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Polish
Music Newsletter |
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September 2004, Vol. 10, No. 9. ISSN 1098-9188. Published monthly.
Los Angeles: Polish Music Center, University of Southern California
Anniversaries |
Awards |
Calendar of Events | |
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SKROWACZEWSKI TO GIVE PADEREWSKI LECTURE
Stanisław Skrowaczewski
 Center Manager, Krysta Close (middle) with our first official visitors, Charles and Alice Bragg. |
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NEWS
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17-25 September, 2004
This year's Warsaw Autumn [Warszawska Jesień] marks the 47th anniversary of Poland's premiere festival of new music from Poland and beyond. Presented annually with only two years of interruption, Warsaw Autumn was a beacon of musical expression and freedom throughout the period of Communist control, and continues to shine today, attracting composers, performers, music experts, and music lovers from all over the world. The festival is organized by the Polish Composers' Union [Zwiazek Kompozytorów Polskich]. According to Director of the Festival Tadeusz Wielecki, "The 'Autumn' has an open formula, and tries to present a variety of phenomena and tendencies typical for the music of our times: from the sonic radicalism derived from the Webernean tradition (Lachenman, Ferneyhough, Hollinger), though the currents that make reference to the music of the past or traditional cultures, all the way to audio-art or sound installations. It is said—appropriately—that the 'Warsaw Autumn' is positively eclectic. That is the way it has to be, if the festival wants to inform its Polish audience about what is going on in the musical world as fully as possible—which is what it wants to do and what it should do."
 "Warsaw Autumn - new generation" concert, 22 Sept. '03
 25 September - 9 October, 2004
  Marta Ptaszyńska / Krzysztof Meyer
10-19 September, 2004
Wratisławia Cantens is an international festival of music and fine arts. Events include performances of oratorios, cantatas, chamber and symphonic concerts, orthodox church and synagogical music, as well as exhibitions, film screenings, and lectures. The festival is organized in most beautiful historical venues in Wrocław and in the Lower Silesia.
16-19 September, 2004
For the last 23 years, the "Chopin in the Colours of Autumn" Festival has been held annually during the third week of September in Antonin, Poland. The Festival commemorates the two visits Chopin paid to the Antonin Palace in the years of 1827 and 1829. The first edition of the festival took place in 1982 on the 155th anniversary of Chopin's first visit to Antonin. Traditionally, the opening symphonic concerts are held in Ostrów Wielkopolski.
For a full schedule of events, visit www.infochopin.pl.
 The Minister of Culture Waldemar Dabrowski has officially announced that a new Chopin Center will be established in Warsaw. The Fryderyk Chopin Institute will be responsible for the new project. The center will be located at 43 Tamka St, opposite Ostrogski Castle, seat of the Frederick Chopin Society. Within this year, the Institute plans to erect a building suitable for the needs of the Center, which will comprise a coffee shop, tourist information office and a souvenir shop. Chopin concerts will be held in the courtyard of the center.
Actress, artist, activist Beata Pozniak-Daniels is the featured artist in the Spring 2004 edition of Voices, the magazine of the Women's College at Santa Monica College. Read the article at http://www.smc.edu/voices/fea_artists/pozniak.htm. |
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INTERNET NEWS |
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 Tadeusz Baird Poland's Contribution to Music (Article by Felix Łabunski, reprinted in PMJ Vol.2, No.2) Paderewski, Ignaz Jan (1860-1941)
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CONCERTS AND PERFORMANCES |
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Young Artists International is a non-profit organization providing a forum to bring performers and diverse audiences together. It stands on a belief that "classical music is the spiritual factor which brings people together and unites them irrespective of religion and culture, appealing to sublime senses". Its International Laureates Festival emerging as one of the nation's most significant music festivals. This festival serves to highlight the skills of the I PALPITI Orchestral Ensemble, comprised of selected prize-winning young professional musicians from around the globe who perform at the festival as both soloists and ensemble members. During this festival, 10 concerts were given in two weeks, from 19 July - 2 August, 2004.
