Paderewski Festival in Paso Robles announces the 2009 Concert Schedule: November 12 - 15, 2009
August 11, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Paso Robles, CA – The 2009 Paderewski Festival celebrates the legacy of Ignacy Jan Paderewski with four days of concerts featuring internationally renowned performers, young pianists from the Central Coast Region, wine tasting, lectures and exhibits of Paderewski memorabilia. The Festival will be held in several venues in Paso Robles, California, November 12-15, 2009.
The Festival opens with a chamber music concert presented by the Denali String Quartet at Vina Robles Winery, in Paso Robles on Thursday, November 12, at 7 p.m. The program will feature works by Henryk Górecki, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and Johannes Brahms. A wine reception begins at 6 p.m.
Pianist William Koseluk will present a program of piano miniatures by Edvard Grieg and Paderewski’s monumental Piano Sonata Op. 21 at Cass Winery in Paso Robles on Friday, November 13, at 7 p.m. A wine reception begins at 6 p.m.
Winners of the 2009 Paderewski Young Pianists’ Competition will be featured in a recital at the historic Paso Robles Inn Ballroom on Saturday, November 14, at 4 p.m. This year the emerging talents from San Luis Obispo County compete with young entrants from Santa Barbara and Monterey Counties for the privilege of appearing at this year’s Festival. This event is free and open to the public.
The 2009 Paderewski Festival Gala Concert will feature pianist Hubert Rutkowski, prizewinner in numerous competitions in Hanover and Hamburg, Germany, Barcelona, Spain, Warsaw, Poland and Vilnius, Lithuania. His program will include works by Paderewski and Chopin, as well as rarely heard piano compositions by Paderewski’s piano teacher Teodor Leschetizky. The concert will take place at the Paso Robles Inn Ballroom on Saturday, November 14, at 8 p.m. The Gala Concert is part of the Paso Robles Elegant Evening event that takes place throughout the downtown district on this date. Wine reception begins at 6:30 p.m.
Paderewski memorabilia will be on display at Carnegie Library in the Downtown City Park and at the Paso Robles Pioneer Museum from Monday, November 9 through Sunday, November 15. Docent-guided tours of exhibits and special lectures on Paderewski will be scheduled during the Festival.
The weekend of music comes to a close with a Paderewski Festival champagne brunch at Vinoteca Wine Bar off the Downtown City Park on Sunday, November 15 at 11 a.m.
PADEREWSKI AND THE PASO ROBLES PADEREWSKI FESTIVAL
“He was a wild-haired rock star, a world-famous pianist and composer who sold out concerts from Paris to Los Angeles. He appeared twice on the cover of TIME magazine. He served as independent Poland’s first prime minister, befriended every American president from William McKinley to Franklin D. Roosevelt and hobnobbed with the crowned heads of Europe.”
— Sarah Linn, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, November 6, 2008
Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941) was a virtuoso pianist, composer, statesman, humanitarian and orator. Although his bold political vision for a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural United States of Poland was never realized, his musical legacy continues to inspire generations of musicians all around the globe.
Paso Robles is proud of its famous resident Ignacy Jan Paderewski, who visited this Central California city on many occasions for 25 years between 1914 and 1939. He stayed in the El Paso Hotel (now the Paso Robles Inn) and took cures in Paso Robles’ hot springs. He eventually bought nearly 3,000 acres of farmland in Paso Robles, Rancho San Ignacio and Rancho Santa Helena, where he planted wine grapes, almonds and a variety of fruit trees. In addition to his musical and political accomplishments, he also is remembered as a pioneer of vine cultivation and credited with bringing Zinfandel wine grapes to California.
To commemorate Paderewski’s association with Paso Robles, the Paderewski Festival was launched in 1991. The festival was suspended temporarily from 2003 to 2006, when it was re-launched under the leadership of the Polish Music Center at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music and Paso Roblans led by Steve Cass of Cass Winery and Joel Peterson, grandson of the Paderewski Festival's founder Virginia Peterson.
A sister city agreement between Tarnów, Poland, and Paso Robles, California, was signed in 2008 with a goal of establishing cultural, educational, personal and commercial exchanges between the two cities that share their historical ties to Ignacy Jan Paderewski. The first such exchange program was held in June 2009, when three young pianists from California’s Central Coast—finalists from the 2007 and 2008 Paderewski Youth Piano Competitions in Paso Robles—participated in a series of piano workshops and master classes alongside three Polish students. The program was held at the manor house of Paderewski’s former estate, Kąśna Dolna in the province of Tarnów. American and Polish students performed jointly in concerts in Kąśna Dolna and at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Wines from Paso Robles were featured in tastings during receptions following each of the youth concerts.
