Paderewski Festival Raleigh

06/18/2026

As of last night -- our wonderful volunteer webmaster, Piotr Gucwa, has put up--on our website--the listing of the four pianists for our 13th Annual Ignacy Jan Paderewski Piano Festival of Raleigh!
https://www.paderewski-festival.org/

There you can find some basic information on our four pianists:
Julie Haismann -- November 7, 2026, Saint Mary's School
Maria Stratigou -- November 8, 2026, Saint Mary's School
Elia Cecino -- November 14, 2026, NC Museum of Art
Seunghum Jeong -- November 15, 2026, NC Museum of Art

We have to thank Kaine Riggan of Chamber Music Raleigh for his wonderful cooperation in helping in all local arrangements. Please google "Chamber Music Raleigh" to see all the other great musical offerings this burgeoning organization has arranged for the coming year. Raleigh's on a roll!

06/14/2026

Another program. In actuality, two programs. The three programs I bought turned out to be five programs in practice, as two of them contained programs for matinees in addition to the evening performances. Thus, I have augmented my collection by the addition of five programs, bringing it almost to 75 performances. I may be approaching ten percent.
Today's programs are for Carnegie Hall on March 19 and 21, 1914 -- on the last pre-war tour of the United States. They show his performance of his own Concerto (Perkowska 170) and his favorite Beethoven Concerto (E-flat major, Op. 73 - Perkowska 9).
I include also a plan of Carnegie Hall as it appeared at the time; it is included in both the 1907-08 and the 1913-14 programs.

06/12/2026

Another of the programs by Paderewski.
This program covers actually two concerts by Paderewski, immediately following the program I put up two days ago. That program was played in Philadelphia on Monday, December 2, 1907. The second program, the one entered below, also contains 52 pages and a cover -- but it presents two concerts in Carnegie Hall in New York three and five days later the same week, on Thursday AND a matinee on Saturday -- December 5 and December 7, 1907.
The Thursday evening performance set out the same program as in Philadelphia, exactly. The Saturday afternoon concert featured a completely different program, including two pieces (Boehe and Reznicek) being performed for the first time in New York. AND, Paderewski played the Anton Rubinstein Concerto in D minor, No. 4 (Perkowska repertoire no. 191). It appears from Perkowska's compilation that this was the last time Paderewski ever performed the Rubinstein Concerto.
The program, again, has the Weber piano as instrument. It also has an advertisement for New England Conservatory of Music -- not at all surprising since NEC is located across the street from Boston's Symphony Hall, home of the BSO. It's my wife's old school; she has proudly taken me about the area.

06/10/2026

Only a few days to go before our announcement of our four pianists for the 13th Annual Paderewski Piano Festival of Raleigh!
Meanwhile, I've picked up five programs for the Boston Symphony. Three of them feature Paderewski playing concerti; the other two feature Josef Hofmann. They came as a package, and Josef Hofmann was a marvelous pianist, of many talents.
We'll put them up one at a time; they're 52 pages long -- a true booklet -- with a cover. This tour was unusual; Paderewski played Weber pianos -- rather then Steinways. It was the only tour of that type. The piano at the hotel in Paso Robles is a Weber, an oddity. It was the subject of a contretemps in Warsaw in 2016 when a member of the Vancouver group charged that it had been spirited away in some fashion from the Consulate General there.

06/03/2026

Kosciuszko Squad Plus has this morning put out a note on the diplomatic efforts of Ignacy Jan Paderewski in cooperation with Roman Dmowski. 108th anniversary, at the height of the war with the US forces beginning to arrive in France.

🇵🇱 June 3, 1918 - The Versailles Declaration. An important step towards Polish independence! 🇵🇱.. in Versailles the Prime Ministers of France, Great Britain and Italy announced a joint declaration, in which for the first time they officially spoke for the rebirth of an independent Polish state. ❤🇵🇱
This event, known as the Versailles Declaration, was a breakthrough in the diplomatic struggle for a free Poland. For the first time, the three biggest powers of the Entents acknowledged that an independent Poland is necessary for future peace in Europe.
📜 "The creation of a united and independent Poland, encompassing the territories inhabited by an undoubtedly Polish population, with free access to the sea, is one of the conditions for lasting and just peace." ” - declared the Versailles Declaration.
✅ There wouldn't be this historical document without the effort of the Polish National Committee, which has been operating in Paris since 1917 as the official representation of the Polish case against Ententa states.
At his head was Roman Dmowski - a prominent politician and diplomat, who effectively convinced the Western leaders that the rebuilding of Poland was a condition for a stable Europe. To, m. in. thanks to his work, the Polish case was recognized as an international priority.
The role of Ignace Jan Paderewski is also impossible to overlook - a world-famous pianist and patriot who used his authority, especially in the United States, to garner support for Poland, especially from President Wilson.
🇵🇱 Paderewski and Dmowski later represented Poland together at the peace conference in Versailles, where they signed the treaty ending World War I.
The declaration of June 3, 1918, was not only a political gesture, but also a turning point - Poland was returning to the map of Europe as an international issue and a real political necessity. ❤🇵🇱

