PADEREWSKI, IGNACY JAN

Foremost pianist of his time, composer, premier of Poland (1919–20), signer of the Versailles Treaty (1919);b. Kurylówka, Poland, Nov. 6, 1860; d. New York City, June 29, 1941. Both his parents, Jan Paderewski, estate administrator, and Polixena (Nowicka) Paderewska, had musical backgrounds. His first wife, Antonia Korsak, died in childbirth, leaving him with an invalid son, Alfred. He married Mme. Helena de Rosen Gorska in 1899. He studied piano and composition privately, at the Warsaw Conservatory (1872–78), and in Berlin, and piano with Leschetizky in Vienna. His pianistic debuts were in Vienna (1887) and in the U.S. (1891) at Carnegie Hall with the New York Symphony Orchestra under Walter Damrosch. He was noted for his performance of music by his compatriot Chopin, whose works he was editing before his death. His compositions include two operas, a symphony, a cantata, three works for solo instrument and orchestra, a violin and piano sonata, 22 songs, and more than 54 piano pieces.

Paderewski donated generously to Polish relief during World War I, and was an architect of Poland's independence at the war's end. After its reenslavement by Hitler he vowed never to return until Poland was again free. In life he was honored by many nations and universities; at his death his body lay in state in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, and was interred in Arlington National Cemetery, a temporary haven granted by President Roosevelt. A bronze marker was placed at the site in 1963 at the instance of President Kennedy.

Bibliography: r. landau, Ignace Paderewski: Musician and Statesman (New York 1934). a. strakacz, Paderewski As I Knew Him, tr. h. chybowska (New Brunswick, N.J. 1949). c. r. halski, Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. e. blom, 9 v. (5th ed. London 1954) 6:482–484. j. w. hoskins, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, 1860–1941: A Biographical Sketch and a Selective List of Reading Materials (Washington D.C. 1984). j. jasienski, ed., Ignacy Jan Paderewski: antologia (Poznan 1996). e. slivinski lisandrelli, Ignacy Jan Paderewski: Polish Pianist and Patriot (Greensboro 1999). m. perkowska, "Ignacy Jan Paderewski" in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 14, ed. s. sadie, (New York 1980) 73–75. d. m. randel, ed., The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music (Cambridge 1996) 660–661. n. slonimsky, ed., Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Eighth Edition (New York 1992) 1352–1353.

[h. e. meyers]