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SUMMARY:28th International Chopin & Friends Festival in New York
UID:https://instytutpolski.pl/newyork/2026/11/02/28th-international-chopin-friends-festival-in-new-york/
LOCATION:
DTSTAMP:20261104
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Warsaw:20261104
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Warsaw:20261203
DESCRIPTION:Wednesday, November 4, 2026 at 7:00 PM The Consulate General of the
Republic of Poland233 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016Free admission: RSVP
required
Tuesday, November 17, 2026 at 7:00 PMRessona306 West 38 Street, New York,
NY 10018Free admission: RSVP required
Thursday, December 3, 2026 at 6:00 PMThe Consulate General of the Republic
of Poland233 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016Free admission: RSVP required
You can reserve seats via website nydai.org – EVENTS or email
chopinandfriends.reservations@gmail.com
The International Chopin & Friends Festival is an annual festival
organized by the New York Dance & Arts Innovations, Inc. showcasing
artists of various disciplines inspired by Chopin’s legacy and working
across a variety of media uniting traditional and contemporary art forms.
The opening event on November 4 will begin with a special memorial honoring
Ruth Slenczynska, the distinguished pianist of Polish heritage who passed
away in 2026 at the age of 101. Slenczynska was the last living student of
Sergei Rachmaninoff and an extraordinary figure in the history of both
American and Polish musical culture.
Ruth Slenczynska also holds a particularly meaningful place in the history
of the Chopin & Friends Festival. In October 2021, the festival had the
great honor of presenting her in a historic recital at the Polish
diplomatic mission in New York. Her artistry, her Polish heritage, and her
remarkable connection to the musical traditions represented by the festival
made her an important figure in our history. The opportunity to honor her
once again within the Polish diplomatic community in New York is therefore
especially significant for us.
The memorial will celebrate not only Slenczynska’s extraordinary artistic
legacy, but also her contribution to the cultural dialogue between Poland
and the United States and her special connection to the Polish-American
cultural community.
The November 4 program will include a presentation by Dr. Moorman-Stahlman,
a student of Slenczynska, who will speak about her teacher’s life,
artistry, and legacy. Archival recordings of Slenczynska will also be
presented, followed by Dr. Moorman-Stahlman’s performance of a work by
Frédéric Chopin, bringing the evening back to the Polish musical
tradition that stands at the heart of the festival.
The evening will continue with a performance by our distinguished guests
from Poland, the Cracow Duo, cellist Jan Kalinowski and pianist Marek
Szlezer. They will present a program devoted entirely to Polish repertoire,
offering an opportunity to celebrate the depth and diversity of Poland’s
musical heritage and to present it to an international audience in New
York.
The participation of two leading Polish artists, traveling from Poland
specifically for the festival, further strengthens the festival’s role as
a platform for cultural exchange between Poland and the United States.
Their all-Polish program will place Polish musical heritage at the center
of the opening celebration and underscore the important role that Polish
music continues to play on the international stage.
The middle festival event, taking place at Ressona Concert Hall, will
continue the festival’s tradition of international cultural exchange by
featuring the Italian ensemble Sound In Common, whose members are
accomplished jazz musicians performing both original repertoire and works
reflecting their international musical influences.
This program reflects the festival’s ongoing relationships with both
Polish and Italian cultural institutions in New York. In particular, it
continues our tradition of recognizing and celebrating the support of the
Italian Consulate, which has graciously extended its Honorary Patronage to
the festival for the past two years.
The event therefore represents another important dimension of the
festival’s broader mission: bringing together different cultural
traditions and diplomatic communities through music. While the Polish
musical tradition remains at the heart of the festival, our international
programs create opportunities for Poland to serve as a point of connection
between artists and cultural communities from different countries.
The closing event on December 3, once again hosted by the Consulate General
of the Republic of Poland in New York, will have a particularly special
significance as the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary in 2026.
To mark this historic occasion, the Chopin & Friends Festival will
present the music of one of America’s most prominent living composers,
Lowell Liebermann.
