| Emanuel Honors Paderewski Symphony Orchestra 2/23/2007 - Karolina Zaczek Congressional Aide/
Community Outreach Liaison
Congressman Rahm Emanuel (IL, 5th)
Chicago office
Friday, February 09, 2007
CONTACT:
Kathleen Connery
202-226-7639
202-225-1787 (cell)
kathleen.connery@mail.house.gov
Emanuel Honors Paderewski Symphony Orchestra
WASHINGTON, D.C. - - U.S. Representative Rahm Emanuel (D-IL)
released the following statement as submitted to the Congressional Record
honoring the Paderewski Symphony Orchestra's February 2007 Production of
Stanislaw Moniuszko's Opera, The Haunted Manor.
Honoring the Paderewski Symphony Orchestra's February 2007 Production of
Stanislaw Moniuszko's Opera, The Haunted Manor
Statement of the Honorable Rahm Emanuel
February 9, 2007
"Madam Speaker, on behalf of the more than 110,000 Polish and
Polish-American constituents of my district, as well as those of Polish
descent around the country, I rise today to honor the late Polish composer
Stanislaw Moniuszko. On February 10th and 11th, the Paderewski Symphony
Orchestra will perform Poland's national opera, The Haunted Manor, for
audiences at the Rosemont Theater.
Considered the father of Polish opera, Moniuszko was born in the spring of
1819 to a patriotic family of Polish landowners living on the eastern edge
of partitioned Poland. Revealing a passion for music at an early age, he
began taking private piano lessons while still very young. In 1837,
Moniuszko traveled to Berlin where he studied composition and choral
conducting. By 1840, the young artist had already composed several operas as
well as sacred music and secular cantatas.
Moniuszko became well-known for his many songs, operas and ballets filled
with patriotic and Polish folk themes. His music is quite stylistically
distinct while incorporating various national motifs including certain
Polish dances and folk tunes.
To this day, Moniuszko is considered one of Poland's great composers. One of
his most famous operas is Straszny Dwor, or The Haunted Manor. In it,
Moniuszko depicts Polish nobility and gentry while emphasizing Polish
customs and traditions. The comic opera is claimed as Poland's national
opera, as it encompasses different levels of society, and it has a vitality
that speaks to everyone.
During his professional life, Moniuszko traveled numerous times to St.
Petersburg to give concerts, so it is fitting that his works are traveling
across the ocean to be performed by the Paderewski Symphony Orchestra of the
Fifth Congressional District of Illinois.
Madam Speaker, I am honored to recognize Moniuszko and honor his success, as
well as to commend the Paderewski Symphony Orchestra for bringing this
important part of Poland's history to the Polish and Polish-American
communities in the United States.
|
