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 music 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 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.  Because of the difficulties of remote teaching, I will have the class set with your microphones off so you will be able to hear me, but you will not be able to speak.  There will be a way to write in questions during the class that I can hopefully answer.   You can register below for the whole four-part course or you can also register for selected classes if you prefer.  The course will be on Thursdays at 1:00 except for the week of July 20 when the class will occur on Monday, July 20 at 1:00 instead.  I hope you can join me!

A portion of the proceeds from this course will be donated to the Maryland Food Bank, which is doing an amazing job feeding people in need in our state.  Thank you!!!