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POL- AM NEWS
NEWS BRIEFS FROM POLAND
POLISH MEDALS
Polish cross country ski champion Justyna Kowalczyk,
27, won silver in the individual sprint at the
Vancouver Winter Olympics on February 17. She
then took third place for the bronze in the 15km
race on February 19. This was her second medal
in Vancouver. Then, on February 27, the 16th day
of the Olympics, Kowalczyk narrowly surpassed a
Norwegian competitor by .03 second to win the
gold in the 30km mass start cross-country race
with a magnificent effort as they crossed the finish
line. The spectacular victory presented Poland
with its first gold for a woman in Winter Olympics,
giving Kowalczyk a full set of gold, silver and
bronze in 2010.
Adam Malysz took second place in ski jumping on
the normal hill for the silver on February 13, 2010,
falling short of earning his first Olympic gold. He
jumped 103.5m and 105m in his two tries. The 32-
year-old Pole is a four-time individual world champion,
a four-time overall World Cup winner and
took bronze on the normal hill in 2002. Malysz
also came in second in the large hill ski jump competition
on February 20, 2010, at the Winter
Olympics in Vancouver, jumping 137m and
133.5m in the two rounds. The silver medal
awarded at Whistler Olympic Park, where the ski
jumping competition took place, is the fourth
Olympic medal in Malysz’s career and his second
in Vancouver. He took home a silver and bronze
from the Games in Salt Lake City in 2002.
It was a surprise to many sports analysts when
Polish skaters won another bronze, taking third
place in the team pursuit during a race with the
U.S. team on February 27, a day before the
Olympics would end. The team was composed of
Katarzyna Wozniak, Katarzyna (Wojcicka) Bachleda-Curus
and Luiza Zlotkwowski.
Poland’s six medal tally this year is the best performance
ever by Polish athletes in the Winter
Olympics. Poland won two medals in 2006 and
two in 2002. In 1972, Wojciech Fortuna trumped
Malysz’s achievements by winning Poland’s only
gold medal in the games, in the large hill ski jump.
Poland also won two medals in 1960 and one in
1956.
SIBERIA DEPORTATIONS
ON ANIMATED FILM
Polish organizations across the country received
preliminary information in February, 2010,
about a new animated film, “A Trip to Nowhere,” a
30-minute documentary about the deportations of
Poles to Siberia during WWII and the political
events surrounding that time in history.
Spearheaded by the Polish Ladies Auxiliary of
Seattle, this film is intended to fulfill a lifelong
promise made by the ladies themselves to bring
this tragic and secret part of history to the forefront.
Afraid to discuss their pasts until the early
1990s, the ladies share their stories of survival,
courage and heartbreak through candid interviews
and vivid, animated recreations.
Created by deportation survivors, the film is intended
to engage a variety of age groups. Thus
far, there have been successful screenings on the
East Coast and Seattle. The producers look forward
to making a DVD and illustrated book available
to Polish organizations for purchase,
fund-raising and private screenings in Spring,
2010. Both film and book will be available in Polish
or English.
The film was written, directed and illustrated by
Shannon Hart-Reed. It was produced by Grazyna
Balut Ostrom & Martha Golubiec.
Additional information can be obtained at
or by e-mail to
.
CHOPINʼS 200TH
The 200th anniversary of Fryderyk [Frederick]
Chopin’s birth is being celebrated all over the
world and the following are just some highlights.
The of Chopin’s music are reverberating from the
chateau of his French lover to Egypt’s pyramids
and even into space.
“Fryderyk Chopin is a Polish icon,” said Andrzej
Sulek, director of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in
Warsaw. “In Polish culture there is no other figure
who is as well-known in the world and who represents
Polish culture so well.”
