Paderewski Festival fundraising concert to feature the Cracow Duo
The Cracow Duo
March 19 concert is a fundraiser for cultural exchange program in Poland
– The Paderewski Festival in Paso Robles has announced a special fundraising concert featuring the internationally acclaimed Cracow Duo, an ensemble including cellist Jan Kalinowski and pianist Marek Szlezer. The concert will take place on Saturday, March 19 at 3 p.m. in an exclusive residence on Paso’s westside, followed by a live auction and wine and cheese reception featuring Epoch Estate Wines.
Epoch’s York Mountain Road vineyards have a historical tie-in to Paderewski’s winemaking in Paso Robles. Since the restarting of the Paderewski Festival in 2006, Epoch has continued to be the Festival Gala Concert Sponsor and underwrote other musical initiatives that benefit the local community. Tickets to this event are available on Eventbrite.com by searching “Paderewski Festival.” Details of the concert location will be provided to the ticket holders prior to the concert.
Cracow Duo recently celebrated its twentieth anniversary of concertizing all over the world and recording a number of CDs. Both performers are also full tenured professors at the Academy of Music in Kraków. Their program in Paso Robles will begin with Chopin’s Introduction and Polonaise, Op. 3, a youthful work written for Chopin’s friend and patron, Prince Antoni Radziwiłł, an accomplished cellist, composer, and politician.
Connecting their March 2022 performance to the festival’s longstanding traditions, the Cracow Duo will present Paderewski’s charming Nocturne, Op. 16 (the only such work in his catalog), and Zygmunt Stojowski’s Romance sans paroles, a decidedly romantic work by a close friend of Paderewski who visited him in Paso Robles on several occasions about one hundred years ago.
Marcel Chyrzyński, a contemporary Polish composer and President of the Polish Composers’ Union/Kraków branch, will also join the event for the performance of his Farewell for Cello and Piano, a work inspired by a poem Wakare [Parting] by Nakare Shigeharu. According to Mr. Chyrzyński, “the poem’s author raised universally important issues of love, fragility of our existence, suffering, death and loss” and his composition reflects the atmosphere of this quiet and very personal poetry.
Two entertaining works will close the Cracow Duo’s program. Aleksander Tansman’s Fantaisie was written in 1936 and dedicated to the great cello virtuoso, Gregor Piatigorsky. Tansman himself was a pianist and composer, who also worked in Hollywood in the 1940s. His Fantaisie charms with French elegance (Tansman spent most of his life in Paris) and “cinematic grandeur.” The other composition on the program, Le Grand Tango by Argentine composer, Astor Piazzolla, is one of his later works, and a romantic essay on the tradition and history of this great and passionate South American dance form.
The March 19 concert is a fundraiser for Paderewski Festival’s Cultural Exchange Program in Poland this summer. Two finalists from the festival’s annual youth competition will be selected for the program and accompanied by a chaperone. The students will participate in master classes given by several distinguished professors, spend a week at the Małopolska Talent Academy in southern Poland, and perform in concerts in several Polish cities. They will also visit places associated with Chopin and Paderewski and learn about Polish music and history. This program runs for about two weeks and is funded entirely by the Festival, including airfares for the students and chaperone, tuition and housing at the Talent Academy, as well as hotels in Warsaw and Kraków and local transfers. Preliminary cost estimate for this year’s Cultural Exchange Program is $10,000 – 12,000.
Tickets at $100 each are available on Eventbrite.com. Additional information and directions will be provided to ticket holders prior to the concert. Parking on-site is available and carpooling is encouraged. Proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test within 3 days of the concert will be required, along with a face mask covering your nose and mouth when not actively eating.
Higher sponsorship levels for this initiative, including ads in the 2022 Paderewski Festival program booklet, may be discussed by contacting Marjorie Hamon, President of the Paderewski Festival Board of Directors (see above), as well as any other inquiries about this event.
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