This has been a very exciting half a year at the USC Polish Music Center, so exciting that we’ve barely had time to properly digitally welcome our newest staff member, Dr. Tomasz Fechner. Tomasz, or Tomek, has been a good friend of the PMC since 2015 when he was a classical guitar student at the…Continue Reading PMC Welcomes New Staff Member: Dr. Tomasz Fechner
The “Muzea, Archiwa i Biblioteki Polskie na Zachodzie” [Museums, Archives, and Polish Libraries in the West], also known by its slightly easier acronym MAB, held its annual conference in Solothurn, Switzerland in early September. Members of several MAB-affiliated institutions in Germany, France, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Canada, Argentina, and the United States assembled in this charming…Continue Reading PMC at MAB Conference in Switzerland
In early October, a very large and heavy package arrived at the PMC, bearing the Katalog Zbioru Kratograficznego Towarzystwa Historyczno-Literackiego Biblioteki Polskiej w Paryżu [Catalogue of Cartographic Holding of the Historical-Literary Society at the Polish Library in Paris]. Housed in a decorative sleeve, this beautiful clothbound edition features introductions from Kazimierz P. Zaleski, Director of…Continue Reading PMC Gifts: October 2023
Information Goldmine for Pianists! Grzegorz Mania, a noted concert pianist, author, and President of Polish Chamber Musicians’ Association [SPMK], is a man of many ideas. His latest brainstorm was to start a brand new publication for pianists, called Notatnik pianistyczny [The Piano Notebook]. This quarterly publication covering the months of July through September came out…Continue Reading PMC Gifts: September 2023
By Marek Zebrowski Christmas in July! Amazingly enough, this rather overused turn of phrase in this particular instance actually correctly describes the shower of amazing gifts and donations that the Polish Music Center received throughout the month of July. The first and historically most significant among them is a tranche of correspondence between Nancy Fierro,…Continue Reading July 2023 Gifts
By Marek Zebrowski Warsaw Autumn Sounds Mieczysław Kominek, President of the Polish Composers’ Union (ZKP) and Director of the Polish Music Information Centre in Warsaw (POLMIC), recently sent us the sound chronicles of the 2020 Warsaw Autumn Festival. This time around it is a set of three CDs, featuring the highlights of concerts that took…Continue Reading PMC Gifts: Spring 2023
Polish composer Joanna Bruzdowicz, a great friend and benefactor of the Polish Music Center, would have been eighty years old this May 17. Unfortunately, she unexpectedly passed away at her residence in the south of France on November 3, 2021. Since then, her three sons—Mark, Jan and Jörg Tittel with their families—had generously donated a…Continue Reading Sounds of History
Major Gift of Manuscripts and Published Scores Just a few weeks ago, the Polish Music Center received another priceless donation of manuscripts and various other published materials from our longtime friend and the 2005 Paderewski Lecturer, Marta Ptaszyńska. The large donation of mostly oversized items was graciously conveyed to PMC Director Marek Zebrowski at the…Continue Reading Ptaszyńska at PMC & in the Headlines!
Pump Out the Music! Virtuoso accordionist Wiesław Ochwat (above) teamed up with maestro Maciej Tworek and the Sinfonietta Cracovia ensemble to record two new concertos for accordion and orchestra for the Opus label (86 | 2022). Their CD features Maciej Zimka’s Concerto for Accordion and Chamber Orchestra and Mikołaj Majkusiak’s Concerto In Between for the…Continue Reading Feb 2023: PMC Gifts
…an ensemble that sounds like one instrument… – violinist Maxim Vengerov On March 25, the Polish Music Center will present one of the brightest stars of the young Polish chamber music scene: Duo Karolina Mikołajczyk & Iwo Jedynecki. Both virtuosos in their own right, Mikołajczyk and Jedynecki bring great energy to the stage, shining a…Continue Reading 2023 PMC Spring Concert: Duo Karolina Mikołajczyk & Iwo Jedynecki