The Paderewski Festival in Paso Robles announces the winners of the 2020 Youth Piano Competition. Due to the pandemic, this year’s Youth Competition auditions were held virtually and participants were invited to submit their performance by video. The jurors—Cal Poly professors India D’Avignon and Paul Woodring, and Paderewski Festival Artistic Director and USC Polish Music…Continue Reading 2020 Paderewski Festival Youth Piano Competition
In spite of the worldwide pandemic and music stages having fallen silent, our friends in the music world continue to be active and supply the Polish Music Center’s library with some well-timed gifts. Moniuszko & Karłowicz Recording by Beczała During the last week of September, two excellent CDs had reached our mailbox—one from a local…Continue Reading Gifts to PMC: Sept 2020
As of September 1, the Polish Music Center will now be available on a limited basis on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. PDT. If you would like to access the PMC in person during these hours, we require at least 24-hour notice via email at polmusic@usc.edu, at which point we will also provide…Continue Reading PMC Re-opens on Tuesdays!
On Sunday September 13, the newly re-branded Holocaust Museum LA (formerly the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust) will present a livestream broadcast of Cracow Duo: Live From Krakow’s Jewish Quarter. This special live performance by cellist Jan Kalinowski and pianist Marek Szlezer—known collectively as the Cracow Duo—will be streamed from the Center for Jewish…Continue Reading Cracow Duo: Live From Krakow’s Jewish Quarter
From Warsaw… It is so very encouraging that, in spite of the pandemic and the worldwide disruptions it has brought to what we once referred to as “normal life,” friends of the Polish Music Center continue to remember us and send us all kinds of gifts. The first on this list of recent donors is…Continue Reading Recent Gifts to the PMC
For years, another longtime friend and PMC supporter, Betty Harford-Naszódy, has been on the lookout for Paderewski-related items in various antique bookstores and other purveyors of memorabilia and collectors’ treasures throughout California. Her most recent (and successful) hunt yielded two articles with Paderewski’s interviews, published in the 1920s and the 1930s in Etude Magazine. The…Continue Reading More PMC gifts: Paderewski Speaks…
Although the library of the Polish Music Center is currently dark and our normal on-campus events will be replaced with exciting discussions and performances online this fall, the PMC’s varied activities are still the subject of much interest. Most recently, thanks to an introduction by the ever-supportive Tomek Fechner, the PMC piqued the interest of…Continue Reading PMC in ‘VoyageLA’
On Sunday, June 28, virtuoso violinist Itamar Zorman gave a live performance of several violin and piano works by Grażyna Bacewicz. The concert was live-streamed on Facebook and interspersed with a conversation between Maestro Zorman and PMC director Marek Zebrowski. Ably assisted by pianist Liza Stepanova, Zorman was heard in Bacewicz’s Slavonic Dance, Melody, Oberek,…Continue Reading Zorman On Bacewicz
The composer of four symphonies, seven violin concertos, seven string quartets, five sonatas for violin and piano and many more works, Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969) was a major figure in Polish music in the middle of the 20th century. Popular among audiences and musicians alike, her music also plays a historically important role “bridging the gap…Continue Reading Livestream: Grażyna Bacewicz & PMC Director Marek Zebrowski
Dear Newsletter Readers and all Friends of the Polish Music Center: With a heavy heart and much regret, we must share with you the news of cancellations and closures that are affecting the operations of the Polish Music Center. First of all, our Spring Concert, California Dreamin’, scheduled for March 28 at USC’s Newman Recital…Continue Reading PMC Closure and Cancellations