Calendar of Cultural Events

Please verify dates and times with The Kosciuszko Foundation Director of Cultural Affairs
Tom Pniewski -- (212) 734-2130 ext. 214

Jonathan Plowright, pianist, performs three Polish Masters at Weill Hall
Saturday, October 21
Tickets are $35 / $25 / and $15, and can be purchased at the Carnegie Hall Box Office, through CarnegieCharge (212.247-7800) and online at www.carnegiehall.org. 10% discounted members tickets will be available at the Foundation Office.

There is also a talk and reception at the Foundation House, beginning at 5 PM. The ticket price of $75 includes the lecture, buffet, and prime seating at Weill Hall. Sponsors, limited to 100, will also be acknowledged in the program for their support. For information and reservations, call the Foundation Office at 212-734-2130.

Locations:
Weill Hall: 57th Street and Seventh Avenue
Kosciuszko Foundation House: 15 East 65th Street (Fifth/Madison)

Jonathan Plowright,English pianist, will give a recital at Weill Recital Hall on Saturday, October 21 at 8:30 PM, devoted to music of three Polish keyboard giants: Paderewski, Szymanowski, and Stojowski.

Ignacy Jan Paderewski, of course, needs no introduction; the great pianist-statesman is known the world over. Karol Szymanowski, Poland’s finest national composer after Chopin, is less familiar, though his compositions have become part of the standard repertoire. And Zygmunt Stojowski (1870-1946), a great Polish-born pianist, teacher, patriot and composer, who spent most of his life here in New York, is virtually unknown. Stojowski was also a member of the Kosciuszko Foundation National Council. As head of the piano department of what became the Juilliard School, he had an immense influence on thousands of students, yet his work has been ignored.

Jonathan Plowright is a young British virtuoso who has concentrated his formidable talents on reviving the music of Stojowski and his Polish contemporaries. A professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London, Jonathan has given numerous concerts and recorded several CDs devoted to Stojowski and Paderewski, who was a close friend and colleague. Jonathan was also invited to perform in Warsaw by the Polish Parliament, as part of the 2001 Paderewski celebrations, and has done numerous broadcasts for Polish Radio. Gramophone Magazine has called him “one of the finest living pianists.”

Jonathan’s recital will be preceded by a talk and reception, at the Foundation House, beginning at 5 PM, given by Mr. Joseph A. Herter. Mr. Herter, an American living in Warsaw, directs the boy’s choir at St. John’s Cathedral there. A longtime friend and associate of the Foundation, he has done research on several Polish and Polish-American musicians, and has just finished a book on Stojowski.

A representative of the New York Philharmonic will also be on hand, as an archive of Stojowski materials from the Philharmonic is presented to the Polish Music Center at the University of Southern California. A buffet will follow Mr. Herter’s talk, after which there is time to get to Carnegie Hall for the recital.

The ticket price of $75 includes the lecture, buffet, and prime seating at Weill Hall. Sponsors, limited to 100, will also be acknowledged in the program for their support. For information and reservations, call the Foundation Office at 212-734-2130.

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Click on images to view larger pictures:

Jonathan Plowright

Zygmunt Stojowski