Happy Independence Day 2022!

Maja Trochimczyk (l) and poet Ambika Talwar (r) after the 2022 Independence Day Parade

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

As the newly-elected President of Klub Kultury im. Helena Modrzejewska in Los Angeles for the years 2022-2024, I wish all members and friends of our Club all the best for the Independence Day of our country, the United States of America. I am proud of the contribution of Poles and the Polish diaspora to the development and growth of the USA - from the heroes of the revolutionary war to actors, artists and musicians of the present day.  

Some of our predecessors in the US include:

• Heroes fighting for independence: Tadeusz Kościuszko (1746-1817), an engineer and hero of the struggle for independence of the US and Poland, who designated his entire estate in his will for the release of slaves; Kazimierz Pułaski (1745-1779), who died in the battle for American freedom; Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz (1758-1841), one of the co-authors of the May 3rd Constitution, who, after a few years in the USA with Kościuszko, brought the American revolutionary ideals of freedom and equality to Poland.

• writers and poets: Aleksander Janta-Polczyński (1908-1974), officer of the Polish Army cavalry, bibliophile, poet, historian of Polish music in the US; Czesław Miłosz (1911–2004), Nobel laureate, poet, essayist, UC Berkeley professor, our guest; John Guzlowski (born 1948), son of former prisoners of German camps, who devoted several volumes of poetry to his parents (read in the Club); and Stuart Dybek (born 1942), a writer about whom the new club member, Jerzy Kossek, will give a lecture.

• painters and artists: Władysław T. Benda (1873–1948) - Helena Modrzejewska's cousin, art deco illustrator; Tamara de Lempicka (1898–1980), famous for her art deco portraits; Julian Stańczak (1928–2017), injured in a Soviet gulag, learned to paint with his left hand in a refugee camp in Africa and became an outstanding creator of Op-Art; Stanisław Szukalski (1893–1987), the first artistic director of our Club, a sculptor and author of a great deal strange and controversial theories that better not be published; and Jerzy Szeptycki (1915-2004), architect who designed over 30 churches in California and elsewhere.

• actors and directors: Helena Modrzejewska (1840-1909) great actress and patron of our Club; Pola Negri (1897-1987), Hollywood star, beloved Valentino, founder of the Polish church; Leonidas Dudarew Ossetyński (1910-1989), veteran WWII, actor, director, journalist, founder of the Club; Stefanie Powers (born 1942), actress, winner of 5 Golden Globe Awards, club activist in the first decade; Barbara Krafftówna (1928-2022),invited here by Ossetynski in 1982, recipient of our Modjeska Prize in 2012; and director Jerzy Antczak (b. 1929) with  his wife, actress Jadwiga Barańska (b. 1935) honorary members of our Club, Ms. Barańska received our Modjeska Prize in 2018.

• musicians: Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941), composer, pianist, prime minister, activist for the independence of Poland; Roman Maciejewski (1910-1998), composer of the monumental Requiem, which is closely related to the genesis of our Club; and Stefan (Stephen) Pasternacki, forgotten film music composer, co-founder of the Club.

Many other names of representatives of the Polish community who actively contributed to building American culture can be found on the Internet. However, the Wikipedia list contains some names of people who are no longer related to Polish culture, although they are famous creators of American culture.

I think that our Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club can do a lot to promote Polish culture in the USA. Our activities so far are possible thanks to the great American traditions of freedom, independence, and tolerance, welcoming immigrants and giving them a home.

I have certainly felt welcome here! I'm an immigrant to California since 1996, an American citizen since 2009. Tomorrow, I'm walking in the parade, giving out postcards with poems and "America the Beautiful" during the Independence Day Parade, as part of Village Poets of Sunland-Tujunga. You can read about this project on our blog: http://villagepoets.blogspot.com/2022/07/happy-independence-day-2022-village.html

Best wishes to all on the occasion of Independence Day!

Dr Maja Trochimczyk
President

Artur Gotz Sings Favorite Polish Cabaret Songs, Sunday, June 12, 2022 at 4pm, Playa del Rey

Artur Gotz, Photo Rafal Bzowski

Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club invites you to a concert entitled "Kabaret Starszych Panow/Cabaret of the Old Gents. Artur Gotz sings the hits of all time" on Sunday, June 12, 2022 at 4pm at Playa Vista Park and Landscape Corporation, 6200 Playa Vista Drive, Los Angeles (Playa Vista), CA 90094. The garage is free of charge on local streets and under the building, the entrance is from 6200 Playa Vista Drive. Free admission for members, $ 30 per person for guests.

ARTUR GOTZ SINGS FAVORITE CABARET SONGS

The first program of Kabaret Starszych Panów, whose authors were Jerzy Wasowski and Jeremi Przybora, was broadcast by television on October 16, 1958. The Kabaret's repertoire has been presented many times over the past half-century by many eminent artists and singers, which proves the absolute mastery of song lyrics and music, providing an endless inspiration for successive generations. Artur Gotz respects the original performances, but thanks to the use of electronic instruments, surprising arrangements and ravishing interpretations, the songs in his performance combine what is sentimental with what is close and current to people in the 21st century.

