That Long-Haired Genius Paderewski
MEET IGNACY JAN PADEREWSKI, ROCK STAR.
You may have heard the name—Paderewski was, after all, one of the most celebrated public figures of the early 20th century. But U.S. pollsters, were they to veer for a moment from presidential politics, would have a tough time calculating his 2019 approval rating. What’s so special about this Paderewski fellow? And why is he showing up as the leading man in a rash of new musicals being staged at more than half a dozen U.S. theatres?
Last question first: In a one-of-a-kind competition, the government of Paderewski’s native Poland has commissioned selected teams of American librettists and composers to write original musical works based on the life and legacy of its internationally celebrated favorite son.
The unprecedented initiative—known as the Paderewski Musical Project, and publicized since 2017 in these pages and elsewhere—launched the composition of more than 20 wildly diverse Paderewski-focused musicals, many of which have received stagings or in-progress readings at professional and university theatres across the U.S.
A team of judges for the project recently selected seven of these new works for additional development; three of the winning entries will move forward to full productions this season, while two others are slated for further development and production within the next two years. Some will be staged in Poland as well as in the U.S., and songs from all seven will be featured on a Paderewski-themed CD.
One of the top entries in—a Broadway-style musical drama by New York-based composer and librettist Matthew Hardy—is being groomed for a commercial mounting in the U.S. will be workshopped in New York City in November, then travel to Poland’s leading performing arts theatre, Teatr Muzyczny of Poznan, for collaborative development with Polish artists. Later in the year, according to Polish sources, the musical will be showcased for an audience that is expected to include the country’s president, Andrzej Duda, and an entourage of Polish cultural observers. (Duda’s controversial coziness with President Donald Trump has brought him to the U.S. repeatedly, most recently for a joint press conference at the White House in June.) ’s full-scale premiere is slated for fall 2020 in Poznan, after which it will become available to regional and commercial theatres in the U.S.