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS |
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* For more Concerts in Poland, visit the website of Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzycne and search their concerts page. For events in France's Nova Polska Festival (a year-long celebration of one of the newest members of the E.U.), visit the September page of www.nova-polska.pl. *
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By Joseph A. Herter
 Wiktor Łabuński photo: Sudvarg, Kansas City, MO (courtesy of Ruch Muzyczny magazine) See larger image
INTRODUCTION
This homage to the Polish pianist and composer Wiktor Łabuński is the result of my correspondence with Marcia Crossley Whitcomb in Denver, Colorado. I first wrote to Mrs. Whitcomb, the personnel manager of the Centennial Orchestra and a 1960 alumna of the Kansas City Conservatory of Music, in connection with my research on another Polish pianist and composer Zygmunt Stojowski, who—like Łabuński—immigrated to the USA. I was looking for information on one of Stojowski's most notable pupils, the conductor Antonia Brico who founded the Antonia Brico Orchestra in Denver, the precursor of that city's current professional chamber orchestra. During the course of our written exchanges, Mrs. Whitcomb's former Kansas City Conservatory professor Wiktor Łabuński came up as a topic of discussion. Her glowing comments on this musician, who played such an important role in the musical life of Kansas City, inspired me to find out more about him.
Besides the fact that they were both Polish pianist/composers seeking their fortune in America, other similarities could be seen in both men's careers. Both Stojowski and Łabuński were consumed with teaching and gained reputations as highly respected and beloved teachers—Łabuński in Memphis, Nashville and Kansas City and Stojowski in New York during the academic year and on the West Coast in the summer. The saddest thing the two men share in common is that they have been forgotten as composers in both Poland and in their adopted country.
Interest in the music of Stojowski is experiencing a renaissance. Wiktor Łabuński's music, however, still remains to be found only in encyclopedic sources instead of concert programs. In 1968, this sad state of affairs was pointed out by his former student Wanda Waliszewska when she wrote an article about Łabuński to mark the 40th anniversary of his emigration from Poland. She lamented the fact that Łabuński's orchestral music had never been performed in Poland,[1]
and Łabuński had not returned after World War II to perform or even to preside as a juror at one of the International Chopin Competitions in Warsaw. [2] Thirty-six years later in 2004, Łabuński's orchestral music still remains unperformed in Poland, and his legacy as a pianist is nearly forgotten.
It took the British pianist Jonathan Plowright, who to date has released two CDs of Stojowski's music, to show the world what Polish cultural treasures had all but been lost. As it prepares to celebrate its centennial in 2006, would it not be possible for the Kansas City Conservatory to do the same for Łabuński by releasing a recording of his music as part of their centenary celebrations? Wiktor Łabuński, who served the Conservatory for a nearly a third of its 100-year history as piano professor, director and artist in residence, died 30 years ago. Now is the time to give younger generations
the opportunity to share and reevaluate his music as well as to appreciate the legacy of this great Polish-American Kansas City musician.
Joseph A. HerterWarsaw, Poland THE RECOLLECTIONS
I. Clifton Matthews
In June of 1947 my mother took me, twelve years old at the time, to a master class given at the Conservatory of Kansas City by the doyenne of American piano pedagogues, Olga Samaroff Stokowski. She had brought two of her brilliant Juilliard students to perform major works of the repertory, among which were the Bach English Suite in A minor, Schumann Carnivale, Ravel Gaspard de la nuit and the Concerto in G Major, all new to me at that time. Of course I was dazzled by the music and the performances. I had also enrolled for two private lessons with Mme Samaroff who, after I played something for her, said sternly, "But why have you come to me?" I, desperately trying to think of the reason, finally declared, "To get your interpretation." To which she replied with scorn, "There is no such thing. There are only the notes." We quickly cancelled the second lesson.
The good news was, and still is, that she suggested that I play for Dr. Łabuński. He was very kind and encouraging and agreed to teach me for four dollars a lesson, a third of his fee at the time, as I would have to travel by train each Saturday from Wellington, Kansas, some 250 miles from Kansas City. So for the four years I was in high school I spent each Saturday on the train to and from Kansas City, arriving at two in the afternoon, leaving again at 5:15 p.m. Dr. Łabuński agreed to teach me on the condition that I have a private half-hour theory lesson each week before my piano lesson.
I took it all in my stride at the time, but in retrospect it seems amazing that a boy from a small town in southern Kansas would have had the opportunity to learn from this elegant, gifted, charming man who spoke seven languages, wore spats, and smoked cigarettes in a silver holder. And who was the brother-in-law of Artur Rubinstein!
Dr. Łabuński's studio was a handsome room, walnut paneled, with French doors and a beautiful painting of his lovely wife Wanda. In the course of those four years we went through a considerable portion of the piano literature. I loved and admired my teacher who could not have been more kind to me. As I lead my present students through the literature I often am reminded of my lessons on those works with Dr. Łabuński during those years 1947-51.
