Tuesday, October 9, 2018

100 Years of Poland in Music - With Katarzyna Sadej and Basia Bochenek, October 20, 2018


The next event of the Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club is a concert "100 Years of Poland 
in Music" by Katarzyna Sadej (mezzosoprano) and Basia Bochenek (piano) with special guest appearance by film composer & pianist Miro Kępiński. The event will be held at Beverly Hills, CA, on Saturday, October 20, 2018, 6 p.m. Attendance is limited to Club Members and VIP guests of the Polish Film Festival.


Program

Zakazane piosenki – Inspiracje / Forbidden Songs – Inspirations Based on songs from the 1946 musical about occupied Poland, e.g. Zielone Jabłuszko, Hymn Szarych Szeregów, Kto handluje ten żyje.
Miro Kępiński, pianist and film composer

100 Years of Poland in Music Remarks by Maja Trochimczyk, Ph.D. 
               President of Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club



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Hej, Orle Biały / Hey White Eagle
(1917) text and music by Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941).
Written for the “Blue Army” of Gen. Haller formed in the U.S. and Canada to help liberate Poland during WWI

Dziś do Ciebie przyjść nie mogę / I Cannot Come to You Tonight
(1943) text and music by Stanisław Magierski, written for the Home Army in German-occupied Poland during WWII.

Czerwone maki na Monte Cassino / Red Poppies on Monte Cassino
(1944) by Feliks Konarski (text) and Alfred Schütz (music).Written for the Polish II Corps of Gen. W. Anders.

Five Songs by Derwid
Z lat dziecinnych / From Childhood Years
Zakochać się w wietrze/To Fall in Love with the Wind
Tylko to słowo / Only this Word
Filipince nudno / The Filipino Girl is Bored
Cyrk jedzie / The Circus is Coming
(1950s-1960s)  by Derwid (Witold Lutosławski, 1913-1994) Popular songs from PRL-period written to texts by Jerzy Miller, Tadeusz Urgacz, and others.

To ostatnia niedziela / That Last Sunday
(1935) by Zenon Friedwald (text) and Jerzy Petersburski (music). Petersburski (1895-1979) who fought with Polish II Corps, lived in Argentina, Venezuela and returned to Poland.

Katarzyna Sadej, mezzosoprano and Basia Bochenek, piano

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Meet and Greet with VIP Guests of Polish Film Festival

Alicja Bachleda (actress –Pitbull, Tough Women)
Zbigniew Czapla (director – animation, Strange Case)
Stanisław Cywka (actor – Strawberry Days)
Aleksandra Cywka (actress – Strawberry Days)
Andrew Kawczynski (composer, juror – Blood Brothers)
Miro Kępiński (composer – In This Gray Place)
Tomasz Opałka (composer – Footsteps in the Snow)
Marta Prus (director – documentary Over the Limit)
Agnieszka & Bartosz Putkiewicz (Sound/Music Squadron 303
Danuta Rotschild (painter - artwork for the festival’s poster)
Jakub Radej (director –Sweet Home Czyżewo)
Bożena Stachura (actress –A Cat with a Dog)
Mietek Szczesniak (singer, songwriter)
Tomasz Ziętek (actor – Silent Night

About The Performers

Miro Kępiński is an award-winning film composer, producer and performer. His music mixes minimalism with a ‘rawness’ of the north and a Slavic melancholy blended with classic themes. Miro’s recent credits include: a multiple-award winning feature documentary, The Wounds We Cannot See; a dark-comedy, Suicide For Beginners (with Sig Haig and Corey Feldman); In This Gray Place, his feature debut (with Phil LaMarr) and Lord Finn.

Photo by Andre Surma

Katarzyna Sadej, a Polish-Canadian-American Mezzo-soprano was born in Wrocław, Poland, and is based in Los Angeles, California. Her international, eclectic career spans concert, opera, chamber music, oratorio, recital and voice-over performance. She has performed numerous world premieres and has had over a dozen new works composed especially for her. Recent opera performances: L.A. Opera debut as the Page of Herodias in Strauss’ Salome, SOPAC Ottawa debut as Le Prince Charmant in Massenet’s Cendrillon, and the title role of Bizet’s Carmen in the Palm Springs Opera Guild annual gala. Upcoming highlights include her debut with the Chicago Philharmonic as the alto soloist in Wojciech Kilar’s Missa Pro Pace, her Chinese debut at Opera Chengdu as Giannetta in Donizetti’s L’Elisir D’Amore, and her debut with conductor Alexander Shelley as Cherubino in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at the NAC Ottawa. Her debut at Walt Disney Hall was with the Pacific American Chorale (alto solo in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony). Other notable debuts: Industry Opera, Carnegie Hall, Festival Mozaic, the National Theater in Taipei, the Nuits Blanches Festival of Toronto, San Diego Opera, the Ravinia Festival as a Steans Fellow, the 2012 London Olympics, the Ojai International Music Festival, the Montenegrin National Theater, the Lviv (Ukraine) and Banatul (Romania) Philharmonics, the Music Biennale Zagreb, the Bard Summerscape Music Festival, the Cartagena International Music Festival, Harvard University, and more notable venues. www.katarzynasadej.com

Bochenek and Sadej recording Lutoslawski (Derwid)

Basia  Bochenek, a Polish-American pianist, is an avid performer of classical music, whose passion and dedication for collaborative arts brought her to venues throughout the U.S. and Europe,working with world-renowned composers, incredible musicians and great conductors. Basia has made Los Angeles her home. Her performances include world premieres and new interpretations of art songs as well as chamber music. Basia has worked with Robert Jason Brown, Richard Faith, Anne LeBaron, Lori Laitman, Libby Larsen and Sofia Gubaidulina, among others. In the exploration of performing lesser known music by Polish composers as well as art songs, Basia works with Katarzyna Sadej. Their dedication to exploring new approach to art songs began at Songfest.  Basia has worked at the California Institute of the Arts, coaching young artists, accompanying opera productions, recitals, classical works and musical theatre. Other engagements include accompanying the studios of acclaimed artists, such as LA Philharmonic concertmaster Martin Chalifour, Vermeer Quartet violist Richard Young, baritones Rod Gilfry and Sherrill Milnes. Her collaborations include performances with mezzo-sopranos Suzanna Guzman, soprano Ashley Maria Bahri, violinists Roberto Cani, Mark Menzies, Lorenz Gamma and Cheryl Norman-Brick. www.basiabochenek.com

To sponsor the Sadej - Bochenek Songs of Derwid project, visit: https://www.gofundme.com/derwid


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