On Monday, February 17 Łukasz Kuropaczewski, an internationally acclaimed classical guitarist, played at the Old Saint Patrick Catholic Church in Ann Arbor. The concert was organized by the Polish Cultural Fund-Ann Arbor.
In the charming little church, on a frosty winter night, the audience of around 50 people, most of them from Ann Arbor, was treated to a beautiful concert by an artist who has performed all over the world with famous orchestras, and in venues such as Warsaw’s National Philharmonic Hall and New York’s Carnegie Hall, among others.
His well-rounded, masterfully performed program included “Asturias” by the Spanish composer Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909), “Catalan Folksongs” arranged by the great Spanish guitarist and composer Miguel Llobet (1878 – 1938), “Suite in Modo Polonico”, originally written for piano by the Polish Jewish composer Aleksander Tansman (born in Łódz, 1897; died in Paris, 1986) and “In your Hands” by the American composer David Bruce (born 1970).
Folk songs, Spanish and Polish for the most part, were woven throughout the pieces and resonated against each other; there was flamenco in Asturias and oberek, mazurek and kujawiak (“Umarł Maciek, umarł ..”) in “Suite in Modo Polonico”.
While introducing the “Suite in Modo Polonico”, Łukasz Kuropaczewski mentioned the huge popularity of Tansman’s music in Europe, and its underrepresentation in American concert venues. (To learn more about Aleksander Tansman, please read: https://polishmusic.usc.edu/research/composers/aleksander-tansman/)
In addition to enjoying beautiful music, the audience also enjoyed enlightening introductions, which included a couple of the artist’s personal anecdotes.
One of them was about the inception of the composition entitled “In your Hands”.
A few years ago, while performing David Bruce’s composition for guitar, harp, harpsichord and mandolin (quite an unusual paring of instruments, according to Łukasz), Łukasz became very interested in David Bruce’s work. Therefore, when he got a chance, he asked David Bruce to write a composition for “just” the six strings (of a guitar.) David Bruce accepted this challenge and wrote a piece which after a few tweaks and a couple of name changes (the first title was “Hands off”) became the exciting three-movement piece Łukasz Kuropaczewski played on Monday.
The second anecdote served as an introduction to the encore, for which the artist chose “Ach mój Jasieńku”, a very short Polish folk song, arranged by Witold Lutosławski. Both – the original folk melody and Lutosławski’s arrangement – in Łukasz’s words, are genius in their beauty and simplicity. The song – a lullaby – was sang to little Łukasz by his mother. A few years ago, after a Warsaw concert in 2009 during which Łukasz played the song, he was asked to meet the then first lady, Maria Kaczyńska, who happened to be attending and who wanted to share with him her personal connection with the song. A it turned out; her mother also sang “Ach mój Jasieńku” to her when she was a child.
A year and so later, on the day of Maria Kaczyńska’s death in a plane crash, after hearing about the tragedy, Łukasz included the song in his evening concert.
Words of deep gratitude go to Łukasz Kuropaczewski, for sharing his gift of music and treating the audience to a beautiful performance, and to the concert organizers, Andrzej Dolata and the Polish Cultural Fund-Ann Arbor, who on very short notice, made the concert happened.
A special thanks go to Father Tom Wasilewski, the Polish pastor of Old Saint Patrick Catholic Church, who generously opened the church door to music and music lovers.
Text and photos: Alina Klin
To learn more about Łukasz Kuropaczewski, visit:
http://www.lukaszguitar.com/#home
To listen to Łukasz Kuropaczewski play:
