Polish Heritage Society
celebrates music

By Pete Kennedy
For the Times

"Did I forget a song?" asked classical accordionist Lidia Kaminska. "I’m bad with order."
A few of the roughly 100 audience members, reading from their programs, reminded her that she had skipped a tango by Astor Piazzolla.
"Ah. If you clap enough after I finish, I’ll play the tango as an encore," she said with a smile.
Kaminska was the second of two performers at the Polish Heritage Society of Philadelphia’s 40th annual Chopin Concert, which was held on a recent Sunday afternoon in the Settlement Music School’s Northeast branch.
The concerts celebrate the work of composer Fryderyk Chopin, who was born March 1, 1810, in a village near Warsaw, Poland.
Twenty-one-year-old pianist Yoonjung Han, who studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, preceded Kaminska on stage.
A native of Seoul, Korea, she alternately played with deliberate slowness, moving as if underwater, and fierce intensity, nearly leaping off the piano stool during the agitato segments.
Han’s performance was a bit of a departure, explained society president Deborah Majka.
"For all of these years, the society has been striving to feature Polish artists," Majka said.
"We got her because she is the 2005 laureate of the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Piano Competition."
Kaminska’s playlist, too, was a departure for the annual concert, in that it included many non-Chopin pieces.
She explained that, among other reasons, Chopin favored the use of pedals to prolong the notes on the piano — a feature not replicable on the accordion.
Kaminska is the only person in America to hold a doctorate in accordion performance, and she is a tireless pioneer and advocate of the accordion as a classical instrument.
The Polish accordionist spoke and laughed with the audience throughout her performance.
When a camera flashed between pieces, she quipped, "Paparazzi! Ay-ay-ay!"
While both performers were proficient, their stage presence differed greatly.
In contrast to Kaminska’s effervescent chattiness, Han spoke only two words, "La Campanella," the title of her encore piece by Franz Liszt.
"I really liked the first piece [that Han played]," said Monica Polowy Winter, of Newtown, Bucks County. "It was a variation; it was almost like jazz."
Han said that she had found the piece, Variations sur un theme de Chopin, by Federico Mompou, in a library book. She had never actually heard it played.
Next month, the society will welcome Piotr Rozanski, winner of last year’s National Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.
He will play at Holy Family University on April 15. For information, contact the Polish Heritage Society at 215-627-1391.
"The mission of the Polish Heritage Society, in general terms," said Majka, "is to preserve and promote Polish culture, heritage, history and to spread an awareness of the contributions of Poles and Polish Americans in this great mosaic we call the U.S. and the world." ••