The Łabuńskis' home was filled with photographs of all the important musicians, and their parties were always happy occasions with good food and good cheer. I have a fond memory of Mrs. Łabuński's elderly mother (Anna Młynarska), visiting from Poland, sweetly offering "Cherries! Cherries!" to everyone. Dr. Łabuński was always importuned to play for the students, and annually it would be Liszt's Mephisto Waltz which Dr. Łabuński would always say he had not played for twenty-five years.
At one of those parties I met for the first time Rosina Lhevinne. When, after a summer in Aspen in 1952, I decided to go to New York and to Juilliard, it was Dr. Łabuński's wish, and mine, that I study with Mme. Lhevinne. Through a misunderstanding that did not happen, and I very much regret that Dr. Łabuński took offense, the result of which was that we were out of touch thereafter. How I would like to be able to tell him, as I approach my seventieth birthday, how grateful I am to him, how much he has meant in my life!
Clifton Matthews, ProfessorNorth Carolina School of the Arts Winston-Salem, North Carolina http://faculty.ncarts.edu/music/Piano/clifton_matthews.htm II. Emma Lou Diemer
About Wiktor Łabuński: When I was 15 my mother, who knew of his reputation as a fine teacher and pianist, took me to the Kansas City Conservatory for an audition with him. He tested my (perfect) pitch and heard me play and told my mother I was very talented and accepted me as a piano student. I took the bus from my home in Warrensburg to Kansas City (50 miles) every two weeks and studied with him for about 2 years before entering Eastman as a composition major.
Dr. Łabuński was an impressive teacher, very exacting—particularly with fingering, very dignified, a trifle intimidating. I had the pleasure of meeting Wanda Łabuński and spending several evenings in their home. Dr. Łabuński gave an address at Central Missouri State College (CMSTC), where I was a student in the College High School, and, to my family's great pride, mentioned me in it. He stayed at the College Residence (our house), and in an evening private discussion with my mother told her that I could be a concert pianist but that he was a little concerned that I was petite (I'm 5'2"), perhaps not robust enough for a concert career. (That was fine with me because composition was my principal interest, although being a keyboard performer has made all the difference in composing).
The piano literature that he assigned me to learn was usually 19th century romantic music—Rachmaninoff, Grieg, Chopin, and some obscure composers I cannot recall. I wrote two piano concertos while studying with him, and he had occasional suggestions about orchestration. I must say that although my piano technique advanced considerably under his tutelage (I started practicing at 5 a.m. before going to school!) I didn't become completely captivated by music until later when studying—at Eastman and Yale—more contemporary composers: Bartók, Khachaturian, Prokofiev, etc.
I returned after a year at Eastman to study at CMSTC where my father, the president of the college, had instituted a BM degree. During that year I again studied with Dr. Łabuński as well as Garner Read. But I needed to work toward a composition degree, and went to Yale for the remainder of my undergraduate study and my Master's. After graduation from Yale, I had some lessons with Dr. Łabuński and played the Prokofiev 3rd piano concerto for him. He was astounded by my progress, and I remember he rushed out of the studio to exclaim this to other people at the conservatory. He had me play the 2nd piano (orchestra part) of the Rachmaninoff Paganini Variations with one of his advanced students, for that student to enter a competition. He and Mrs. Łabuński were so charming and gracious to me.
Other memories: Dr. L. always smoked a cigarette in a holder, and would sometimes absent-mindedly dribble a little ash on his students (at least I imagine other students had that experience).
He told me once that I was very near the top in talent, but not quite there yet. I believe he was encouraging and honest and inspiring to all his students, certainly to me.
I had no contact with him during later years, and was saddened at learning of his death in 1974. The above recollections are very vivid in my memory and I hope helpful. They are naturally a bit self-centered—what teenager is not?
...I'm grateful to Dr. Łabuński for furthering and advancing a profound love of the piano as the premier instrument for playing and for composing.
Emma Lou Diemer, Professor EmeritaUniversity of California Santa Barbara http://www.sai-national.org/phil/composers/eldiemer.html III. Don C. Shoberg
It is a great joy to reminisce the memories of Wiktor Łabuński. While a student at the Conservatory of Music of Kansas City (now known as the Conservatory of Music of the University of Missouri at Kansas City), I did not study directly with Dr. Łabuński as my area of study was composition. However, Dr. Łabuński did critique my compositions and I enjoyed the opportunity to play trumpet (though not really well) with him and Walter Cook at the pianos playing the Italian Polka by Rachmaninoff. My wife Tharon, on the other hand, did study piano with Wiktor and greatly admired him as a teacher and, in later years, as a very close friend to both of us. Dr. Łabuński was a most dedicated administrator and teacher as well as a perfect gentleman. He was quite formal when at work yet very friendly and playful socially.
One cannot remember Wiktor without also remembering his lovely wife Wanda, her mother Mme. (Anna) Młynarski, and her sister Mrs. (Aniela) Rubinstein, all very special people who loved to entertain. Tharon and I were guests in the Łabuński home on a great many occasions and, after Wanda's death, Wiktor was a guest in our home many, many times as well. I recall Wiktor's fondness for gin and tonic and Wanda's absolutely superb liver pâté to mention only a few memories. To be entertained in their home was always a treat for every guest. I also recall how Wiktor would jokingly imitate various personalities at the keyboard. Of course, I shall always remember his playing piano works of great Russian and Polish composers and the depth of expression he brought to the music.
I shall always cherish the wonderful memories of Wiktor and Wanda Łabuński. Thank you for making it possible to pay tribute to very dear friends.
Don C. ShobergLuyben Music Store Kansas City, Missouri http://www.luybenmusic.com/about.htm IV. Marcia Crossley Whitcomb
Wiktor Łabuński was the Director of the Kansas City Conservatory of Music when I began to study 'cello there as a high school student. I was a bit put off by his slightly regal, Victorian style, and of course by his astounding knowledge, but my 'cello teacher regarded him highly, and I learned to do so too. By the time I was a college student there, he was cordial to me as though an elder relative.
Although I did not study the piano with Wiktor, I was an advanced harmony student under him, one of three. One day while he was illustrating something of Bizet, he played a section at length from memory and suddenly stopped. "I think that was the wrong key," he said a bit flustered, and proceeded to replay the entire example in a different key!
Wiktor enjoyed talking with the students, would often come into the cafeteria during lunch hour to visit, and at the school Christmas party would mimic beginning pianists at the instrument to great hilarity. His stories of friends in Russia and Poland were fascinating, and we were convinced he knew of (or was only a generation away) from all of the late 19th century and early 20th century musicians in Eastern Europe. Paderewski was a family friend.
Most of Wiktor's colleagues knew their craft through Rimsky-Korsakoff. One time, Wiktor said that he had found so many translation and professional errors in the English version of Rimsky-Korsakoff's manual, Harmony, that he finally wrote a long treatise to the publisher pointing out errata and offering to retranslate and correct the book. He was indignant that the publisher never acknowledged his offer.
Marcia Crossley WhitcombVioloncellist and Personnel Manager Centennial Orchestra Denver, Colorado V. Douglas Ashley
How grateful we can be to have the privilege of recounting memories of Wiktor Łabuński! I knew him from 1954 to 1964. I studied with him as a high-school student and stayed in touch with him until his last years when I was seldom in Kansas City.
As a boy of twelve, my mother once pointed out the Łabuńskis at Union Station. A few years later, he, my grandmother and my organ teacher Mrs. Maltby shared a program. In fact, my grandmother, the contralto Gladys Havens, shared his first public appearance on a concert in Kansas City.
He was a dignified, aristocratic gentleman, formal but not unfriendly. All of this carried over into his teaching: he was both strict and encouraging. He demanded a thoughtful approach to every aspect of piano playing. Once he said, "I am a Christian Scientist when it comes to producing tone."
The Łabuńskis were hospitable and sometimes invited a French exchange student and me for a meal. We always spoke French on those occasions because Mme Mlynarska was often there. She was Mrs. Laubunski's mother and her other daughter married Artur Rubinstein. So sometimes she lived with them in Paris. How fine that we can celebrate the life of this wonderful musician and dedicated teacher!
Douglas Ashley, Professor EmeritusCollege of Charleston Charleston, South Carolina http://www.cofc.edu/music/bios/douglas_ashley.html VI. LeRoy Pogemiller
My Thoughts on Wiktor Łabuński
My first meeting with Wiktor Łabuński was in April 1950. My father, my piano teacher and I drove to Kansas City, Missouri, from my home town, Morning Sun, Iowa, to audition with Łabuński and see if I could attend the Conservatory of Music.
We met at their house on a Sunday afternoon. I wasn't really a very good pianist but I played some pieces anyway. Then Mrs. Łabuński interrupted with "Stop, stop! We must turn on the radio and listen to my brother-in-law play the piano." The brother-in-law was Arthur Rubinstein and he was playing the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the St. Louis Symphony. I was awed by his performance, and then I had to play again after the radio program was over. When I hear that piece today, I still vividly remember how I felt at my first hearing. I was accepted by Łabuński and started summer school at the Conservatory less than a month after graduating from high school.
For a few years, I worked for the Łabuńskis. I mowed the yard, hung pictures in the house, drove their maids to their homes if it was dark, and chauffeured Wiktor from school to home and to various towns where he performed. One day I drove him home and as he was getting out of the car I said, "Congratulations on your wedding anniversary." He looked somewhat startled and then thanked me. I don't know what he did after that, but at the next lesson he thanked me for "saving his life."
My wife's name is Carolyn Pogemiller. I took her to a Conservatory dance when she was very young, before I went into the army in 1952. After I returned from service, I took Carolyn to another dance. At my next lesson, Wiktor said, "I like the second girl best." I never told him she was the same girl.
When I told the Łabuńskis that Carolyn and I were to be married, Mrs. Łabuński offered us a floor fan, slightly used. She said they wouldn't use it anymore. We were really glad to have the gift. We were married in a small church in Kansas City. At such events, it was the tradition of the church to display wedding gifts in the basement so they could be seen by the guests during the reception. We failed to put the Łabuńskis' fan among the gifts. When we returned from our honeymoon, I apologized to Wiktor for the fan being absent at the wedding. He said, "Had we given you a cow would you have had it at the church?"
One time in a lesson, Łabuński told me about a concert by Rachmaninoff at which Łabuński was present. Rachmaninoff made a slip on one of the pieces. Back stage, after the concert, Rachmaninoff begged his friends, including Łabuński, to tell him when he should stop playing. Łabuński commented to me that he was glad that he could still play well. Later on, when he was much older, I remember he played at a noon program at the Conservatory and his playing was not what it used to be. I guess his friends didn't have the courage to tell him when to quit.
When there was talk of a merger between the Conservatory and the University of Kansas City in the mid 1950s, Łabuński was very much against such a union. As a result, the Board of Directors dismissed Łabuński as director of the school. At the time of the merger, Dr. Archie Jones from Texas was named the new Dean of the Conservatory. A few years later at a meeting of the faculty, Łabuński rose and proposed a motion for the faculty to commend Jones for his fairness towards everyone as dean. I thought this was a very fine gesture on Łabuński's part considering Łabuński had lost the position of director and Jones had become the new dean.
One of the nicest things Wiktor ever said to me was his hope that someday I would be director of the Conservatory. In 1959, the Conservatory merged with the University of Kansas City, a private institution. In 1963, that school became a campus of the University of Missouri system. For 13 months in 1993-1994, I was interim dean of the Conservatory while a search for a new dean was taking place. During that period, I always remembered what Wiktor had told me many years earlier.
LeRoy Pogemiller, Professor EmeritusConservatory of Music University of Missouri-Kansas City VII. Dr. J.D. Kelly
I studied with Wiktor Łabuński for five years and always found that he never told me anything musically that was false. He was an amazing person as a musician and otherwise. I can share a few funny things that he said or did as well as other things.
He told me once that by the time he had read through a composition three times, it was memorized for all time. And I believe this to be true! At the Conservatory we had weekly convocations on Wednesday, and often he would play a recital. As his students we always tried to find out what he planned to play, but his answer was always, "I haven't decided yet." But the next morning he would present an hour long program.
I remember another time early in my study with him he has assigned a Chopin Etude. I was having a difficult time with it, and said one day at a lesson "This is impossible." His reply was "then it just takes longer." So I stayed with it.
One evening when he was playing a recital in Kansas City, the clock on the front of the hall's balcony bothered him. So, someone had to lean over the balcony rail and hold the hands so they could not move.
He did not like to fly and always tried to take trains wherever he went.
As a freshman I met him in the hall one day early in the year and I said, "Hi, Dr. Łabuński." He said, "You don't say 'Hi' to people, you say 'Hello.'"
He decided when I was sophomore or junior that I was going to learn French and we were going to have my lessons in French. He spoke five or six languages fluently, as did his wife.
I was in Kansas City at the time of his death and attended the funeral service.
He took a great interest in his students. We were required to attend every recital at the Conservatory, and he always took a mental role call when he entered the hall to make sure we were all there.
He could tell wonderful jokes. I remember one in particular about brain surgeons. He could also do wonderfully funny things on the piano, i.e., imitate a piano with a broken key, using his knuckle to rap on the sound board to imitate the click of the broken key, or imitate the piano student that consistently plays the wrong note or notes in a sonatina.
He knew all of the great pianists of the time and they would sometimes come to the Conservatory to speak to the students or play a private recital. I remember in particular one time when Kapell spoke to the student body and another time when Rosalyn Tureck played a Bach recital just for the students...
