Poland in US

„Music from the Heart: A Tribute to Ignacy Jan Paderewski” – Smithsonian Chamber Music Society & Andrzej Markowski Foundation Concert

The gala concert is organised under the patronage of Marek Magierowski, the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to the United States of America, as well aas the honorary patronage of Piotr Gliński, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland and Minister of Culture and National Heritage. 

Under the direction of Kenneth Slowik, the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra will perform five iconic works by Polish and American composers. Originally planned as a celebration of the foundation of the Second Polish Republic at the end of World War I, the concert is staged in cooperation with the Andrzej Markowski Foundation, whose president, Ms. Malgorzata Markowska, cites the “deepest devotion to the eternal values of the most noble art of music in the context of Polish-American friendship.” It was Ms. Markowska who first put forward the idea of such an event taking place.

The program will begin with the energetic 1948 Concerto for String Orchestra by Grazyna Bacewicz, Poland’s best-known female composer, followed by Samuel Barber’s 1938 Adagio for Strings, which gained instant fame when Arturo Toscanini led the NBC orchestra in its broadcast premiere. Next up, Mikolaj Gorecki’s hauntingly beautiful Concerto-Notturno of 2000 will feature the young American violinist Lily Honigberg, concluding the first half of the concert. Gorecki himself will be in the audience. After the intermission, another young American pianist, Avery Gagliano (the only American semi-finalist of the 18th International Chopin Piano Competition in 2021), will play Ignacy Jan Paderewski’s 1889 Romanza. The concert will end with a Suite from Aaron Copland’s 1944, Appalachian Spring.

More info on the program, registration and tickets: https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/scms-muzyka-z-serca