Paderewski Festival Raleigh

08/25/2026

Hold the presses! This just in.
Most of you will remember that in 2023 we sponsored a special, spring-time recital under the auspices of the Paderewski Piano Festival. The pianist was Young Sun Choi.
She has now moved to Raleigh and will be here at least three years! Her husband has a post-doc at NCSU. We are most fortunate.
She just sent us the following email. I trust that all of you will be interested in seeing and hearing her again
I trust that she will not mind my sending/forwarding this to all of you.:

"Dear Adam, Mark, and Brenda,
I hope you are all doing well! This is Young Sun, who performed at the North Carolina Museum of Art as part of the Paderewski Piano Festival in March 2023. I’ve attached a photo of us from that time in case it helps jog your memory.
I wanted to reach out to say hello and share a rather wonderful coincidence—I recently moved to Raleigh!
Until now, my memories of Raleigh were almost entirely tied to the Paderewski Piano Festival and the wonderful memories I have of performing there and spending time with all of you. It feels quite surreal, and very special, to now find myself actually living here.
When I met you in 2023, I remember mentioning that I was thinking about writing my doctoral dissertation at Indiana University on Paderewski’s music. I ended up doing exactly that—my dissertation focused on the Paderewski work I performed at the 2023 concert. I thought you might be interested, so I wanted to share the link with you: https://hdl.handle.net/2022/33574
My husband recently began a postdoctoral researcher position at NC State University, which is what brought us to Raleigh, and we expect to be here for about three years.
I was also very happy to see the Paderewski Festival concerts coming up this November. My husband and I are hoping to attend some of the concerts, and I very much hope we’ll have a chance to see all of you there and catch up in person.
I hope everything is going wonderfully with you and with the festival. I’m so happy to be back in Raleigh—this time as a resident!

Warmly,
Young Sun

Young Sun Choi, D.M.
(US) +1 812-606-6161
(Korea) +82 10-6733-9301
[email protected]
www.youngsunchoi.com

08/22/2026

Here is a photo of Brenda listening to WCPE, The Classical Station,
https://theclassicalstation.org/
on my -- now old, ca. 1970 -- Zenith Transoceanic radio. We can do the whole world from here. This radio has transistors; I first heard a Zenith Transoceanic in the original tube version, ca. 1954.
This was taken at 7:30pm this evening; you can see that it's still light outside. We have a climax forest at the back of our house. I'll send a photo at some later time showing "The View from Brenda's Head."
It's been a good day. We now have arranged help for 8 hours a day, 7 days a week. We've got our situation covered.
We could dub this photo "Brenda at the Zenith."
ALSO, we received today yet another Paderewski program. Sunday, April 25, 1926, in Chicago. This was a special, all-Chopin concert "For the Benefit of Disabled Polish Volunteers." The Blue Army vets. Note the pencil portrait of Paderewski by Whitelaw, rarely seen.
Paderewski played many benefit concerts here, in Britain, and in France.

08/22/2026

We are preparing the house for the arrival of our four pianists for the 13th Annual Paderewski Piano Festival of Raleigh. November 7, 8, 14, and 15 2026.

We have put in two ramps, so that Brenda can greet our performers on every level -- pun intended. Our performers need no ramps.

One ramp, rather rough-hewn, allows us to ride up from the garage to the main floor; and
the second, rather more finished, allows us to go by wheelchair from the vestibule level of the main room down to the lower level of the "living room" proper. This little ramp is of oak and stained to match the hardwood flooring of the vestibule. It's notched around the stone hearth to brace it in place.
This second ramp allows us to go out onto the lower level of the deck from the living room. The other, higher deck areas can be accessed from the kitchen, dining room, and master bedroom.
We are still getting the recovery work in order.
Come over to see us -- anytime. We are at the moment, perforce, almost always at home. Late morning is probably best, but we can be open to any time. Gość w domu, Bóg w domu . . . .

