The artistic director of the event, prominent Polish pianist Piotr Paleczny, has told Poland's PAP news agency that the line-up of musicians to appear during the festival includes such acclaimed names as Poland’s Piotr Anderszewski and Krzysztof Jabłoński, Kate Liu and Eric Lu from the United States, and Israeli pianist Boris Giltburg, the winner of the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels.
Other highlights, according to Paleczny, include recitals by Canada’s Kevin Chen, who, at 20, is among the world’s most sought-after pianists, Kyohei Sorita, Second Prize winner of the 2021 Warsaw International Chopin Competition, and Polish pianists Krzysztof Wierciński and Mateusz Dubiel, both of whom are set to compete in the upcoming Warsaw competition in October.
In addition to more than 20 concerts and recitals, the programme of the Duszniki Festival comprises masterclasses for up-and-coming pianists given by Ronan O’Hora from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and Claudio Martinez-Mehner from the Hochschule für Musik in Basle and Cologne as well as the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid.
The International Chopin Piano Festival in Duszniki is the oldest music festival in Poland. Launched in 1946, it is now in its 80th edition.
The festival commemorates Chopin’s stay in the spa in 1826. The iconic Romantic composer was 16 years old when he came to Duszniki, then Bad Reinerz, for treatment and gave an impromptu charity concert. The proceeds were donated to an orphaned family.
(mk/gs)