Another time in a pedagogy class he was talking about teaching young students the lines and spaces and he said, "Just tell the student that these are the lines and spaces, and learn them." Not such a bad idea. It would only take a few minutes.
Well these are a few things. I had and still have great respect for Łabuński, musically and as a person. He was always very good to me.
My lessons were always just before his afternoon break and almost always he would send me to the snack room for coffee and we would continue on with the lesson through his break.
The old Conservatory building was not at all sound proof and you could hear the other studios and also sometimes the practice rooms two floor below. He would sometimes send us down to tell some student that they were reading a note or notes wrong in what they were practicing.
I have sat with him at student recitals, and when the students would sometimes have difficulty he would call out the correct notes for the student, with the result that the student was even more confused.
Dr. J. D. Kelly, Professor EmeritusArkansas State University http://www.clt.astate.edu/finearts/Music/j_d_kelly.htm VIII. Virginia French Burkhart
I was one of the fortunate students to study with Dr. Łabuński. My study with him began in the nineteen-forties, during my junior high and high school years. I continued study with him while I was a student at the Kansas City Conservatory, where I received my bachelor's degree in 1950. My lessons and classes were in the old Armour residence, where Dr. Łabuński reigned regally as dean of the conservatory.
While I was his student, Dr. Łabuński was instrumental in securing for me the position as pianist with the Kansas City Philharmonic—a position which I held throughout my three undergraduate years at the conservatory. He was most helpful and accommodating in preparing me for my audition for graduate study with Madame Rosina Lhevinne at the Juilliard School in New York.
As I look back over the years, aside from the considerable technical training I received from him, I was especially helped and impressed with his remarkable ability to recall and play virtually any piece of music. His tastes were eclectic and fascinating. He could rapidly identify any music he heard; and he noticed and commented upon the similarities, often unnoticed, between quite diverse compositions. No matter whether from operas, symphonies, chamber music, or piano literature, he spotted and talked about, sometimes at length, how themes or motifs or phrases were echoed or imitated in various works.
Later, while I was studying at the Juilliard School, I shall never forget his visit, when he appeared at Rosina Lhevinne's master class. He was clearly in his element, striding among the greats, as he shared his experienced insights into the proper playing of Chopin's Mazurkas.
Virginia French BurkhartRetired Faculty member of the Music Institute of Chicago and of Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois Currently residing in Dubuque, Iowa IX. Julianne McLean
I first met Dr. Łabuński when I was 16. We had a family friend in Kansas City who arranged an audition with Dr. Lab (!) because I had to look for some place to go for my college work and the Conservatory in Kansas City was outstanding, mainly due to Dr. Łabuński. I did go and played for him—he literally guided my future life by giving me a 4-year scholarship to get my Bachelor and Master of Music! He had a great wit and humor as well as a great knowledge of languages and history. I remember vividly when he had Olin Downes—the great New York music critic—come to Kansas City. Dr. Lab played all of Chopin's music with Mr. Downes critiquing it! He had a spectacular memory, and could truly sight-read anything.
One other charming remembrance of 'Dr. Lab': When I was studying the E-Flat Rhapsody of Brahms, Dr. Lab said, "Think of this: I play the DRUM in the SAL--vation AR--MY BAND-- BOOM BOOM," and he would just roar with laughter!!
Julianne McLean
Wichita, Kansas
http://www.andreadoria.org/Recollections/McLean/JulianneMcLean.htm
X. The Nettleton Twins
Wiktor definitely had great charm, elegance and wit that enhanced his superb teaching style. The two Baldwin grand pianos were side by side in his studio at the Conservatory of Music in Kansas City, Missouri. Often he would stand in front of the pianos, facing us, giving us helpful suggestions, and often compliments. He was a great encourager and inspired us to high excellence in our duo-pianism. Being a wonderful pianist himself, he taught much by example. He had superb fingering suggestions for all difficult passages. His goal was to make our playing transparent, colorful and exciting, and we trust that was accomplished. Performance excellence was definitely the primary goal!
We had a wonderful relationship with Wiktor and a strong, mutual respect for each other, artistically and personally. We had many wonderful times in the Łabuński home, where Wiktor and Wanda treated us as family. We treasure the opportunities we had to meet and play for many great artists of the day. Playing for Artur Rubinstein was a tremendous highlight and another impetus in launching our career as concert duo-pianists.
Wiktor was a unique composer and he greatly enjoyed writing and transcribing for two pianos. His Concerto in C Major for Two Pianos and Orchestra is an exciting work while his Nocturne for two pianos is a very beautiful work with shimmering harmonies.
