Join AmiciMusic Artistic Director Daniel Weiser for this four-part course chronicling the life and music of the great Polish/French composer, Frederic Chopin.  Chopin helped make the piano the perfect Romantic instrument with his melancholy and profound works that still touch our souls very deeply today.  As Oscar Wilde wrote: “After playing Chopin, I feel as if I have been weeping over sins that I had never committed and mourning over tragedies that were not my own.”   We will start with the remarkable prodigy who was discovered in Warsaw and began playing for royalty at the age of seven.  Though he fled Poland just before the 1830 uprising against the Russians, his piano works kept the folk music of Poland alive from his jaunty Mazurkas to the elegant Polonaises as well as the longer turbulent Ballades.  His short life ended in Paris after a long relationship with the writer, George Sand, as well as close friendships with the painter Eugene Delacroix and the composer Franz Liszt.   Over the four sessions, I will play many of his great works, including Waltzes, Preludes, Nocturnes, and more.  We will also watch some of the wonderful movie, Impromptu, that brings all these people to life with some great acting by Emma Thompson, Mandy Patinkin, Judy Grant, and more.

This course will take place on four consecutive Wednesdays beginning on January 17 from 11:00-1:00. It will be online as well as in person.  For those in Baltimore, I can fit 25 people into my living room.  For others, this will be a password-protected Zoom course available online to those who register.  After you register, I will send you a link every week to each class that includes the password.  On the day and time of the class, just click on that link and enter the password.  If you miss one of the classes, I can send you the recording of the class to watch at your own leisure.  Hope you can join me!