Dear Lovers of Music,

I would like to invite you to an amazing music festival: “Chopin IN the City” begins on February 22nd and continues until March 1st, 2017 in Chicago.

In 2010, I organized a large concert at Millennium Park featuring the music of Frederic Chopin to celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth. The concert was a great success. A stellar group of musicians from around the world showed an audience of ten thousand that Chopin’s piano masterpieces can be interpreted by various instrumentalists and vocalists alike, and that his music can be the beginning of unlimited journey through genre styles. Howard Reich, the famous jazz critic, placed this concert on his list of the 10 best shows of the last 30 years in Chicago.

Since the anniversary concert, I have never stopped dreaming about continuing and developing this project. “Chopin IN the City” is the result. It is an expression of my determination to bring to others the music of this great composer, and a celebration of art and culture at large.

The festival will take place on the anniversary of Chopin’s birth, but as there is still some mystery around the great Pole’s date of birth – February 22 or March 1, 1810 – I decided that the celebration should includes those days and the days in between to fully experience the magic of Chopin’s music.

The festival concerts will be performed by musicians from the Chicago area and invited guests from Poland and New York. The program will showcase Chopin in classical and jazz interpretations for piano and other instruments. It will be a great experience for sophisticated listeners, as well as those who are only at the beginning their musical exploration.

I am organizing this extraordinary event with the hope of making Chopin’s music unforgettable to all, and a foundation for further creations and future inspirations. I want this festival to beget new interpretations of classical music in varied musical environments, the visual arts, theater, and literature for people of all ages.

Festival concerts will be held at different locations in Chicago, and two radio stations – WFMT / WTTW and WDCB – will broadcast several concerts live.

A detailed schedule of festival concerts is included below. Please visit the website of my new foundation, which I’ve created to promote culture in its many faces.

Thank you for any help and support, because a human without art is just an animal. I hope for this event to continue in the coming years and enrich the music scene in Chicago, to grow with us as we celebrate the beauty of our minds.

In order to ensure the success of this very important festival, we are seeking contributions to help defray the costs associated with the event, so that all funds raised can go directly toward the music community.

Thank you for all your donations and I hope to see you at the concerts in February.

Sincerely Yours,

Grażyna Auguscik
www.sundsandnotes.org