Historical sources suggest two possible dates of
Chopin’s birth, either February 22, as noted in
church records, or March 1, which was mentioned
in letters between him and his mother and is considered
the more probable date. Since no one is
sure, Poland and other nations marked both. A series
of concerts in Warsaw and Zelazowa Wola,
the composer’s birthplace, took place over the intervening
eight days featuring such world-class
musicians as Daniel Barenboim, Evgeny Kissin,
Garrick Ohlsson, Martha Argerich and Krystian
Zimerman.
A marathon 171-hour concert of Chopin's music
tuned up in Warsaw February 22. More than 250
musicians and singers played night and day over
the 171 hours spanning the gap between the two
possible birth dates. Over the week spanning February
22 to March 1, the Warsaw Philharmonic
also held daily concerts devoted to Chopin.
The astronauts who blasted into orbit on the Endeavor
space shuttle February 8 carried with them
a CD of Chopin’s music and a copy of a manuscript
of his “Prelude Opus 28, No. 7,” gifts from
the Polish government. The Endeavor commander,
George Zamka, who has Polish roots,
told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) ahead of his
trip to the International Space Station that listening
to Chopin in space would enhance the majesty
of the cosmos.
Chopin was the theme of the annual traditional
ball at Vienna’s State Opera held February 12,
2010, and broadcast by Austrian Television. Ballet
stars from Warsaw and Vienna danced to
Chopin’s “Scherzo in B minor” performed by the
Polish pianist Krzysztof Jablonski, a prizewinner
at the Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in
1985. Jablonski also performed Chopin’s “Waltz in
D flat major,” accompanied by students of the
Opera’s Ballet School.
The London Symphony Orchestra performed in
the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall on February 16,
and, of course, added Chopin’s “Piano Concerto
in F minor” to its program. Sixty one year-old
American pianist Emanuel Ax was soloist. He was
born in Lviv [Lwow] and as a boy lived in Warsaw
with his parents for two years. The concert was
organized by the National Fryderyk Chopin Institute
and the Beethoven Association.
London’s Kings Place hosted a series of events
and concerts exploring the legacy of Fryderyk
Chopin, concluding on March 13. The series, entitled
“Chopin Unwrapped,” focused on a composer
who, as the event’s website says, “possessed an
unrivaled knowledge of the piano and its possibilities,
was a great innovator, and exercised a decisive
influence on composers […] well into the 20th
century.” The event included Chopin’s complete
solo piano works in a series of ten recitals.
After having spent the first 20 years of his life in
his homeland, Chopin left just before the November
1830 Polish Insurrection against Tsarist Russia.
Initially he lived in Vienna before moving to
Paris, where he died at the age of 39 on October
17, 1849.
US TROOPS IN POLAND
The New Poland Express reports that American
soldiers could soon be calling Poland home after
President Lech Kaczynski ratified an agreement
allowing for the deployment of US troops on Polish
soil.
Under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA)
up to 100 American servicemen and women, the
first foreign forces to be based in Poland since the
departure of the Red Army in the early 1990s, will
come to Poland next month in order to man a battery
of Patriot missiles.
The presence of the missiles have raised concerns
in Russia, especially as they will be located
about 100 kilometers from the Russian border, although
Bogdan Klich, Poland’s defense minister,
has said the location has “no strategic or political
significance”.
Russian grumbling and unease over the presence
of US troops right next door could also increase
after the Polish government decided to agree to
the stationing of US interceptor missiles as part of
new missile shield designed to ward off attack
from “rogue states”.
The Polish government has said that it accepted
the “signing of a protocol modifying the accord
signed by the Polish and American governments
on the installation on our territory of anti-ballistic
missile interceptors concluded in Warsaw on August
20, 2008.”
Warsaw stressed that “in line with the new concept,
the system is primarily to guard against Iranian
short and medium range missiles by using
existing defense systems.”
The new system replaces the original Bush-era
missile shield envisaged in the agreement, which
was cancelled by President Barrack Obama after
fierce criticism from Moscow, which had condemned
it as security threat.
Prepared and Distributed by the Polonia
Media Network and other sources.
SOKÓŁ POLSKI—POLISH FALCON APRIL 2010 PAGE 25