Pics:
Black and white photograph - The Polish National Committee in Paris presents the nomination to General J. Haller for the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces in France, 1918.
Black and white photograph - Polish National Committee in Paris, 1918 Collection of the Polish Army Museum
Postcard - Roman Dmowski, President of the Polish National Committee, Paris 1914-1918
Badge with the image of I. Padarewski turned to the right. Along the rim there is an inscription: "IGNACY PADEREWSKI", at the bottom: "1918". Collection of the Polish Army Museum

https://www.facebook.com/MuzeumWP/posts/pfbid022uYgVGrZ9muZJdN1AK2xLmRmNFQ45LCzEFYpuQSmy1yv1JDvnraUUkxUMj5jGLXYlKSQ Versailles June 3, 1918 - The Versailles Declaration. An important step towards Polish independence https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/503428416_1156614989832843_7775854480495350326_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=0Mgrzm47iDsQ7kNvwETnFUP&_nc_oc=Adk1MnH4sLFHMoO4kQEIgLT1GPRpyQlmGrTHqHkQYFpO8cchluAH53JdP5cB7kxpKgE&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.xx&_nc_gid=OkD_P532j9yL3lq0zvf_fA&oh=00_AfL5Gc37GYzg_CTudQp9bWKWhf8aQzBvbFv2p0Tup4JIyw&oe=684572A9 https://scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/502641820_1156615089832833_3641380679166293507_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=0YEW7Ht3KTYQ7kNvwFqP2zp&_nc_oc=AdkR5UR0E0nFNC0ttEwhntZCjDxewnaTzVgjGBaUYarlIttKClN4xYcmn5IwOZXsKyg&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-2.xx&_nc_gid=OkD_P532j9yL3lq0zvf_fA&oh=00_AfL7JYroeLyWFKLGJfKV-M5Yb_KwQOt2DK_0unDtAcKV0A&oe=68457BD5 https://scontent-lga3-3.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/502587288_1156615646499444_4613265130659488125_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=SO7XdaZwOFkQ7kNvwE7gkSY&_nc_oc=AdlhgBPwRAlg_P7OzRCWI66EAs7V3T0nihr3oMzXmDl__gi-eTHYGADfRZCX-qWYDls&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-3.xx&_nc_gid=OkD_P532j9yL3lq0zvf_fA&oh=00_AfKeWsE4zJkeCswfVNs7KBeD_lF_50XStS9uMhkmXtRv5w&oe=6845612F

. #🇵🇱 , , .

05/27/2026

Just in today, by mail. Another Paderewski concert program, this time on March 14, 1932, in Madison, Wisconsin. This one was well under $70, so I got to it first.
It's not a remarkable program, no great association with personages or events. It was of interest to me, in part, because my mother's next younger sister was a journalism graduate student at the University of Wisconsin that year (1931-1932). She had placed first in her class at Woman's College in Greensboro (now UNCG) and won the Weil Fellowship -- to take anywhere. She later worked for the Madison newspaper, lived 15 years in Hong Kong, and finished out her classic journalist's life with the Clearwater Sun, in Florida. My favorite aunt: 85 pounds of hard-bitten ci******es, liquor, and speech. Outlived all her physicians to die at 96.
I'll bet she was there -- to hear Paderewski.

05/27/2026

I celebrated my 82nd birthday on May 25, Memorial Day. More than 31 well-wishes came through on that day. One of them was from the President of the Polish-American Club of the Triangle, an artist: Joanna Pawlak. I challenged her to make up a caricature of me -- I love caricatures.
So, within a very few minutes, she came through with six AI-generated renderings. Three dealt directly with our Paderewski Piano Festival. Here they are, trotted out to maintain interest (we hope) in the upcoming announcement of our four pianists. Fewer than three weeks!
The dog in the picture is Harvey, "Le Comte Coton de Tuléar," who has summarily arrogated to himself the title of "Resident Dog" of the Paderewski Festival. The caricatures were generated from images available on these pages, so Harvey appears -- in mortarboard and glasses -- as history professor at the 235th-anniversary picnic in honor of the Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791.

05/23/2026

Datelined yesterday, Richard Morrison -- "Chief Culture Writer" for The London Times -- published a list of ten GOATs of the piano.
The occasion is the 125th anniversary of Wigmore Hall. He, or whoever, had a number of present leading pianists compile lists and then combined the results through some semi-occult process.

We were disappointed to find no rank for Paderewski. So be it. Subjective in the extreme.
Here is their list:

10. Vladimir Sofronitsky
9. Artur Schnabel
8. Martha Argerich
7. Alfred Cortot
6. Artur Rubinstein
5. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli
4. Radu Lupu
3. Vladimir Horowitz
2. Sviatoslav Richter
1. Sergei Rachmaninov

The celebration of Wigmore Hall begins on May 25 and runs for two weeks. The ranking panel seems to include -- by and large -- a good many of those performing then.

05/21/2026

As of 4:30 this afternoon, my posting with the three posters was approaching 1000 views (971, to be exact).
I don't know how this wonderful phenomenon came about. The previous high was over 400; normal runs for my posts are in the range of 50-100.
So, I sat down to see what I could put up to capitalize on this unexpected development. Maybe those 1000 will look again.
Here are two Paderewski programs I didn't win on eBay. Oddly enough, neither is listed in Perkowska's great work listing hundreds of programs played by Paderewski. It seems that quite a number of programs did not make into the ken of posterity. I have half a dozen myself.
These two programs got away because the prices being asked now have gone well above the $10 or so of 20 years ago. I won't bid over $70 unless it's a really pivotal program--like the Herbert Hoover program of 1896. These two programs went for over $70. The first program below was played in Havana, February 17, 1926; Perkowska lists two programs played there/then, bracketing the date of this program. Sometimes programs could vary by a day or two--as in Raleigh in 1939, vicissitudes of travel--but this one listed a different venue. The performance was probably added by some musical entrepreneur/impresario.
The second program was played in Albany, NY, on March 18, 1892. First tour of the US, true -- but Perkowska lists at least 58 concerts on that tour before that date. Run of the mill; he was ruthlessly driven by tour managers to play.