The program consists of great hits: Addio tomatoes, If you love, You are bathing already not for me, Ballad with a corpse, Riding Hood 62, Virgin Anastasia, Family, Spooky twist, Children get bored in the rain, The song is good for everything. The concert is also a unique opportunity to rediscover lesser-known songs. This extraordinary concert will surely provide impressions and emotions for both those who remember the performances of the Old Gentlemen's Cabaret and the younger generation.

The premiere of the album took place on Valentine's Day 2018, in Poznań, at Scena na Piękieta, and the Warsaw premiere two weeks later at the Studio Theater with the special participation of Mrs. Barbara Krafftówna. The media patronage over the album was taken by 7 stations of the Polish Radio (Kraków, Łódź, Poznań, Gdańsk, PiK, Rzeszów, Opole), the weekly "Przegląd", the magazines "Imperium Women" and "Law Business Quality", MTV24, and Planeta Kobiet. The artist's official website: www.arturgotz.pl

Excerpts from the CD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPPfxOd0NVk

Music video "You're already bathing not for me": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arOSQ4MF02E

Photo Wojciech Jachyra

ARTHUR GOTZ

Born in Krakow, Artur Gotz is a singer and actor, president of the Culture and Sport Foundation 44 in Warsaw, producer, songwriter and music writer, director of concerts and radio plays. He is a graduate of the Stanisław Wyspiański Academy of Theater Arts in Krakow - Branch in Wrocław (2006), where he defended his M.A. thesis "Song theater by Ewa Demarczyk". He has been performing on stage since the age of eleven. At the age of 15, he began working with The Imagination Theater in London, where he appeared in three premieres.

After graduation, he was associated with the theater stages of Warsaw (Współczesny Theater, Kamienica Theater, 6th Floor Theater, Jan Kiepura Mazovian Music Theater, Roman Kołakowski Song Theater), Łódź (K. Dejmek New Theater) and Chorzów (Entertainment Theater) . He made his debut as a vocalist at Piwnica pod Baranami in Krakow, where he began working with the composer Zygmunt Konieczny. With his music, Gotz released the single "Usposobienie niecne". In 2015, Arthur Gotz's second album, "Male almost perfect", was released under the patronage of TVP 2 with satirical songs written for him by Agnieszka Chrzanowska (2019 deluxe version). The artist's third solo album, “Kabaret Starszych Panów. The hits of all time sung by Artur Gotz ”was released in 2018 and under the patronage of seven Polish Radio stations. The fourth album "Miłość z Facebooka" with songs by Igor Jaszczuk in a vintage-pop atmosphere was premiered on Valentine's Day 2022. He appeared on three albums with musical fairy tales for children ("Where the fairy tales live" 2017, "Tramwaje Dzieciom" 2018, "Where fairy tales live, part II" 2020) and albums dedicated to specia topics, such as "Osiecka w popkulturze" (2018), and "Mathematical opera" (2017).

Artur Gotz gave over 550 solo concerts all over Poland, as well as in Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, London, Lausanne, Nicosia, Oxford, Prague, Vienna and during three tours around the USA (including New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New Jersey, Boston, Cincinnati, Fort Lauderdale, Lake Worth, Palm Coast, Portland, San Diego, Seattle). He also sang during two Australian tours (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra, Adelaide, Newcastle and Hobart in Tasmania) and New Zealand (Christchurch, Wellington) and Cuba (Havana). The artist performed in large television concerts, he also played radio concerts on Polish Radio (RDC in Warsaw, Kraków, Gdańsk, Łódź, Lublin, PiK in Bydgoszcz, Olsztyn, Rzeszów) and on Television Kraków as part of the Television Theater. His songs are broadcast on national and regional antennas, occupy high positions on the charts, and the song "Tobiasz" was chosen by the listeners of Radio Krakow "Krakow's Song of the Month". The artist is also a guest of popular TV and radio programs.

Photo Wojciech Jachyra

As an author, he made his debut in London at the age of 18 with the play "Toruń gingerbread", for which he also wrote the lyrics, and earlier for the London theater he created scenarios for two performances in cooperation with Wanda Chotomska. He is also the author of music to songs in the radio play "Smog eats us" by Marta Fox under the patronage of Polish Radio for Children (2021), to the poem by Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, written for the hundredth anniversary of his birth, and to the poem by Cyprian Kamil Norwid on the bicentenary of his birth.

He has directed many concerts, as well as several radio plays and a series of audiobooks. He has performed at theater festivals in the Czech Republic, France, Slovakia, Great Britain, Latvia, as well as at the 27th Stage Song Review in Wrocław in 2006 in the concert EnergiaPro Młodzi. He collaborated with Studio 68 of theater arts London in Gdynia under the patronage of Sean Connery. Winner of the International Award of the Consul General of the Czech Republic, in 2013 he received the Artistic Scholarship of the President of the City of Łódź, in 2014 the Scholarship of the Capital City of Warsaw, two-time scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (2020 and 2022). Winner of the awards: "Vocalist of the Year 2015" and "Vocalist of the Year 2016".

