Sunday, April 6, 2025

Polish Piano Music- Radosław Sobczak & Chopin Academy Students, 4/6/2025

Steinway Piano from Wikimedia Commons.

The Modjeska Cub presents "Polish Piano Music" performed by an eminent pianist from Poland, Radosław Sobczak and Chopin Academy Students, from the school of Róża KostrzewsKa Yoder and Douglas Yoder. The concert is scheduled for Sunday, 6 April 2025, 4.00 pm, at the the Residence of the Chopin Academy Founders, in los Angees. 

Program

 PART I. Chopin Academy Students Play Polish Music

Featuring students of Róża Yoder and Douglas Yoder 

 

1. Jackson Wu

2. Felix Lu

3. Felicia Lu

4. Amelia Shirakian

 

5. Briella Zhu

6. Timmy Tian,

7. Adrien Ramos

 

8. Dominik Yoder

9. Kasper Yoder

10. Łukasz Yoder

 

 

PART II. Polish Piano Music – Radosław Sobczak

o   Tekla Bądarzewska (1823-1861) – Maiden's Prayer

o   Stanisław Moniuszko (1819-1872) – Waltz

o   Moniuszko &Henry Melcer – Spinning Girl

o   Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1869-1941) – Minuet, Op.14 No.1

o   Ignacy Jan Paderewski – Nocturne, Op.16, No. 4

o   Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) – Mazurka, Op.50, No.1

o   Karol Szymanowski – Etude, Op.4, No. 3

o   Miłosz Magin (1929-1999) – Mazurka and Kujawiak

o   Roman Maciejewski (1910-1998) – Mazurka, Echo from the Tatra Mountains

o   Piotr Pietkiewicz (b.1966) – Bells from the Deep Monology

o   Marcin Łukaszewski (b.1973) – Transcendental Etude, No. 4, Winter

o   Paweł Łukaszewski (b.1968) – Nocturne, No. 1, Alsephia

o   Paweł Łukaszewski – Nocturne, No. 14, Pipirima




Radosław Sobczak

Radosław Sobczak was born in 1981 in Pisz, Poland, where he also began to learn to play the piano at the State Primary Music School in the class of Ewa Sulewska. Then, for five years, he continued his education at the Fryderyk Chopin Primary and Secondary State Music in Olsztyn under the direction of Ilona Dworecka-Staszewska. He obtained a diploma and baccalaureate at the Karol Szymanowski Music High School in Warsaw under Prof. Bronisława Kawalla in 2000. In 2006 he graduated from the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw in the piano class of Prof. Edward Wolanin and in chamber music class of Prof. Maciej Paderewski.  He completed his studies with Prof. Victor Macarov. He is the laureate of the 2nd prize at the 1st European Piano Competition Halina Czerny – Stefańska in memoriam in Poznań (2008). He was recognized at the 14th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 2000, receiving the title of The Best Pole of the Competition and a number of awards; among others, a Yamaha piano from the Foundation of Prof. Regina Smendzianka and a Crescendum Est Polonia Founda-tion scholarship.

         Mr. Sobczak performed in many Polish symphony concert halls and at numerous festivals –Chopin Festival Settimane Musicali Bresciane — Genio e Malinconia (Italy), Piano Festival in Kitzingen (Germany), Paderewski Days in New York, Festival of Polish Music in Gyor (Hungary), Polish Piano Festival in Słupsk, Chopin Festival in Antonin, Art Festival in Czarnolas, Beethoven Festival in Głogowek, Szymanowski Days in Zakopane, Kraków Piano Summer, and more. In 2002, he gave seven recitals in China at the invitation of the Shanghai Concert Hall. In 2003, he appeared in a concert for the European Parliament in Strasbourg on the occasion of Poland’s accession to the E.U. In December 2007, Sobczak participated in the New Year’s Eve gala at the Grand Theatre-National Opera in Warsaw. He is the first Polish pianist who performed in Muscat (Oman) at the invitation of the Polish Embassy in Saudi Arabia (2010). He also performed in Australia, France, Israel, Spain, the Czech Republic, Russia, Switzerland, Ukraine, & South Korea. 

