19 Oct 2025: Paderewski Lecture-Recital & Conversation with André Laks

Organized by the USC Polish Music Center, celebrations across Los Angeles of the artistic and intellectual legacy of Szymon Laks (1901-1983) will be held on October 19. Paris-based Polish Jewish composer and writer Szymon Laks’s music uniquely balances elements of French modernism, Polish folk music and American jazz. The composer survived imprisonment at Auschwitz by…Continue Reading 19 Oct 2025: Paderewski Lecture-Recital & Conversation with André Laks

New Waltz by Chopin Unearthed!

A remarkable find has emerged from the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City: a previously unknown waltz believed to be written by 19th century Polish composer, Frédéric Chopin. Discovered by curator Dr. Robinson McClellan while cataloging the Arthur Satz Collection, this significant piece is the first major Chopin discovery since the 1930s. The…Continue Reading New Waltz by Chopin Unearthed!

Lecture: Modern Polish Piano Music

On Tuesday September 10, Dr. Andrzej Ślązak returns to USC’s campus to present two lectures along with his colleague, Krystian Krauz. These two scholars are from the Music Institute at Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce, Poland, where Dr. Ślązak serves as Director of the Institute and a Fulbright Ambassador. They will discuss two leading Polish…Continue Reading Lecture: Modern Polish Piano Music

PMC Gifts: July 2024 – Scores, Recordings & Reference Materials

The many colleagues, donors and friends of the Polish Music Center were very generous this summer, when our Director Marek Zebrowski was travelling in Poland to retrieve PMC archival materials preserved by our partners at the National Archives/AGAD facility and accept a UNESCO designation for our Henryk Wars Collection at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw….Continue Reading PMC Gifts: July 2024 – Scores, Recordings & Reference Materials

PMC Gifts: July 2024 – Books

During visits to Poland and Germany in late June and early July by PMC director, Marek Zebrowski, we received several books and CDs for our library. Here then, dear readers, are the descriptions of the latest additions to our research resources. The Power of Intuition by Ptaszyńska & Lindstedt A longtime PMC friend and former…Continue Reading PMC Gifts: July 2024 – Books

Ptaszyńska Back in Chicago

Marta Ptaszyńska, distinguished Polish composer and Helen B. and Frank L. Sulzberger Professor Emerita at the University of Chicago, will return to the UChicago campus on April 10 as a featured speaker for the Robert and Anne Gomer Lecture series. Titled “Imaginary Landscapes—Music of Marta Ptaszyńska,” the composer will discuss her most recent large scale…Continue Reading Ptaszyńska Back in Chicago

2024 ZKP Musicological Conference: Call For Papers

The 53rd annual Musicological Conference of the Polish Composers’ Union (ZKP) will be held at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz on October 3–5, 2024. This year’s Conference is devoted to “Non-absolute Music.”  The Conference format will include Individual presentations in the form of papers of up to 20 minutes, broader panels with…Continue Reading 2024 ZKP Musicological Conference: Call For Papers

ZKP Award For Music Education

This year on June 28, the Board of the Polish Composers Union [ZKP] awarded the 8th Polish Composers Union Award in recognition of Grażyna Krzanowska’s outstanding accomplishment in the field of music education. As both a composer and teacher, Krzanowska has spent several years enriching youth in the field of contemporary music. The award ceremony…Continue Reading ZKP Award For Music Education

On Wanda Landowska

The Library of Congress has posted a very interesting video of a lecture and concert held at the Library’s Coolidge Auditorium on 25 May 2022. Titled “Restitution, Restoration and Repertoire: New Findings in the Wanda Landowska and Denise Restout Papers at the Library of Congress,” the event featured distinguished speakers, among them Carla Shapreau, Senior…Continue Reading On Wanda Landowska