2013 Paderewski Festival in Paso Robles Concerts, Film, Exhibit and Master Class Announced
November 7-10, 2013
Paso Robles, CA – The 2013 Paderewski Festival celebrates the legacy of Ignacy Jan Paderewski with four days of concerts and special events featuring international renowned performers, young pianists from California’s Central Coast, master classes, historic exhibit, lecture and wine tasting. The Festival will be held in several venues in Paso Robles, California, November 7-10, 2013. Admission ranges from free to $30 depending on the event; VIP tickets for all events are $125. Tickets may be purchased online at www.paderewskifest.com or by calling (805) 769-4622.
The 2013 Paderewski Festival Event Calendar
Thursday, November 7, 2013
FESTIVAL OPENING CONCERT
Performers: Panic Duo
Venue: Cass Winery, 7350 Linne Road, Paso Robles
Time: 6 p.m. no-host wine reception with music to follow at 6:30 p.m.
Admission: Tickets are $20/30/50/60
The opening concert of the 2013 Paderewski Festival will feature Panic Duo with violinist Pasha Tseitlin and pianist Nic Gerpe. The concert will be held at Cass Winery on Thursday, November 7 at 6:30 p.m, following no-host wine reception at 6:00 p.m. and an optional buffet dinner immediately following the performance.
Panic Duo is a Los-Angeles based ensemble dedicated to the music of our time, freely mixing styles and periods, from classical and contemporary to jazz, modernist, and world-music. Krzesimir Dębski’s Sonata for Piano and Violin (2013) will receive its Central Coast premiere at the Cass Winery concert. Also on the program will be Karol Szymanowski’s Mythes for Violin and Piano (1915), and Henryk Wieniawski’s Polonaise brillante (1870).
Friday, November 8, 2013
MASTER CLASS WITH PIANIST KAROL RADZIWONOWICZ
Venue: Park Ballroom
Time: 2-4 p.m.
Admission: Free
The 2013 Paderewski Festival in Paso Robles invites all music students, faculty and the general public to a master class with pianist Karol Radziwonowicz, 2013 Paderewski Festival Gala Concert perfomer and world-famous pianist educated in Poland and in the United States of America, who has performed throughout Europe, North and South America, Australia, and Asia.
JAZZ AND FILM MUSIC CONCERT
Performers: Krzesimir Dębski and Friends
Venue: Park Ballroom, 1232 Park Street, Paso Robles
Time: 7 p.m.
Admission: Tickets are $10/20/30
Krzesimir Dębski is a prominent Polish composer, violinist, pianist, and a celebrated orchestral conductor. Equally at home in the world of jazz and classical music, Dębski is celebrated in Poland for his numerous and highly popular film scores. He is also famous as a songwriter and arranger, and a composer of music for theatre. In his November 8 concert Mr. Dębski will be assisted by the following artists: drummer Darryl “Munyungo” Jackson, popular singer and jazz vocalist Anna Jurksztowicz, guitarist Larry Koonse and bassist Darek “Oles” Oleszkiewicz.
Saturday, November 9, 2013
DOCUMENTARY FILM Paderewski: Man of Action, Success and Fame
Venue: Park Cinemas, 11 Pine Street, Paso Robles
Time: 10 a.m.
Admission: Free
The documentary film Paderewski: Man of Action, Success and Fame presents the history of the great Polish patriot, world-famous pianist and composer, statesman, diplomat, politician and philanthropist, who helped Poland regain independence after World War I. Paderewski’s deeds are discussed by several historical witnesses, including U.S. presidents Ronald Regan, John F. Kennedy, George Bush Sr., and Poland’s president Lech Wałęsa, as well as by the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Józef Glemp, and musicologists Jerzy Waldorff and Jan Popis. The film features Paderewski’s own piano performances and includes footage of his last journey from Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. to the crypt at the Basilica of St. John in Warsaw’s Old Town. Running time: 32 minutes. In Polish with English subtitles.
PADEREWSKI HEART EXHIBIT
Venue: Studios on the Park, 1130 Pine Street, Paso Robles
Time: 11 a.m.
