Tributes commemorating Polish jazz pianist and composer, Jan Jarczyk, continue worldwide since his untimely death in Montreal on August 3. Throughout his life, Jan had touched and enriched music-making not only in his native Poland, but also all across Europe, the United States and, finally, in Canada, where he resided for well over two decades.
Earlier this year, on October 7 and 27, two tributes to Jan were staged in Montreal, the first at Centre Culturel Geroges Vanier and the second at the Schulich Music School at McGill, where Jan taught for many years. Retracing his musical and geographical peregrinations, two November concerts honored Jan’s memory: the first in Toronto’s Gallery 345 on November 2 and the other at the Lilypad Jazz Club in Cambridge, MA on November 11.
On Sunday, December 14 at 11 a.m. another Jan Jarczyk memorial concert is scheduled at the Auditorium of the Conservatoire de Musique in Lille, France. Finally, on December 28, a memorial mass is scheduled in Jan’s native Kraków at the historic Old Market Square’s St. Adalbert’s Church [Kościół św. Wojciecha] at 12:15 p.m.
The Los Angeles audiences still fondly remember Jan’s concert at Newman Recital Hall last March, with his arrangements of music by Henryk Wars and Bronisław Kaper, as well as his own compositions. It is good to know that Jan’s music continues to resonate among his friends and family all around the world.
December 14, 2014 | 11:00 am
Jan Jarczyk memorial concert
Conservatoire de Musique, Auditorium, Lille, France
December 28, 2014 | 12:15 p.m.
Jan Jarczyk memorial concert
St. Adalbert’s Church, Old Market Square, Kraków, Poland
[Sources: press release, lapresse.ca]