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May 23, 2009
A concert celebrating 90 Years of U.S.-Polish Diplomatic Relations took place at the I. Paderewski Center Tarnów - Kąśna Dolna on May 22. Neal Larrabee, a renowned American pianist, played compositions of Chopin, Paderewski, Beethoven, Ravel and Gottschalk. Neal Larrabee is a professor of music at the University of Connecticut. He has performed in major music centers including New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Berlin, Warsaw and Moscow. His appearances as recitalist and as soloist with orchestras have won critical acclaim. Nominated by the United States Information Service for performing under the auspices of the American embassies, Larrabee has toured Germany, Russia, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia. In Poland, Larrabee has become a well-known favorite of the concert-going public. Before the concert, the audience heard from Monika Smoleń, Vice-Minister of Culture, Susan Parker-Burns, Press and Culture Officer, Mieczysław Kras, Supervisor of the Tarnow District, Roman Ciepiela, Vice-Marshal of Małopolskie Province and Krystyna Szymańska, Director of the Paderewski Center about the close relationship between the Polish patriot, artist and diplomat Ignacy Paderewski and President Woodrow Wilson. It was at Paderewski’s urging that President Wilson included Polish statehood as one of his famous Fourteen Points. The United States was the first country to officially recognize the newly independent Poland in 1919.
