ProgrammeWEEPING MUSE, BROKEN LYRE

by Don Mowatt

I MUSIC: Scherzo #1 in B minor, op.20A DIALOGUE: a) Introduction and first meeting b) Chopin reflects on the occupation of Poland II MUSIC: “Revolutionary” Etude in C minor, op.10 #12 B DIALOGUE: a) The Paris soirees b) Majorca in winter c) Ballad of Lake SwitezIII MUSIC: Ballade #2 in F major, opus 38C DIALOGUE: Majorca storms and rain Chopin’s illnessIV MUSIC: ”Raindrop” Prelude in D flat major, op. 28 #15D DIALOGUE: Leaving Majorca and return to ParisV MUSIC: Fantasie-Impromptu in C#minor, opus 66 IntermissionI MUSIC: Mazurka in C#minor, op. 50 #3A DIALOGUE: a) Chopin’s pupils in Paris b) Sand’s Nohant estate in the countryII MUSIC: ”Minute” Waltz... in D flat major, op. 64 #1 called:”Little dog waltz” by Chopin B DIALOGUE: a) Chopin composing at Nohant b) Sand’s novel Lucrezia Floriani: real life or fiction?III MUSIC: Mazurka in C#minor, opus 30 #4C DIALOGUE: Finale: last meeting and farewellIV MUSIC: Polonaise in A flat major, op.53 “Heroic”

Frederic Chopin Don MowattGeorge Sand Carolyn FinlayPiano Krystyna Tucka

Saturday, May 15, 2010 8 PM,Magee Theatre, Vancouver

George Sand played by

Carolyn Finlay

Frederic Chopin played by

Don Mowatt

Krystyna TuckaPianoSunday, October 18, 2009 Sun-Wook Kim

Saturday, November 7, 2009 Dina YoffeSaturday, April 10, 2010 Dmitri AlexeevSunday, May 16, 2010 Zbigniew RauboThe 200th Anniversary of the Chopin birthMay 14 - 16, 2010 Chopin Festival

The Vancouver Chopin Society 2009/2010 Concert Season

Concert Sponsors:

The Chopin Festival, May 14-16, 2010commemorating 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth

‘WEEPING MUSE, BROKEN LYRE’ -dramatic reading and music

Pianist Krystyna Tucka was born in Poland. After training there, she received her Masters Degree in Performing Arts. She completed her post-graduate study at L’Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot, obtaining the Virtuoso Diploma Le Diplome Superieur d’Execution de Piano. Later she received an Artist Diploma at The Vancouver Academy of Music.

Among her numerous awards and distinctions, prizes and recognitions, Tucka was the first-prize winner of the 1998 Eckhardt-Gramatté Music Competition, which was followed by a concert tour from the east to west coast of Canada. She has won numerous prestigious national competitions in Poland, and was a finalist of the Fourth International F. Chopin Piano Competition in Darmstadt, Germany. She has performed many concerts and recitals throughout Europe, Africa and North America. Aside from being an accomplished solo pianist, she is also an experienced chamber performer. Her performances have been broadcast in both Europe and America.

Tucka has worked with the likes of Zygmunt Richter, Wanda Kaluzny, Sydney Harth and Bramwell Tovey as conductors, as well as Professors Lee Kum Sing, Marian Rybicki, Zbigniew Sliwinski, Jozef Stompel, Lidia Grychtolowna, Barbara Hesse-Bukowska, and Wiera Gornostojewa.

Tucka is also a successful piano teacher. Her students consistently garner numerous prizes at festivals and competitions. She presently lives and works in Vancouver, Canada.

Don Mowatt was born in Montreal and educated in Edinburgh on an eight year JP Crerar Scholarship in the 1950s. He is a graduate in English and German studies at the University of Victoria, and Theology at UBC. He was appointed Arts Producer at the CBC in Vancouver in 1964 and remained there until 1997. While at the CBC, he won nearly every broadcast award available, including 2 George F. Peabody medals, ACTRA, Armstrong, Gabriel, B’Nai Brith awards and the New York Audio Arts award for his feature documentaries and radio plays.

He was chairman of the Radio Jury for the Prix Futura, Berlin, in 1993. In 1995 he was the Canadian Media representative at the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw.

In 1997, he joined the UBC Faculty of Theatre, Film and Creative Writing, where he remained for nine years. He was Co-artistic director of Western Gold Theatre in Vancouver for eight years, and continues to write, perform and lecture on a wide variety of subjects. For 15 years he has been a lecturer and media consultant for The Aga Khan Trust for Culture.

In 2002, Mowatt’s play “The Collected Silences of David’s Mother” for actress and harp, was performed by Rita Costanzi at the Chautauqua Institute in New York and at Clare College, Cambridge University in England. It has also been performed throughout, B.C., Ontario, the U.S. and England.

His libretto on Carl Jung to the opera The Dream Healer” by Lloyd Burritt was performed by an international cast and members of the UBC Opera Ensemble chorus and orchestra at the Chan Centre in March 2008.

He performs with his partner Carolyn Finlay in an on-going series of dramatic readings throught the Lower Mainland and in the U.S. featuring celebrated

Friends ($100 - $499) Victor BastowAsaf BennyTeresa & Jan BobrowskiMargo BudytaMalgorzata & Krzysztof BurczyckiIko BylickiVincent CardellaDr. Maria DaszkiewiczAnna DomanskaAlex DrennanColette Elbl Henry EwertJohn GrahamKen HongKen Hsieh (VMO)Ewa & Jerzy Jakobs

Eric WilsonGloria WongSi Yi WuBernice Wylie

Welcome to the first Chopin Festival in Vancouver’s history, as we join the world in celebrating the bicentennial year of Frederic Chopin’s birth.