         In 2013, Sobczak released a CD with three Beethoven sonatas, followed by The Spirit, an album with works recorded during recitals, both released by the Cultura Animi Foundation. In June 2018, the DUX record label issued two monographic CDs with the music of Ignacy Paderewski and Karol Szymanowski. In the same year, he recorded a world premiere of Piano Etudes by Marcin Tadeusz Łukaszewski. In 2018, the Senate of the Republic of Poland, in cooperation with the Polish Radio, included his recording of Paderewski’s Piano Sonata in its project celebrating 100 years of Poland’s regaining its independence.

He was twice nominated for best Polish “Classical Music Award - Fryderyk” for his CDs –Paderewski (2019) and Łukaszewski (2020). During 2018-2021 years He released audio-video recording project – Music Mystery by composer Peter Pietkiewicz. In 2023 he performed in front of South Korean President Mr. Yoon Suk-Yeul and first Lady during their official visit in Poland. In 2023 he recorded both Chopin's piano concertos with new orchestra arrangements for single woodwind parts, with Podlasie Chamber Orchestra (DUX label). In 2024, as a first Polish pianist, Sobczak recorded all twelve Transcendental Etudes by Franz Liszt (DUX label). In 2010-2012, he served as a professor at the Keimyung-Chopin University in Daegu, South Korea. In 2010 – 2018, he was a lecturer at the Fryderyk Chopin University in Warsaw and  since 2012, a teacher of a piano class at the Szymanowski State Music School Complex No. 4 in Warsaw. From 2018 he has cooperated with the Chengdu Extraordinary Music Company. In 2024, he started a cooperation with the IMC- Japan Music Company.



 

Saturday, February 22, 2025

Major and the Orange Alternative - at the Vienna Woods, Saturday, 22 March 2025 at 6 pm


Waldemar Fydrych in Łódź, 12 June 2009, photo by HuBar, Wikimedia Commons

Helena Modjeska Club invites its members and friends to an original event entitled "Major and the Orange Alternative" at the Vienna Woods Gallery, on Saturday  22 March.25 at 6 p.m. - address - 351 S La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036. 

The guest of honor will be Waldemar "Major" Fydrych, an artist, surrealist and famous anti-communist activist, creator of the Orange Alternative movement. The program includes an interview, a documentary, a conversation with the artist and orange hats for the first 50 guests. Please provide drinks and homemade delicacies. Members - free admission, guests - $20 per person cash at the door. RSVP prezes@modjeska.org.

Waldemar "Major" Fydrych

Painter, writer, happener. Waldemar "Major" Fydrych was born on April 8, 1953 in Toruń. He holds a master's degree in history (1980) and art history (1987) from the University of Wroclaw. In 2012, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, he defended his doctoral thesis entitled. "Happening as an integrative, healing operation transforming art and reality" under the supervision of Prof. Stanislaw Wieczorek. He is known internationally as an organizer of mass happenings and author of books and graffiti dwarfs. He began his independent activities in the 1970s. After August 80, he created " theMovement for a New Culture" in Wroclaw. Soon after, in 1981, he published the "Manifesto of Socialist Surrealism" and launched the Orange Alternative movement. During martial law, Poles became more familiar with Major's activities through graffiti dwarfs painted on spots covering anti-regime slogans. In total, there were more than a thousand of them in various Polish cities. Beginning in 1986, he began organizing a series of happenings that continues to this day - more than sixty by 2006 - which have gone down in history as the Orange Alternative.

Waldemar Fydrych is the author of five books, including the drama "Don General," and a painter, creating distinctive works with images of dwarfs. His book "Lives of the Orange Husbands" in July 2014 was published by the London-based Minor Compositions publishing house in English with a foreword by the famous activist duo The Yes Men and the well-known American journalist Anne Applebaum.

In 2013 he was recognized in the book "Surrealism - 50 works You should know" by Brad Finger, published by Prestel Publishing, a publishing house owned by the Random House publishing concern, as one of the most prominent representatives of Surrealism in the history of this trend alongside such artists as Picasso, Dali, Duchamp, Artaud, among others. 