Wiktor transcribed or arranged for two pianos several compositions for us. We regularly programmed some of his works in our duo-piano concerts across the country. The following are Wiktor Łabuński's transcriptions for two pianos that we play:
Wiktor Łabuński was a great artist and master teacher. We shall always be grateful for the years that we worked with him.
Jeanne and Joanne NettletonConcert duo-pianists Tulsa, Oklahoma XI. Norman Shetler
My first encounter with Dr. Wiktor Łabuński occurred on my l6th birthday, June 16, 1947 (57 years ago) having just moved to Kansas City from Nashville, Tennessee. He had been most highly recommended to me by my teacher in Nashville, where previous to his becoming director of the Kansas City Conservatory, he had been head of Nashville Conservatory.
We met in the conservatory just outside his Studio. I was very impressed by what I saw, and I guess I was more than a little nervous in the presence of this great musician. Dr L was a very distinguished looking gentleman, and, for a youngster just fresh from the Deep South, seemed to be a trifle haughty. He, I believe, was always "posing" and appeared to be more than just a little vain. This you will please remember is the first impression of a totally inexperienced and totally "innocent" teenager.
He complimented my playing saying many nice things about my musicality, hand position, etc., and said that he would take me as his student. For me this was a great measure of success and I was given a complete new spurt of inspiration and resolve. Having as well to start in a new school, I'm sure this meeting with Dr L was an important source of confidence building for me.
Dr L was a meticulous dresser. He always wore a vest with a gold watch chain going from the right to the left pockets, and always used an ivory cigarette holder from which the ashes of the cigarette were forever falling on his vest, then nonchalantly being whisked away with the back of his hand. And the spats! I had never seen spats before and Dr L wore them I believe even in June. He was also the first émigré from Europe that I had ever encountered and his perfect, sophisticated English flavored with his (surely) retained and cultivated accent was an additional source of fascination for me with this man.
Under his guidance I made rapid progress progressing from, e.g., Chopin Impromptus/Nocturnes and shorter works of Brahms and Schumann to major works of the piano literature such as Beethoven's Sonata for Piano, Op 110, Schumann's Kreisleriana and Mozart Concertos at the end of my studies with him (four years in all)—works which have remained in my repertoire to this day.
I remember very well a series of concerts he gave with Olin Downes, the dean of American music critics in which he played all the works of Chopin (all from memory if my memory serves me) with Downes giving introductory remarks at the beginning of each session. I was very impressed with this feat and grateful that I was able to hear this great body of the piano repertoire from such a master.
It was through Dr L that I was introduced to and shook the hands of Artur Rubinstein, Jascha Heifitz and other legends of the music world while attending post-concert receptions at the home of the Łabuńskis. Mme. Łabuński was a very gracious hostess and full of old world charm.
Dr L had, understandably, a large class of exceptionally talented students. It was through them that my knowledge of the piano literature was expanded and it was very interesting to follow the progress of all of my fellow students, several of whom I have contact still today.
His personal contacts and friendships with composers like Szymanowski, Medtner and pianists/teachers like Goldenwieser, Siloti and I believe Rachmaninoff as well, makes him a very important link to the great traditions and personalities of the past.
Norman ShetlerFormer Professor at the University of Music of the University of Vienna Vienna, Austria www.ccc.docwebs.com/EN/ENshetler.htm
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Wiktor Łabuński was born of Polish parentage in St. Petersburg, Russia on April 14, 1895. He first started piano lessons at the age of six with Adolf Jaroszewski [3] and continued studying with Roch Hill. [4] At the age of ten he entered the St. Petersburg Imperial Conservatory of Music where he studied piano with Leonid Nikolayev and Felix Blumenfeld. [5] His other teachers at the conservatory included Vassily Safonov (chamber music performance), Joseph Vitols (theory), and W. Kalafati and Nicholas Medtner (composition). While completing his musical studies at the Conservatory, Łabuński also studied for four years at the St. Petersburg University. His debut as a piano soloist took place in St. Petersburg performing Beethoven's Emperor Concerto in the autumn of 1913. Subsequent performances of Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra in F-sharp minor, Op. 1 and Tchaikovsky's Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra in B-flat minor, Op. 23 took place in 1914.
Russia was home for Łabuński for the first 23 years of his life. His father was an engineer who specialized in the construction of railroad cars, and managed two factories, causing the family to spend some years in Moscow and other years in St. Petersburg. By the time he was three and a half years old, Wiktor was able to read in both Russian and Polish. His German and French language skills were first acquired from governesses he had as a child, but they were later polished with eight years of formal education. During World War I he served as a lieutenant in the Russian army. In 1918, the last year of the Great War and the year which saw an independent Poland resurface on the map of Europe, the Łabuński family relocated to Poland. Here Wiktor joined the Polish army and fought in the war against the invading Bolshevik Russians.