As an actor, Gotz played over a dozen television and film roles, incl. a seminarist of Jurij Noga in the film "Karol - the man who became the pope" (directed by G. Battiato), Reporter Dzikowski in "The Great Escapes", Wojtek Eksprach in "The Wall of Death" and in popular TV series (including Na Wspólnej, Colors of happiness, Father Mateusz, M jak miłość, Klan, First love, crime wave, Holy war). Artur Gotz is the title character of Marta Fox's novel "Idol". The premiere took place during the Silesian Book Fair in 2016. The artist is a song lecturer at the Halina and Jan Machulski Acting School in Warsaw. For many years, he has been running theater workshops for young people and students, as well as for disabled people, and voice emission workshops for teachers and people who work with voice. He also conducted workshops for professional Cuban actors in Havana. He lives and works in Warsaw. The artist's official website: www.arturgotz.pl

PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT

by Maria Kubal, Anna Bochenski and Maja Trochimczyk

Lecture About Dabrowski's Mazurka, Polish National Anthem by Prof. Tadeusz Trzaskalik, 21 May 2022, at 11 am PST, Zoom

The Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club has a pleasure to invite you to a Zoom lecture (in Polish) by Prof. Tadeusz Trzaskalik of Katowice, Poland, for a lecture dedicated to the history of Polish national anthem, Dabrowski Mazurka, based on Piesn Legionow Polskich we Wloszech by Jozef Wybicki. The year 2022 is the 200th anniversary of General Wybicki's death, and the year to learn more about the complicated history of our national anthem. The lecture will be on Zoom on Saturday May 21, 2022 at 11 am PST, with slides and fragments of a documentary film "Jeszcze Polska nie zginela" about the history of the anthem, with fragments of many musical compositions relating to the Mazurka.  The whole video can be watched on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKyXCg120ug 

TADEUSZ TRZASKALIK 

Tadeusz Trzaskalik graduated from the Silesian University in Katowice with a degree in mathematics. Since 1975 he has been employed at the University of Economics in Katowice, where he also obtained his doctorate, habilitation, and the title of Profes¬sor of Economic Sciences. 

At his university, he was vice-rector in charge of international relations, director of graduate studies and a long-term head of the Department of Operational Research. At present he is a member of the Bureau of the Committee for Statistics and Econo¬metrics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He is the author and editor of many scien¬tific and educational publications, scientific organizer of international and national conferences, editor-in-chief of the annual “Multiple Criteria Decision Making”, and member of editorial boards of several scientific journals. 

He graduated with distinction from the State High School of Music in Katowice, where he studied in Tadeusz Myrdacz’s piano class. In 2011 he obtained a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the Academy of Music in Katowice where he studied the piano under Józef Stompel’s supervision. He concertizes as solo and chamber music performer in Poland and abroad. His musical interests focus on solo and chamber music of the Baroque and Classical eras, as well as on popular music of the turn of the 20th century. His seven compact discs were recorded in the studio of the Polish Radio in Katowice and published jointly by the University of Economics in Katowice and the Association Pro Musica Organa.

Poland has not perished yet. The musical history of Dabrowski's Mazurka 

2022 is the bicentenary of the death of Józef Wybicki, the author of the words to the Song of the Polish Legions in Italy, known today as the Dabrowski Mazurka, which is the current national anthem of Poland. It is worth adding that the Sejm of the Republic of Poland announced the year 2022 as Józef Wybicki Year, justifying its decision with the following anniversaries: the 200th anniversary of the death of the general, the 225th anniversary of the first performance of the Song of the Polish Legions in Italy and the 275th anniversary of the birth of Wybicki. Above all - the reason for declaring 2022 the year of Wybickie was due to all his achievements .

The history of Dabrowski's Mazurka is connected in the first period after its creation with the persons of Michał Kleofas Ogiński, Tadeusz Kościuszko, Józef Poniatowski, Jan Henryk Dąbrowski, Napoleon and, of course, Józef Wybicki. Prof. Tadeusz Trzaskalik, a long-term lecturer at the University of Economics in Katowice. 

This presentation uses his recordings of piano music from the beginning of the 19th century, referring directly to the Dąbrowski Mazurka, as well as scans of the exhibits presented at the National Anthem Museum in Będomin - the birthplace of Józef Wybicki. It is worth adding that the presentation begins with the recording of the Song of the Polish Legions in Italy in the original version from 1797 performed by the Choir of the University of Economics in Katowice.

The musical history of the song from its creation to the present day will be presented.

Illustration from a set of postcard by Kossak about the Song of the Legions, 

Private collection of Maja Trochimczyk