The most famous happenings by Waldemar "Major" Fydrych are:

1. Tubes, or smokestacking the city (April 1, 1986);

2. Potluck Festival (April 1, 1987);

3. Dwarfs on Świdnicka Street (June 1, 1987);

4. Down with the U-Pals (July 1987);

5. Anti-War Action (September 1, 1987);

6. Toilet Paper - the so-called first handout (October 1, 1987);

7. Militant Day (October 7, 1987);

8. Terrorist Day or Al Fatah (October 11, 1987);

9. Army Day or Maneuvers Melon in Mayonnaise (October 12, 1987);

10. Who's afraid of Toilet Paper? - The so-called Second Hand (October 15, 1987);

11. Eve of the October Revolution (November 6, 1987); (1000 participants)

12. Referendum on Świdnicka Street (November 27, 1987); (1500 participants)

13. Santa Claus Day (December 6, 1987); (2000 participants)

14. RIO-bot Carnival (February 16, 1988); (5,000 participants)

15. Secret Service Day (March 1, 1988);

16. Women's Day (March 8, 1988); ended with the arrest of Major Waldemar Fydrych  "on a summary basis" for 2 months of absolute detention.

17. Major's trial (March 29, 1988); - appeal trial, after which Major was acquitted and released

18. Dwarf Revolution (June 1, 1988); (15,000 participants)

19. Brotherly Aid Forever Alive (August 19, 1988) (near Snezka near the Polish-Czech

border, two days before the 20th anniversary of the Warsaw Pact troops'

intervention in Czechoslovakia);

20.Resident on Świdnicka Street (October 21, 1988);

21. October Revolution (November 7, 1988);

22.The eve of the great anniversary (December 12, 1988) of martial law.

23.Carnival or Herring on Świdnicka Street (February 7, 1989);

24.Stalin's Funeral or Funeral for Yourself (March 21, 1989)

25.FSO, or Festival of Present Art (June 1, 1989) concluded with a concert by the bands Kormorany, Big Cyc and Kult;

He has received numerous awards for these activities: including the 1988 Solidarity Award from the Puls Publishing House in London, and the Polkul Awards in Australia. He and the Orange Alternative, which he led, are the only winners to date of the Ashes and Diamonds Award established by director Andrzej Wajda, which was awarded in December 1988. "Rewarded" he also received special attention from the regime's Interior Ministry in Poland, which kept an eye on Major Fydrych and his activities. In March 1988, during a happening in which he handed out sanitary pads on the street - a product in short supply at the time - Waldemar Fydrych was arrested and jailed for three months. In the face of mass protests, however, he was soon released.

Happenings after 2000:

• 2001: Celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the Orange Alternative in Wroclaw.

• 2001: Celebration of the twentieth anniversary of Martial Law "Descent to Underground", in Glogow, with Kreatura Theatre

• 2002: Dwarf President - "Merrier and Competent Warsaw" Election Committee: Waldemar Major Fydrych is running for President of Warsaw.

• 2004: Happenings "Stereotypes" i" in France: 

December 2003 - April 2004 - work with students at the Université d'Artois in Arras, happenings in Arras, Paris and Lille (program awarded by the European Union); 

April 2004 - May 2004 - work with students at the Université de Nancy culminating in a happening on May 1, 2004 on the occasion of the Traverses Festival in Nancy; June 2004 - work with students from the Université de Nancy culminating in a happening on June 6 in Metz)

• 2004: Happenings "Kyiv Warsaw - Common Cause" ; Major Fydrych takes an active part in the Orange Revolution in Ukraine with happenings in Warsaw, Lublin, Lviv, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, Vinnitsa and Kyiv.

• 2006: Warsaw: "Gammons and Dwarfs" Voters' Committee - Major defeats candidates of two of the three parties co-founding the ruling coalition.

• 2007: Warsaw: 6 "Educators in Action" happenings during the Sejm election campaign.

• 2009: series of happenings as part of the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of Communism in Central Europe


Books authored or co-authored by Major Fydrych:

• "Hokus Pokus" - Annex Publishing House, year 1990, 150 pages

• "Lives of Orange Husbands".- Orange Alternative Publishing House, 2001, 300 pages

• "Dwarves and Gammons". - Orange Alternative Publishing, 2006, 247 pages

• "Orange Alternative - Revolution of the Dwarfs". - historical photo album - Orange

Alternative Publishing House, 2007/2008, 310 pages

• "Don General" - Drama in three acts, 2010, 60 pages.

