Polish Music for Violin and Piano at HMLA

In collaboration with the Holocaust Museum LA, two young virtuosos, violinist Mateusz Strzelecki and pianist Andrzej Ślązak, will present an exciting program of music by Polish-Jewish composers.

This chamber music program will open with Roman Padlewski’s Berceuse and Aleksander Tansman’s Cinq pieces for violin and piano with two of Henryk Wieniawski’s romantic salon charmers, Gigue and Chanson polonaise to follow.

Pianist Andrzej Ślązak, a Fulbright scholar researching film music this semester at the USC Polish Music Center, will perform two solo piano works from the Center’s extensive and unique collections. The first, Nocturne in E flat minor was written by Roman Ryterband during his exile in Switzerland in 1941, where he survived the Holocaust. The other fascinating solo piano work relates directly to Mr. Ślązak’s research—he will performa suite of music from Bronisław Kaper’s score for the celebrated 1962 feature, Mutiny on the Bounty, with Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard in the leading roles.

During fall of 2019, Strzelecki was a Fulbright scholar at The Queens College in New York, where he researched works by Karol Rathaus. Fittingly, Rathaus’s Dedication and Allegro, Op. 64 composed in New York City in 1949 will close this musical afternoon the Museum.