By Alyssa Kornacki, News Reporter
On Sunday, Feb. 26 at 2:30 p.m. at the Canisius College Montante Cultural Center, the Chopin Singing Society and Polish Arts Club of Buffalo will present a multimedia program of music, images and memorabilia.
The multimedia presentation next weekend will be celebrating the 550th birthday of the famous Polish mathematician and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus and the 213th birthday of Frederic Chopin, the Polish classical composer famous for his nocturnes. The presentation is called “Chopin & Copernicus: The Art of the Heavens.”
The program features the Chopin Singing Society in a short program of Renaissance music and Buffalo’s own premiere of Jerzy Kolaczkowski’s De Revolutionibus, an arrangement by Dr. Thomas Witakowski of SUNY Buffalo State University’s music department.
The Chopin Singing Society was founded in 1899 by Boleslaus Michalski, a Polish immigrant– who served as organist at St. Adalbert’s Basilica. It is named after Frederick Chopin, a great pianist. After spending decades headquartered in Buffalo, it is now headquartered at Potts Banquet Hall in Cheektowaga.
Jerzy Kolaczkowski was a 20th-century musician, composer and conductor. He was born during 1907 in Lviv, Ukraine and is of Polish ancestry. The piece features a narration related to Copernicus, which will be rendered by radio personality Andrew Golebiowski.
The program will continue with pianists Maria Chomicka and Melanie Bebak playing the music of Chopin with a display of images from the Webb and Hubble telescopes, as well as images and quotes of Copernicus, by Paul Krupinski of the Strasenburgh Planetarium in Rochester.
Items related to Chopin and Copernicus will be on display, with a reception following the program where refreshments will be provided. The event is free and open to the public.
For questions, email wyrobekml@gmail.com.