It is the time of year when we reach out to the Friends of the USC Polish Music Center, to celebrate our accomplishments of the last year and ask you to support us into the next. Since our last report, there have been many exciting developments at the PMC, and we’d like to take this opportunity to share some of this year’s outstanding news with you.
Honoring Henryk Wars and 40 Years of PMC
In June, our Henryk Wars/Henry Vars Manuscript Collection was recognized by UNESCO—the international culture body of the U.N.—and placed on Poland’s Memory of the World list. The celebrations included a Warsaw exhibit by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage that later traveled to several other cities in Poland, and a ceremony at the Presidential Palace where the official UNESCO certificate was presented to the Polish Music Center (pictured above). These festivities concluded with a concert of Wars’s music led by Maestro Krzesimir Dębski (pictured at left).
Locally, we commemorated this great international honor at the annual Paderewski Lecture-Recital: Celebrating Henryk Wars in October. It began with a screening of Wars’s 1938 film Zapomniana melodia [The Forgotten Melody] and continued with an evening concert of his most popular pre-war hits in their original orchestration, performed by the Thornton Art Deco Orchestra with DMA candidate Derek Zimmerman as conductor (pictured below).
Between these two events, an elegant champagne reception kicked off the PMC’s 40th anniversary at the USC Thornton School of Music. Thanks to our founder, Wanda Wilk, Witold Lutosławski’s and Stanisław Skrowaczewski’s manuscripts were donated late in 1984, and the Center opened in January 1985. Since then, the PMC has moved from a small Doheny Library basement room to a larger space on the second floor of the United University Church, and then in 2004 to a suite of rooms in Stonier Hall. While this latest address is PMC’s largest presence on the USC campus, the extraordinary growth of our Manuscript Collection during the past two decades, coupled with artwork and museum artifacts and additions to our music and sound library, means that we’re running out of space! A major capital campaign will be needed to secure funds for our new headquarters with an enlarged library, secure and climate-controlled archival collections chamber, exhibit space, small concert hall, and accommodations for visiting scholars.
Concerts, Festivals, Conferences
Throughout 2024 we organized and produced many events throughout California and beyond, beginning with the Zarębski Piano Duo concert at Loyola Marymount University in February. This program was carried out through the generous collaboration of Dr. Wojciech Kocyan and the LMU Piano Department. In early March, the Cracow Duo returned to USC’s Ramo Hall with their “Polonaise to Tango” program. Our annual Polish Music Spring Concert, also in March, featured the Verona Quartet and music by Grażyna Bacewicz and Karol Szymanowski. USC piano faculty member Bernadene Blaha joined Verona (pictured below) in Bacewicz’s First Piano Quintet, and a capacity audience at USC’s Newman Hall enthusiastically responded to their artistry. In April we presented the Jedynecki-Mikołajczyk Duo at the Holocaust Museum in Los Angeles with works by Grzegorz Fitelberg, Szymon Laks, Roman Ryterband, Aleksander Tansman and Mieczysław Weinberg. In November, between the Paderewski Lecture-Recital and Paderewski Festival, we co-organized a stunning debut performance of the AKA Duo at the Japan House in Los Angeles, thanks to the collaboration of Sky Whitehead and Yuko Kaifu of the Japan House LA.
In June, Director Marek Zebrowski judged the Fortepian Paderewskiego Competition held at the Bieliński Palace, a branch of the National Museum in Warsaw. The Grand Prix winner, Józef Wesołowski (14), along with Dymitr Szostak (15), who attended the Małopolska Talent Academy in Łącko, participated in this fall’s annual Cultural Exchange Program administered by the Paderewski Festival, the PMC and our partners in Poland. This year’s Polish visitors performed in Santa Barbara, Paso Robles and Fresno, where our partners included the Music Academy of the West and University of California Fresno. The young artists also added a strong musical accent to the Independence Day celebrations organized by the Consulate General of Poland in LA on the stage of the Colburn School of Music in downtown Los Angeles.
The annual Paderewski Festival in Paso Robles was held Oct. 31 – Nov. 3 and, as usual, the PMC served as a crucial organizer and bridge to artists and partners. This year’s stellar artists included AKA Duo, an ensemble from Japan specializing in Polish repertoire, Bandonegro from Poland presenting Argentine and Polish tango music, and eight winners from California’s Central Coast region of the annual Youth Piano Competition. The Gala concert this year featured Janina Fiałkowska in Paderewski’s Piano Concerto and Maestro Andrew Sewell leading the SLO Symphony Orchestra at the Performing Arts Center in San Luis Obispo—a historic first-time collaboration between the Festival and the region’s largest arts organization.
At the September MAB Conference in Chicago, Dir. Zebrowski gave a presentation on Henryk Wars and his Polish Parade ensemble, which accompanied Gen. Anders’s II Corps during World War II and performed some of Wars’s greatest hits. Our newest archival acquisition, the Joanna Bruzdowicz Collection, was spotlighted at the Kraków Music Academy’s November conference, where Dir. Zebrowski also conducted piano master classes.
Throughout this year we hosted several scholars from Poland and welcomed many Thornton School of Music students researching their Polish music projects. Our daily work was coordinated by PMC staff, including Assistant Director Krysta Close and our new hire, Archives Specialist Tomasz Fechner, who in addition to working on the PMC’s collections has also overseen exponential growth in our social media and internet presence.
The roster of our partners includes the Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw (who expertly restored some of our Stojowski manuscripts, as pictured at right), Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Los Angeles, Cracow Duo, Filmoteka Narodowa, Head Office of Poland’s National Archives, Holocaust Museum Los Angeles, Japan House Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount University, National Institute of Music and Dance, Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Poland’s State Archives, POLAM Polish-American Credit Union, and Polish Chamber Musicians’ Association.
Support the PMC in its Fortieth Anniversary Season
Promoting Polish music includes such fixed costs as student workers’ wages, travel and lodging for visiting musicians, USC venue rentals, honoraria for students and local performers, and printing of concert programs. Since these expenditures aren’t directly related to our 2019 Taube digitization grant (that has already enabled us to place the Manuscript Collection, Kaper Collection and Wars Collection online), we must turn to you for your support.
If you are—or have been—one of our dedicated patrons, please accept our heartfelt thanks for your help. If you received this letter in the past but haven’t had a chance to respond, please consider doing so today. Our fundraising appeal happens only once a year and your donations provide 100% of PMC’s operating budget.
To honor our fortieth anniversary, please consider donating a multiple of $40 to secure the PMC’s mission. Our mailing address is in the footer below, however as mailed checks take longer to be received and acknowledged, online donations are preferred. For credit card contributions visit giveto.usc.edu and select the PMC under Schools, Centers and Institutes > Schools > Music. The link and QR code above will take you directly to our giving page. Please indicate “USC Polish Music Center,” either in the remittance line of your check or online, to ensure that your contribution reaches us promptly. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at 213-764-4977 or polmusic@usc.edu.
With many thanks for your generosity and best Holiday wishes, from all of us at the PMC!
[Photo credits: Michał Gmitruk/Archiwa Państwowe, Rebecca Lancaster/Paderewski Festival, Sean David Christiansen/USC Thornton School of Music]