Preparing a three-day festival in the midst of a regular season is a major undertaking for any organization, particularly for a small society run entirely by volunteers.

When we were severely challenged by sudden and unexpected cuts from government funding, we hoped we would be supportded by the individuals and organizations we have served over the years, and we were not disappointed.

As a founding member and the current president, I would like to thank my predecessors in this position: Tadeusz van Wollen (founding member), Mateusz van Wollen and Bill Steen, as well as the esteemed Artistic Directors of the past twelve years: Erik Sitkowiecki (founding member), Grzegorz Nowak and our dear Lee Kum-Sing.

I would also like to acknowledge the contribution of all founding members, who helped to form this organiza-tion: Dr. Maria Bleszynski, Malgorzata Burczycka, Teresa Bobrowska, Tadeusz Dukszta and Ewa Wadolna.

I am deeply grateful to all past and present board members and those who gave such generous financial support over the years, to make this festive occasion possible.

The VCS would also like to thank the many volunteerswho have made tonight’s event possible.

Lee Kum-Sing - Artistic DirectorIko Bylicki - PresidentNiels Andersen - Vice-PresidentTeresa Bobrowska - SecretaryJason Ng - Treasurer

Malgorzata Burczycka - DirectorVince Cardella - DirectorDon Mowatt - DirectorOri Kowarsky - DirectorDawn Short - Honorary Board Member

Artists Biographies Message From The President

VCS Board of Directors

Sponsors ($1,000 - $4,999)

Peter Chan Consulate General of theRepublic of PolandDr. Zenon CieslakMarla IgnaszewskiDr. Andrew Jakubowski

Partner ($5000 +)

Anonymous DonorLOHN Foundation

Benefactors ($500 - $999)

Niels AndersenRonald HaglerDr. Robin GarvinDr. Marianna KlimekJack Li Paul Osmanski

The VCS would like to thank the following donors for their generosity and support of our 2009-2010 Season

Danuta & Janusz Jaworskiin memory of Zbigniew JanNiwinskiOri KowarskyMatthew KurnickiLee Kum-SingFrances LamMichael LamErnest LangHorng Dih LeeDr. Samuel LichtensteinJacek LipowskiLois LiuGwen LoweDr. Andrzej MajorAdam MarcMasanao Morimura

Jason NgWalter & Mila OrlowskiNina PopovskaKrystyna Radwan-PytlewskaConscious Living RadioBrigitte SakulerDawn ShortVictoria SmusIza SobieskiWilliam SteenTom StefanskiMaxine StonemanRuth TubbesingMargaret Xu Xuhong XuEdward Weinstein

Hanna Niwinski in memory of Zbigniew Jan NiwinskiHanna McGee,Katsuko Ochiai,Jadwiga PrenosilMaxine Stoneman,

#400 - 601 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V5Z 4C2 CanadaTel. 604-871-4450 Email: info@chopinsociety.orgwww.chopinsociety.org

Programme Notes

Frederic Chopin was born in the Polish village of Zelazowa Wola in 1810 to a French father and a Polish mother. He left Russian-occuppied Poland in 1830 for personal and political reasons, never to return again. Already a brilliant pianist and an accomplished and original composer, he finally settled in Paris a year later, after brief stays in Prague, Dresden, Munich and Vienna. His refined manner of performance did not attract immediate enthusiasm among Parisians, but distinguished supporters including Franz Liszt and Robert Schumann soon made a difference.

In 1836 Chopin met the celebrated and somewhat notorious novelist George Sand, the adopted pen-name of Aurore Dudevant, born in 1804. She was divorced, promiscuous, not particularly beautiful and certainly outspoken on matters of feminism and social change. She had two children and a country estate at Nohant, inherited from her grandmother. She dressed as a man, smoked cigars and had a wide circle of friends, lovers and admirers including famous artists and politicians.

Chopin and Sand’s tempestuous love affair of nine years duration fostered some of the composer’s most distinguished works for piano.

They broke up in 1847 and two years later Chopin died of consumption. George Sand outlasted him by over a quarter of a century, dying in 1876 at Nohant.

The title of the dialogues: “WEEEPING MUSE, BROKEN LYRE” is taken from the sculpted memorial to Chopin in Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. The sculptor was George Sand’s son-in-law Auguste Clesinger.

Don Mowatt

Other Contributors ($20 - $99)

Janusz Budzynski,L W CampHugh CottonSusan E. FifeSylvia GirardAnne KaplanMan-Kim LiKathleen Lok

In-kind Sponsors CorporateClark, Wilson LLPConsulate General of theRepublic of PolandDaniel ChocolatesWest Van FloristsSikora’s Classical RecordsTom Lee Music

couples: Carl and Emma Jung, Robert and Clara Schumann, Edvard and Nina Grieg, Mark Twain and Olivia Clemens, HC Andersen and Johanne Heiberg, as well as an evening with Charles Dickens.

Carolyn Finlay is a pianist, teacher and actress who runs her own music studio in North Vancouver. She holds a PhD. in Comparative Literature from the University of Toronto, is an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Music and has been the recipient of a post-doctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She studied, as an exchange scholar, at The Institute for the History of the Arts, Moscow State University and at the Moscow Conservatory in Russia.

Dr. Finlay is also an executive member of The Association of Registered Music Teachers of Canada and the director of Canada Music Week for that association on the North Shore, commissioning prominent Canadian composers each year to write works for young piano students