew Tyson with  the Festival's Artistic Director, Adam Wibrowski.

The smaller works demonstrated clearly Tyson's expressive range from melancholy to heroic drama, but the Ballade was the most impressive of his interpretations of Chopin works. Composed in 1841, the Ballade is often associated with Adam Mickiewicz's literary ballad, Switezianka [The Water Nymph] and praised for its structural and contrapuntal richness. Tyson's performance highlighted the structural integrity and expressive contrasts of the work, consistently building up its large-scale form. The second part of the recital consisted of non-Polish works by Henri Dutilleux, a 20th-century French composer  and Chopin's contemporary Robert Schumann.  The Three Preludes by Dutilleux (of 1973-1988), were the favorite part of the recital identified by many listeners, attracted to their clearly articulated forms and kaleidoscopically rich expressive nuances. The Études Symphoniques, Op. 13 (1834) by Robert Schumann again showcased Tyson's ability to construct temporal flow into massive musical architecture. As befits this intellectual of the keyboard, the encore was not an obvious choice for a celebration of Paderewski's virtuosity: an etude for the left hand by Alexandre Scriabin.  

A. Mark Fountain II, Brenda Bruce and Adam Wibrowski with Andrew Tyson 

after the recital at Meredith College.Raleigh, November 14, 2014.

The Second Concert - by Krzysztof Książek 

The Paderewski Festival surrounded the talents of the pianists by the beauty of historic Raleigh. The second recital took place at the historic Smedes Parlor on the elegant campus of St. Mary's School for Girls - a private boarding school filled with international students getting the best quality education, including the music of Paderewski.  The Festival's Artistic Director, Adam Wibrowski, opened the event with a lecture about Paderewski's international career and his debut in Paris. The lecturer pointed out the similarity of the 1839 Parlor to aristocratic salons where Chopin himself preferred to play. (Wibrowski's first lecture preceded Tyson's recital and took the audience on a trip back to Poland's of Paderewski's youth - to the Russian-ruled area of Podolia, fertile backwaters of European breadbasket, now in the Ukraine.)  On Saturday afternoon,  the Smedes Parlor, named after the founders of the school, was filled to capacity with modern audience and overflowing with Chopin's music.

Adam Wibrowski on the St. Mary's School Campus.

Książek was described by a Raleigh's reviewer, John Lambert as "a no-nonsense player who largely eschews mannerisms too many of our conservatory-produced artists adopt too early in their careers." Indeed, his Raleigh debut was a step on the way to greater things - he is getting ready to submit his recordings to the International Chopin Competition.  The 24-year-old pianist has already won many prizes in a variety of competitions around the world, including the second place in the 2013 American Paderewski Competition as well as a special prize for the best interpretation of Paderewski (the competition is held every three years in Los Angeles). After starting the Raleigh recital with Mozart's Variations on "Come un agnello" by Giuseppe Sarti, a forgotten aria from a forgotten opera, Książek demonstrated his Chopin credentials with an extensive program including: the Nocturne in F-sharp Minor, Op. 48/2, two Etudes, E Minor, Op. 25/5, and F Major, Op. 10/8), the  Fantasia in F Minor. Op. 49) in the first half, followed by the Mazurkas Op. 50 (in G Major, A-flat Major, and C-sharp Minor), the Polonaise in F-sharp Minor, Op. 44, and the A-Flat Major Waltz, Op. 42. 

Krzysztof Książek at Meredith College, November 14, 2014.

As Lambert observed: "These performances were revelatory in terms of the fresh insight the artist brought to them... constantly alive with carefully-controlled infusions of interpretive life that in turn brought the music to vivid life as if emerging from the printed pages for the first time." Indeed, after hearing this young pianist it is hard not to start writing such exorbitant and extravagant expressions of praise. "Revelatory" is the right label for this poet-philosopher of the piano.  From the sorrowful, most poignant and tranquil notes of the Mazurkas, to large-scale twist and turns of emotions and form in the Fantasia, to the joie-de-vivre of the Waltz and the tragic heroism of the Polonaise - there was something new and previously unheard-of in each of the Chopin works selected for this journey of re-discovery. Książek's rendition of Paderewski's works was equally original, revealing the depth of expression and abundance of detail in the Variations in A Major, Op. 16, No. 3 and the fantastic, shimmering impressionism of the encore, a Krakowiak from 1884. How could anyone ever doubt Paderewski's talents as a composer is beyond me - especially after this performance!

The Grand Finale at the North Carolina Museum of Art - by Peter Toth

Péter Tóth at the piano at the North Carolina Museum of Art.

The Hungarian pianist, Péter Tóth, shared his Los Angeles credentials with Książek, having bested him for the First Prize of the 2013 American Paderewski Competition. I would not have wanted to be in that jury. It must have been extremely hard to decide which pianist should win and which should be the second when faced with two individuals of such obvious, yet different, talents. Tóth's career includes many other competition wins (Wittenberg, Bovino, Weimar and Budapest), recordings and concerts in some of the most important concert halls of the world. On November 16, 2014, the auditorium of the North Carolina Museum of Art became one such site during his recital - due to the quality of the music and its powerful and inspired interpretation. 

