Arts
Poland’s Culture Minister Honors Music Dean
May 8, 2009 10:20 AM
- Dean Robert A. Cutietta, left, and Bogdan Zdrojewski place a daylily in the outstretched hand of pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski.
- Photo/Dietmar Quistorf
Bogdan Zdrojewski, Poland’s minister of culture and national heritage, on his first visit to Los Angeles, decorated USC Thornton School of Music Dean Robert A. Cutietta with his country’s Gloria Artis medal on April 23. This prestigious award recognizes outstanding individuals for their contributions to Polish culture.
In his remarks to Cutietta, Zdrojewski summarized the longstanding relationship of the USC Thornton School and the Polish Music Center at USC and the dean’s leading role in promoting Polish music and culture in Southern California. Cutietta thanked the minister for the award, describing his advocacy of Polish music and cooperation with the Polish Music Center as “the right thing to do.”
Zdrojewski was accompanied by Paulina Kapuscinska, consul general of the Republic of Poland in Los Angeles; Malgorzata Cup, consul for culture; Roman Czarny, former consul for culture; and film director Krzysztof Jankowski.
Following the decoration ceremony, the dean and minister stepped outside for a photo opportunity next to the monument of Ignacy Jan Paderewski. Paderewski — one of the most important pianists in the history of music — was also a statesman and a humanitarian and his accomplishments in the fields of music and diplomacy were recognized by USC with an honorary doctorate in 1923.
Paderewski’s monument was unveiled by the Polish Music Center at a ceremony in October 2007, during which Provost C. L. Max Nikias, Cutietta and Janusz Reiter, Poland’s ambassador to the United States, participated along with Kapuscinska and numerous members of the Polish community in Los Angeles.
The Polish Music Center’s manuscript collection housed in the Special Collections Department in Doheny Memorial Library was the next stop on the minister’s USC itinerary.
Manuscripts of compositions by leading contemporary Polish composers were on display, including several major orchestral works by Witold Lutostawski, Krzysztof Penderecki and Krzysztof Meyer. Scores by Grazyna Bacewicz, whose centenary celebration recently was commemorated with a concert in USC’s Newman Hall, were also prepared for the minister’s viewing by Melinda Hayes, head of Special Collections.
The Polish Music Center in Stonier Hall was the last stop on the minister’s visit. Krysta Close, center manager and librarian, welcomed the minister. Director Marek Zebrowski highlighted the collection of manuscripts by Henry Vars and Zygmunt Stojowski, as well as photographs, personal items, correspondence and concert programs of Paderewski. This recent donation of Paderewski memorabilia is known as the Paso Robles Collection and was assembled by Paderewski fan Hy Blythe of Paso Robles.
The minister presented the center with a 12-CD set of recordings of all of Frederic Chopin’s compositions, performed by various Polish artists. In addition, the center library received two volumes of limited edition facsimiles of Chopin’s manuscripts, including his Etudes Op. 10 and Mazurkas, Op. 33, recently published under the minister’s aegis. Another gift was a book about composer and conductor Krzysztof Penderecki and a recording of his most famous works.
TAGS: music
Latest Arts stories
- Up in the Air Soars With Scripter Win February 8, 2010 8:23 AM
- Student Union to Host Contreras Paintings February 1, 2010 7:41 AM
- Forbidden Documentary to Debut January 29, 2010 6:45 AM
-
For Journalists »
-
USC in the News
for 2/6 to 2/8/2010 »-
Los Angeles Times featured the USC Rossier School’s centennial gala, which took place February 1. USC President Steven B. Sample was honored with the Global Education Leadership Award, and USC alumna Cindy McCain was honored with the Dean’s Alumni Achievement Award. “It’s rare for someone who’s lived as long as I have in politics with my husband to be speechless, but I truly am,” McCain said. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa introduced Sample, recounting his work in raising USC’s stature globally, being open to international students, and understanding USC’s position in Los Angeles as “the gateway to Asia and Latin America.” Nearly 350 people attended the event, including Sen. John McCain; Ed Roski, chairman of the USC Board of Trustees; Barbara and Roger Rossier, for whom the Rossier School is named; John Katzman, Princeton Review founder and benefactor of an endowed chair at the Rossier School; and alumni and longtime USC supporters Debbie and J. Terrence Lanni and Verna Dauterive.
The Chronicle of Higher Education included USC in a chart on international fundraising by higher education institutions. USC has received $2.9 million from international philanthropic funds, and is estimated to have more than 6,000 foreign alumni, the story stated.
The Chronicle of Higher Education featured Paul Debevec of USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies, who won an Academy Award for co-creating a light stage capture device and image-based facial rendering system that has been used in movies like “Avatar.” The award will be presented at a formal dinner on February 20, the story noted. Asked whether the technology could be applied to education, Debevec said: “Absolutely, yes. Maybe there’s a little rendering of a chemistry professor at the side of the screen who smiles at you when you get the question right and frowns when you get the question wrong. [In perhaps 10 years] that computer might, through its Web cam, look back at you, see where you’re looking on the screen, see how engaged you are, and actually adapt itself to trying to teach you in the way that it seems to be working the best. Just like one-on-one tutoring.”
The Chronicle of Higher Education featured linguist Paul Frommer of the USC Marshall School, who created the language Na’vi for the Golden Globe-winning movie “Avatar.” “Doing this kind of work as an academic is not going to advance your research reputation. It’s not going to result in publications in peer-reviewed journals,” Frommer said. “But it just may push the world forward in the way it’s turning on young people to the wonders of language”
Los Angeles Times reported that the 22nd annual USC Libraries Scripter Award was given to “Up in the Air” novelist Walter Kirn and to USC alumnus Jason Reitman and Shelton Turner, who adapted Kirn’s book for the screen. Los Angeles Times ran a second story about the Scripter Award.
-
-
Campus News
- Capital Connections
- USC faculty, staff and alumni in Washington, D.C., and Sacramento
- In Print
- New and recent books written or edited by USC faculty and staff
- Family Matters
- Achievements and awards
- Obituaries