On Thursday, Oct. 8, renowned Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman received an honorary doctorate from the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. During the ceremony, which coincided with the opening of the 2015/26 academic year at the Music University, Zimerman was honored by the Dean of the Piano Department, Professor Anna Jastrzębska-Quinn, as well as Professor Piotr Paleczny, also himself a decorated pianist.
According to the external service of Polish Radio:
Jastrzębska-Quinn spoke of Zimerman’s outstanding achievements which have placed him alongside such Polish piano virtuosos of the past as Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Józef Hofmann, and Artur Rubinstein.
“Your performances of works by Polish composers have made them appreciated worldwide and your interpretations of Chopin have become an unattainable model for other pianists,” she said.
Anna Jastrzębska-Quinn also recalled Zimerman’s spectacular victory at the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw forty years ago this month.
Evidently moved, Zimerman looked around the audience and said that he could see many people “far more deserving of the honour that I have been given.”
[Sources: thenews.pl]