Mr. Łabuński came from a very musical family. His father was an amateur singer, his mother played the piano and his older brother Feliks (1892-1979) became a well known composer who, following in the footsteps of his younger brother, also immigrated to the United States, settling in Cincinnati. His father-in-law was the famous Polish conductor Emil Młynarski, the first conductor of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra (1901) and later a faculty member of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia (1929-31). Młynarski would give Wiktor conducting lessons when the Łabuński family moved to Warsaw in 1918. His wife Wanda, whom he married in July 1920 at Warsaw's Church of the Visitation Sisters, and with whom he raised two sons Stanisław (b. 1922) and Stephen Bronisław (b. 1924), was also a pianist and gave lessons to students at the family's home. His sister-in-law Aniela was the wife of still another musical giant—pianist Artur Rubinstein.
A CHRONOLOGICAL BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
of Wiktor Łabuński's Professional Career
 Doll's Waltz Used by kind permission of Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne S.A., Kraków, Poland See larger image
 Autographed copy of Łabuński's Four Variations on a Theme by Paganini; courtesy of the Music Reading Room, Warsaw University Library. See larger image
During his career in North America, Łabuński performed in 25 American states and in Canada and was the featured soloist or conductor with the orchestras of Chicago (Grant Park), Cleveland, Kansas City, Knoxville, Memphis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Toronto and Tulsa. He gave over 200 recitals in Kansas City alone. In addition to the influential role he played in the lives of two generations of Polish and American classical musicians, Wiktor Łabuński also had a hand in training one of Broadway's most outstanding composers: John Kander. A Kansas Citian and the composer of the award-winning musicals Cabaret, Kiss of the Spider Woman and Chicago, Kander studied piano with Wiktor while he was in high school. In an interview for the Kansas City Star, Kander was quoted as saying, "Łabuński exposed me to a lot of music that I would have never heard, and he helped me to hear better."[33] Acknowledgements and Sources:
I would like to thank the following people for their assistance in helping me prepare this paper: the Kansas City Conservatory of Music graduates who so kindly shared their reminiscences about Wiktor Łabuński with me; Mary Beveridge, Manager of the Missouri Valley Special Collections at the Kansas City Public Library for sending me many photocopies of press clippings and programs from the Special Collections' Wiktor Łabuński File and the Kansas City Philharmonic scrapbooks; Laura Gayle Green, music/media librarian of the Music Library and Cynthia G. Edwards, Senior Archives Specialist, University Archives, University of Missouri-Kansas City; David Clark, Archivist, Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, Missouri; Marcia Crossley Whitcomb of Denver, Colorado for helping me solicit contributions for this article and for often being my personal Kansas City Conservatory resource person; Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne (PWM) in Cracow for permission to reprint Valse de la poupée; Ruch Muzyczny in Warsaw for the Łabuński photos; the Music Reading Room of Warsaw University Library for the autographed cover of Four Variations on a Theme by Paganini; Gino Francesconi, Archivist & Museum Director, Carnegie Hall, New York; Joanne M. Seitter, CA, Archivist, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia; Steve Sundell, Librarian, Mills Music Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Jane Thomas, Reader Service, Librarian, Belmont University, Nashville, Tennessee; Christopher Slavik, Archivist, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Carol Jacobs, Archivist, the Cleveland Orchestra; Gwen Pappas, Public Affairs Department, Minnesota Orchestra; Ellen Connolly, Executive Assistant, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra; John M. Hein, Head, Technical Services Division, University of North Florida Library, Jacksonville; Ronald A. Brown, pianist and former Łabuński student, for the hospitality shown to me while I was doing research in Kansas City; the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York, without whose financial help to research Polish composers who immigrated to the United States this tribute to Wiktor Łabuński would never have been possible.
Bibliography
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The first English edition of Grażyna Bacewicz's book of short stories about music and musicians, entitled Znak Szczegolny, has been published by Krzys Chmiel, under the English title A Distinguishing Mark. This book was published in Ottawa, Canada, with the help of Dr. Maja Trochimczyk, former director of the PMC. All proceeds from the sale of A Distinguishing Mark will be directed towards the Polish Music Endowment Fund, aimed at helping young musicians from the Ottawa region to learn about Polish Music. If you would like to purchase the book, contact 