The recital started with Paderewski - one of his loveliest compositions, Nocturne in B Major, No. 4 in the Miscellanea, Op. 16. In this work, as Raleigh reviewer Chelsea Hubler writes, the pianist's "capacity for extreme care and delicacy became apparent" and it was later confirmed in Chopin's Ballade in G minor, Op. 23. The Ballade, while requiring the subtle tranquility of tone that is among  Tóth's trump cards, also showcased his ability to make sweeping, grand gestures of the most romantic kind - all the while keeping his head above the iridescent, fluid waters of the music eloquently streaming from under his fingers to completely engulf the enraptured audience. There. I did it. Purple prose is sometimes the only suitable response to the astounding feats of musicianship that we witnessed during  Tóth's recital. 

Paderewski's Polonaise, Op. 9, No. 6 from his set of Polish Dances articulated the patriotism of the Polish musician that eventually doomed his career as a composer - a patriotism exemplified by the monumental Symphony "Polonia" where the depicting of Poland's tragic history was more important than purely musical considerations, resulting in a work of gargantuan proportions and a grandiose monumentality. Luckily, the Paderewski Polonaise shares little with the Symphony, and, while suitably heroic and dance-like, it ended soon enough to make room for the truly monumental compositions by Liszt. 

Prolonged standing ovation at the end of Toth's recital.

Liszt and Chopin were sometimes friends, sometimes rivals, yet their music persists, side by side, known, played, and loved around the world.  Toth's three Liszt selections - Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude (S.173, No. 3), the Legend No. 2 (S.175, No. 2), and the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 - could not be more different and revealed the full diversity of his talents: his titanic virtuosity, a chess-player's strategic thinking, and brooding romanticism. Liszt was a complex man and an even more complex composer and his music encompasses the musician's human condition - from virtuosic fireworks to incomprehensibility of religious mysticism. Paderewski himself often played one of Liszt's Rhapsodies to top off his programs and Toth's choice is yet another bow to the patron of the Festival. 

While thinking of a label for this great pianist, I thought of the "Titan of the Keyboard" - a title bestowed on Paderewski himself, the "Great Immortal." Toth has issued a critically-acclaimed CD of Liszt's late piano works (see his website:  http://www.petertothpianist.com/) and is among the world's foremost Liszt specialists. His impeccable technique, intellectualism and profound expression find the best outlet in the equally rich and complicated music of his compatriot. There could be, and were not, any encores after Toth's rendition of the crowd-rousing Hungarian Rhapsody. But there was an extensive standing ovation. Richly deserved. 

Maja Trochimczyk at the Lecture Podium in Raleigh, Photo by Kinga Wojciechowska.

I had a pleasure of preceding Tóth's recital with a lecture on Paderewski in the English-speaking world. Given the number of concert tours, and concerts, the thousands of reviews, press mentions, and memorabilia, capturing all of Paderewski's "triumphs" was an impossible task to perform. Instead of endless statistics (after the initial comparison of nearly 8,000 mentions of Paderewski by the New York Times, with far less frequent notices about such classical greats as Maria Callas, Leopold Stokowski, or Pablo Casals), I decided to focus on Paderewski myth-making and his images. My starting point was the famous "archangel" drawing by Byrne-Jones - created in 1891 and used, in stylized versions, on magazine covers until 1915 and even 1934, the dates of The Etude covers reproduced below.  My talk summarized some main points of an article I published in the Polish American Studies in 2010 with illustrations in color.  After the presentation, I, too, felt like a star, surrounded by autograph-seekers. Paderewski does this to you. No doubt.

Covers of Paderewski issues of the Etude from 1915 and 1934. Maja Trochimczyk Collection.

See more portraits of Paderewski on the festival's website. 

The musical delights and scholarly insights of the Paderewski Festival could take place thanks to an impressive group of supporters, brought together by Adam Wibrowski, Barbara Stann (the Festival's Board Member and European Liaison), Dr. Mark Fountain and Brenda Bruce, including:  Wspólnota Polska, Meredith College, St. Mary's School, North Carolina Museum of Art, and many friends of classical music. The support of Ms. Barbara Stann, a Krakow-based pianist was invaluable in spreading the information about this new initiative honoring Paderewski in America. More information about the Festival's Board of Directors, all of whom ensured that this first annual event was a success, may be found on the Paderewski Festival website.

L to R: Adam Wibrowski, Krzysztof Ksiazek, Peter Toth, Maja Trochimczyk, Brenda Bruce and

 A. Mark Fountain II at North Carolina Museum of Art, November 16, 2014. Photo by Kinga Wojciechowska

Autumn leaves in Cory, North Carolina, Photo by Maja Trochimczyk

As it turned out, North Carolina is incredibly beautiful in the fall. Filled with a rainbow of colors, with red, yellow, brown, orange, and green leaves in the famed oak forests, it is also  filled with music - that will return in the Paderewski Festival next November. 

Autumn symphony of leaves, Cory, NC, by Maja Trochimczyk