• "Major" - autobiography, National Cultural Center, 2013, 320 pages


Exhibitions of Major Fydrych's artwork:

• "Images" - Exhibition of paintings at Ostrow Tumski in Wroclaw, 1988.

• "Dwarfs and the Orange Alternative" - exhibition of drawings, Art New Media Gallery, Warsaw, 2002.

• "Thousand Dwarfs" - exhibition of drawings, Theatre of the Eighth Day, Poznań, 2002.

• "Souvenir for Wroclaw" - exhibition of drawings as part of a group exhibition, BWA Gallery, Wrocław, 2003

• "1000 dwarfs for Warsaw" - watercolor exhibition, Traffic Gallery, Warsaw, 2006.

• "Waldemar Major Fydrych - dialectical art of great social forms". - watercolor exhibition, YIA Art Salon in Paris, Third District City Hall Headquarters, 2014.

• "Waldemar "Major" Fydrych - Painting". - exhibition of acrylics, Gallery "Orangery in Jablonna, 2019.

• "Waldemar "Major" Fydrych - Yesterday and Today - Fragments". - An exhibition of acrylics and photographs from the artist's happenings, XX1 Gallery, Warsaw, 2020.

Major foreign exhibitions about the Orange Alternative since 2000:

• 1989: Exhibition as part of a group exhibition entitled. "Les Utopies: Europe des

Createurs," Grand Palais, Paris, France.

• 2005: Exhibition on Orange at the European Parliament in Brussels

• 2005: Exhibition on the Orange Alternative in Ukraine (Donetsk, Lviv,

Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Kyiv), including over a month at the Kyiv-Mohyla

Academy, Kyiv Center for Contemporary Art

• 2009: A series of six street exhibitions in the country and one in Berlin as part of the

20th Anniversary of the Fall of Communism in Central Europe

• 2009: Exhibition as part of a group exhibition entitled. "Performing Revolution -

Revolutionary Voices from Central and Eastern Europe in 1980s" organized by The

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, New York, USA.

• 2011: Exhibition "L'Alternative Orange - La Revolution des Nains," Gallery Centre 59

Rivoli, Paris, France.

• 2011: Exhibition "La Alternativa Naranja - La Revolucion de los Gnomos", Main HallDepartment of Sociology and Political Science, Universidad Complutense de Madrid,

Madrid,Spain.

• 2011: "Happening into Communism" exhibition, International Cultural Centre, Kraków

• 2012: "The Major and the Orange Alternative" exhibition, Sarajevo War Theatre, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

• 2014-2015: Exhibition as part of a group exhibition titled. "Disobedient Objects," Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK.


Some of the documentaries on Major Fydrych's activities:

• "Orange Alternative", 24 min., directed by Miroslaw Dembinski, 1988, awarded in 1989 with many awards including: Main Prize in the International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen, Germany; Bronze Lajkonik in the National Short Film Festival in Krakow.

• "The Major or the Revolution of the Dwarves," 30 min. directed by Maria ZmarzKoczanowicz, 1989.

• "Dwarf President," 37 min, directed by Miroslaw Dembinski, 2003.

• "Dwarfs go to Ukraine", 55 min., directed by Miroslaw Dembinski, 2005, Audience Award at the National Independent Documentary Forms Review in Kielce.

• "Fearless Conquerors of Absurdities," 50 min., Discovery Historia, 2012.


PHOTOS FROM VIENNA WOODS, 22 MARCH 2025

Major with the Board, Maja Trochimczyk - President,
Anna SAdowska - Treasurer, and Beata Czajkowska - Secretary

















Iga Kaniak-Zimny, Maja Trochimczyk & artist Ewa Matysek-Mazur


With poster of the Orange Alternative 













Prof. Andrzej Targowski & Major, with a protrait of Andrzej Kolodziej


Slavek i Marzena Wisniewski, Major and Daniela Zarakowska

With a garden gnome from my garden











Jacek Roszkowski helped with AV projection
















Maja Trochimczyk and Anna Sadowska

Konsul General Paulina Kapuscinska with Major, Maja and Beata Czajkowska


With blooming agave in Maja's garden