The program will feature three of Liebermann’s major works representing
different instrumental combinations—piano solo, flute and piano, and
piano trio—spanning approximately 25 years of his creative career.
Presenting these three works together will offer the audience a unique
opportunity to experience the evolution and breadth of Liebermann’s
compositional voice.
The evening will also include a discussion with the composer himself,
followed by an opportunity for members of the audience to ask questions and
engage directly with him about his music, artistic vision, and experiences
as an American composer.
Liebermann’s participation carries a particularly meaningful
Polish-American dimension. In 2014, he was a guest at the Fryderyk Chopin
University of Music in Warsaw, where his presence formed part of a broader
Polish-American musical exchange organized by the Maestro Foundation. His
visit to Poland was followed by an invitation extended to Polish composer
Dariusz Przybylski to come to New York in the same year, creating a
reciprocal artistic exchange between American and Polish composers.
The 2026 Chopin & Friends Festival seeks, in a small but meaningful
way, to recreate and continue the spirit of that exchange. By inviting
Liebermann to the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York
and presenting three significant works from different periods of his
career, we are bringing an important chapter of Polish-American musical
dialogue back to New York.
The setting is particularly meaningful. The Polish diplomatic community
once again becomes a place where American and Polish musical traditions
meet, artists exchange ideas, and longstanding cultural relationships are
renewed. In this sense, Liebermann’s participation is not simply a
presentation of an American composer’s music, but a continuation of a
cultural relationship that has already crossed the Atlantic.
Liebermann’s connection to Polish musical tradition extends further
through his musical education. His studies include a direct connection to
the Polish piano tradition through his work with a student of the renowned
Polish pianist and pedagogue Theodor Leszetycki (Leschetizky). This creates
an important historical link between one of America’s leading
contemporary composers and the great Polish tradition of piano performance
and pedagogy.
During the discussion, we will explore these connections in greater depth,
including Liebermann’s experiences in Poland, his participation in the
Polish-American musical exchange, and the influence of Chopin and the
Polish piano tradition on his artistic development and compositional work.
His personal reflections will allow the audience to discover not only the
music being performed that evening, but also the broader cultural
connections that link American and Polish musical life. The opportunity to
hear a composer of Liebermann’s stature speak personally about his music,
his experiences in Poland, and his artistic inspirations represents a rare
and valuable cultural experience.
His return to a Polish cultural setting in New York, more than a decade
after his participation in the Polish-American exchange in Warsaw, gives
the closing program a special sense of continuity. Presenting three
important works that span approximately 25 years of his career within the
Polish Consulate provides a meaningful framework for revisiting and
renewing this artistic connection.
Taken together, the three events of the 2026 Chopin & Friends Festival
reflect the festival’s longstanding commitment to celebrating Polish
culture and its international influence, fostering meaningful connections
between Polish and American artists, and creating opportunities for
cultural diplomacy through music.
The opening program honors Ruth Slenczynska, an American pianist of Polish
heritage whose life embodied the meeting of European and American musical
traditions. The same evening brings leading artists from Poland to New York
to perform an entirely Polish program. The closing event then reconnects
the festival with an important Polish-American artistic exchange through
the return of Lowell Liebermann, whose history with Polish musical
institutions and artists provides a direct bridge between Poland and the
United States.
The presence of these programs at the Consulate General of the Republic of
Poland in New York is therefore especially meaningful. The Consulate is not
simply serving as a venue, but as an important cultural setting in which
Polish heritage, international artistic exchange, and American musical life
can come together.
At its core, the Chopin & Friends Festival seeks to honor the legacy of
Frédéric Chopin not only by presenting his music, but by continuing the
spirit of cultural exchange that his artistic legacy represents. The 2026
edition builds on this mission by bringing together Polish heritage,
Polish-American history, contemporary American composition, and
international artistic collaboration.
Through these programs, the festival hopes to contribute to the continuing
cultural dialogue between Poland and the United States, while presenting
the richness of Polish musical traditions to a diverse New York audience
and celebrating the enduring influence of Polish culture within the broader
international artistic community.
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