Admission: Free
The Paderewski Heart exhibit traces a fascinating history of Paderewski’s heart, following his burial at the Arlington National Cemetery in 1941. Separated before the burial, Paderewski’s heart was embalmed and interred at the Cypress Hill Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY. Rediscovered in 1960, it was eventually exhumed and reburied at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Częstochowa in Doylestown, PA in 1983. Over 20 large panels feature rare photographs and documents further explaining this captivating and little-known story.
THE 2013 YOUTH PIANO COMPETITION WINNERS’ CONCERT
Performers: Winners of the 2013 Paderewski Youth Piano Competition
Venue: Paso Robles Inn Ballroom, 1103 Spring Street, Paso Robles
Time: 4 p.m.
Admission: Free
THE 2013 PADEREWSKI FESTIVAL GALA CONCERT
Performer: Karol Radziwonowicz
Venue: Paso Robles Inn Ballroom, 1103 Spring Street, Paso Robles
Time: Wine reception 7 p.m., followed by concert at 7:30 p.m.
Admission: Tickets $15/25/35; under 21 Free
World-famous pianist Karol Radziwonowicz was a First Prize winner at the Paderewski Piano Competition in Warsaw and the Słupsk (Poland) Piano Competition, and recipient of the Audience Award at the Liszt International Piano Competition in Utrecht (The Netherlands) in 1986. Radziwonowicz was the first pianist in the world to register the complete piano works of Ignacy Jan Paderewski on Selene Records, for whom he also recorded rarely-heard piano compositions by Polish composers Juliusz Zarębski and Karol Mikuli. In February 2010, a recording of Radziwonowicz’s interpretations of Chopin’s music was taken aboard the NASA Space Shuttle mission STS-130 to the International Space Station, an achievement marked by EMI’s release of the disc “Chopin: the Space Concert.”
He has served as a juror for the 1998 and 2001 editions of the Paderewski International Piano Competition in Bydgoszcz, Poland, the 2006 Chopin Competition for Young Pianists in Estonia, and currently as the Jury President of the Chopin’s Golden Ring Piano Competition in Slovenia. Since its inception in 2004, Radziwonowicz has also served as President of the International Paderewski Music Society in Warsaw.
Radziwonowicz will present a program highlighting two of Poland’s greatest composers of piano music, Frederic Chopin and Ignacy Jan Paderewski. The Chopin group will include Nocturne Op. 9 no. 1, Mazurka Op. 68 no. 2, Fantaisie-Impromptu, Op. 66, Grand Valse brillante Op. 34 no. 2, and will culminate in Chopin’s Ballade in F minor, Op. 52. The Paderewski selections will include Menuet Op. 14 no. 1, Cracovienne fantastique, Op. 14 no. 6, and Nocturne, Op. 16. no. 4. Paderewski’s magnificent Sonata, Op. 21 will close the Festival Gala program.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
FESTIVAL FINALE: PADEREWSKI IN PASO LECTURE AND EPOCH ESTATES TOUR & WINETASTING
Venue: Epoch Estate Wines
Time: 11 a.m.
Admission: VIP ticket holders only
As proprietors of Paderewski Vineyard and York Mountain, where Paderewski made his wine, Epoch Estate Wines will open its private Farmhouse to host Paderewski Festival Artistic Director Marek Zebrowski and his lecture “Paderewski in Paso”. VIP pass holders will be able to tour Epoch’s Paderewski Vineyard (closed to the public) and enjoy a special tasting of Epoch Estate Wine’s sold-out 2011 vintage Zinfandel from the Paderewski Vineyard.
The Paderewski Festival in Paso Robles is a non-profit organization that sponsors an annual series of concerts featuring internationally acclaimed artists, the Paderewski Youth Piano Competition and Exchange Program. For further information and schedule of 2013 Paderewski Festival events, please see the Festival’s website, www.paderewskifest.com.
Background
Paderewski and the Paderewski Festival in Paso Robles
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 most 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 2001 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 the goal of establishing cultural, educational, personal and commercial exchanges between the two cities that share 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. The first group of young Polish pianists came to perform in Paso Robles in 2010 and again in 2012. In 2011 and 2013, three U.S. students went to Poland, and this November festival audiences will have a chance to hear performances by this year’s California Central Coast winners of the Paderewski Youth Piano Competition.
For more information on the 2013 Paderewski Festival in Paso Robles, please visit the Festival’s website: www.paderewskifest.com