08/21/2026

After a sometime absence caused by Brenda Fountain's stroke and fall, we have returned home and can resume some of our normal activities.
Please be assured that our 13th Annual Paderewski Piano Festival is on schedule and will be held on November 7, 8, 14, and 15, 2026.
Meanwhile, we continue to acquire various unusual items associated with Paderewski -- with emphasis on actual printed programs of his performances. We have about 75 of these individual programs, ranging from his first program in the United State in 1891 through the very last program on May 25, 1939, which he did not play, being too disoriented to go on stage at Madison Square Garden.
We have received an absolutely pristine copy of his concert program at the Eastman Theatre in Rochester, New York, on Thursday Evening, March 29, 1928. This program was an All-Chopin affair; no other composer's works were performed.
The Eastman School of Music was then in its seventh year, and Howard Hanson was leading the school for the third year of a directorship which was to last 40 years. Paderewski's last concert actually played was also in the Eastman Theatre -- May 21, 1939.

07/22/2026

Brenda brought her arm up today and then set it back down, controlled. The OT and she sprang this on me at 10:00am. A trip of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
I have it in the iPhone. I haven't figured out how to get it over here.
We hope to walk into each of our four performances at the 13th Annual Paderewski Piano Festival this coming November. We've got 15 weeks to make progress. Paszkowiak is encouraged; so are we.
Mark Fountain

07/21/2026

The Polish Museum of America rang in today with a spectacular silk scarf and accompanying card--signed by many significant members of the PMA staff. Each name had a short note offering encouraging sentiments to Brenda. I'll have to look everybody up, but I could discern several favorite people immediately.
The card shows the entire window (Polish Pavilion, New York World's Fair, 1939), now in the PMA collections, unparalleled anywhere. The window section at the bottom center is the focal point for the scarf. At the bottom right corner of the scarf you can see that it's a part of the celebration of 90th anniversary of the Museum.
Equally unparalleled is the Paderewski collection--chiefly his belongings at the time of his death in 1941. Brenda and I were admitted into the "vault" of the Paderewski collection--quite a security system--and Brenda was invited to play Paderewski's small, hotel-room piano there.
She is properly honored there.

07/19/2026

According to our original program for the summer, we would have returned from Poland yesterday afternoon. Brenda's unfortunate condition precluded our participation in several events. The "Congress" of Honorary Consuls of Poland in Warsaw took place without us.
Equally important for us, we were to have attended the inaugural recital of the Krakow Piano Summer, created and organized by our Paderewski Festival Artistic Director, Adam Wibrowski. That recital was given July 15 by Yehuda Prokopowicz--who played here last year.
www.krakowpianosummer.com.pl

This was his program:
YEHUDA PROKOPOWICZ fortepian

Fryderyk CHOPIN (1810-1849) :
- Wybrane Mazurki - Selected Mazurkas - op. 17, op. 41, op. 59 (Paris-Nohant)
- Scherzo cis-moll op. 39 (1838-39, Mallorca-Marseille)
- Ballade nr. 4 f-moll (1842, Nohant)
---------
YEHUDA PROKOPOWICZ & JULIA BŁACHUTA

Ernest BLOCH (1880-1959) : Baal Shem, 3 Pictures of Chassidic life (1923)
Amy BEACH (1867-1944) : Romance for Violin and Piano (1893)
Bela BARTOK (1881-1945 New York) : 6 Tańców rumuńskich (1915)
Scott JOPLIN (1868-1917) : Pine Apple Rag (1908)
George GERSHWIN (1898-1937) :
- Tempo di Blues (arr. J. Heifetz)
- It ain’t necessarily so from Porgy and Bess (1935)

Other performers include pianists who will be with us this year for our 13th Annual Paderewski Piano Festival of Raleigh, November 7, 8, 14, and 15, 2026.
Check out these great performers!

Bilety w cenie 60 i 40 złotych do nabycia online oraz w Centrum Obsługi Zwiedzających, Rynek Główny 35 (Pałac Krzysztofory), 31-011 Kraków, tel.: (12) 426 50