Pianist Marjan Kiepura plays Frédéric Chopin Mazurkas & Waltzes

Pianist Marjan Kiepura plays Chopin Mazurkas and more....

Pianist Marjan Kiepura

Since the launch of his successful Chopin CD entitled, Images of a Homeland, pianist Marjan Kiepura now also has a significant YouTube following.

Born in Paris, he grew up in the United States where he was accepted to the Juilliard School Preparatory Division. He studied with Jeaneane Dowis and later coached with Menahem Pressler. Marjan's development as an artist has led him to focus on the music of Frederic Chopin. He has given concerts in the U.S. and Europe of this composer's works. His own Polish ancestry has made Chopin a favorite choice of repertoire.

Highlights of appearances include the International May Festival in Wiesbaden, Germany; London's Royal Festival Hall in their Foyer Concert Series, the Bibliotheque Polonaise in Paris, the Jecklin Forum in Zurich, Dartmouth College, MIT, the Bruno Walter Hall at Lincoln Center, the Kosciuszko Foundation, the 92Y Weill Art Gallery in New York; and London's St. John's Smith Square concert hall.

Marjan was particularly proud to perform in a special concert honoring his late father, the Polish tenor, Jan Kiepura, at the Warsaw Opera and accompanied his late mother, the Hungarian soprano, Marta Eggerth, in recital. He has also given concerts in Vermont, New Hampshire, Virginia, Miami, Chicago, London, Germany and Poland.

Marjan Kiepura's debut Chopin CD has received superb reviews including Amazon, American Record Guide, BBC Music Magazine, Pianist Magazine in London and music journals in the USA, Great Britain, Holland, Austria and Poland. The CD has been aired on many National Public Radio stations across the United States including New York's premier classical station WQXR, Vermont Public Radio, Connecticut's WMNR, Indiana Public Radio, New Jersey's WWFM's hosted by piano expert David Dubal, New England Public Radio; and London's BBC Radio 3. Separately, Marjan has produced and presented radio programs on Frederic Chopin.

Marjan is also a published author and has written about Chopin. He lives with his wife Jane Knox-Kiepura in Littleton, New Hampshire and New York City.

Marjan Kiepura has recently been added to the biography section of the National Institute of Frederic Chopin in Warsaw, or NIFC. The NIFC is the world's largest Chopin organization.

Referred to as the "Guardian of the Heritage" by critic Glenn Loney of The New York Theater Wire; Marjan has embarked on a second career to preserve the legacy of his famous parents. He and his wife Jane have produced CD reissues and have given presentations for the Ohio Light Opera company, New Rochelle Opera Company, the Dutch Treat Club, Sundays at JASA programs, 92Y, the Leo Baeck Institute and the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York. Marjan has produced radio programs on his parents focusing on their opera, operetta and film careers. In this connection he has been named member of the International Advisory Board for the Loren L. Zachary Society for the Performing Arts.

The University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna hosted a major exhibit on his celebrated parents, Marta Eggerth and Jan Kiepura, as part of their "Exil Arte" exhibition honoring those artists who were victims or had to flee as a result of the rise of Nazism. This past May 2022, Marjan appeared in Vienna at the "Exil Arte" exhibit where he performed and narrated a program on his parents together with his wife and archivist, Jane Knox-Kiepura.

Marjan has written a feature article on the historic background and performance of Chopin's mazurkas for the April/May 2023 issue of Britain's Pianist Magazine, the leading journal for all matters involving piano studies and trends.

"Images of a Homeland" - Music of Chopin

CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED RECORDING OF CHOPIN FEATURING RARE REPERTOIRE IS RE-RELEASED FOR CHOPIN's 210th ANNIVERSARY.

CD: 'Images of a Homeland' presenting performances of music by Chopin featuring the American pianist Marjan KiepuraAn important CD ~ "IMAGES OF A HOMELAND" ~ presenting performances of music by Chopin featuring the American pianist Marjan Kiepura, has been re-released especially for the 210th anniversary of the birth of the composer marked on March 1, 2020. The complete recording is on YouTube

Comprising both rare and familiar repertoire by Chopin, the disc was critically acclaimed on its first release in 2001, and presents the composer in a uniquely Polish musical perspective.

As well as offering familiar repertoire such as the A major Polonaise, the D flat major 'Raindrop' Prelude and the Nocturne in E-Flat Op. 9, No. 2, the recording also has several rarities including many of his Mazurkas which are not often performed.

Indeed, it is Chopin's Mazurkas, both early and late, which are the prime focus of the disc. Marjan Kiepura, who has made a particular specialism of Chopin's Mazurkas over many years, believes they provide the key to Chopin's personality and in particular, his idiomatic Polish traits.

Commenting on this timely re-release, he said: - "In making this recording, I had a special purpose ~ to observe Chopin as a person deeply affected by influences, chiefly what one might call the essence of his heritage - the Polish earth - which never left him and which informed so much of his music. In my playing, I always try to convey the particular Polish characteristics of his music which I feel intuitively - namely, the rhythms, inflections and emphases. I feel it is especially apt and fitting to re-release this recording now, just as we celebrate another important anniversary of Chopin's birth."

Extensive liner notes by the artist provide a historic reference to the concept of homeland and what it meant to Chopin. The Grammy award winning laureates Record Producer, David Frost and Sound Engineer, Tom Lazarus were the team for this recording. Performances were recorded at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York City.

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