Frederic Chopin’s birth 200 anniversary

Year 2010 is the Frederic Chopin’s birth 200 anniversary. There will be a celebration of Polish and world culture. On this occasion, on this page will soon be available to buy a professional set of photographs depicting places related to Fryderyk Chopin. Photos will have unlimited licence to their publication.

Subscribe to our newsleter to receive e-mail with information about the set. For all newsletter subscribers, the set will be available in the promotional price.Frederic Chopin was born in Zelazowa Wola in Mazovia, where his father – Nicolas – was a tutor in the manor of Count Skarbek. The exact date of birth of the composer is not known, according to the family tradition the boy was born on March 1, but the parish documents say February 22, 1810.

Frederic Chopin – Images by Mike Napartowicz

Frederic’s father – Nicolas Chopin – was French. He came to Poland at the age of 16 and settled here. He was a French teacher and tutor. Frederic’s mother – Justyna born Krzyzanowski – being a very musical person looked after children and was their first piano teacher. Frederic had three sisters: the eldest, Ludwika and two younger, Izabella and Emilia.

A few months after their son was born Nicolas was offered a job as a teacher at the Warsaw High School and the Chopin family moved to Warsaw, Here, in the centre of artistic and academic circles around the University of Warsaw, the personality and creative character of the composer was formed.
The Chopin’s carefully nurtured their Polish traditions. The circle of their friends, representatives of the Warsaw intelligentsia, enlarged with each new post Nicolas held. They ran a boarding house for wealthy young people studying in Warsaw, and this brought them into contact with an interesting social life. As a result, Frederic who was young and curious about his world, Frederic traveled a great deal around Poland.

Frederic, called Frycek at home, revealed his musical talents very early – he played pieces for four hands with his older sister Ludwika and he improvised and composed for the piano. His first composition was the Polonaise in B-major. At the young age of 6 the boy started regular piano lessons with Czech teacher, Wojciech Zywny. This was also the time of Frederic’s first public performances in the parlors of the aristocracy and at charity concerts, and he became a particular artistic feature and attraction at these occasions. His education continued at the Warsaw High School then at 16 at the Main School of Music. At that time Frederic was greatly influenced by folk music. He graduated in 1829 with excellent grades from his Professor, Jozef Elsner who wrote: ‘remarkable talent, musical genius’.

In October 1830 Frederic Chopin gave his last concert (though he did not know it) in front of a Warsaw audience. On November 2 he left Poland for Germany and Austria. In autumn 1831 he arrived in Paris, where he settled. Here he led the active life of composer, pianist and teacher, quickly gaining European-wide fame. He was a very sociable person. He was friends with musicians of his generation – Francis Liszt and Vincenzo Bellini, and knew Gioacchino Rossini and Felix Mendelssohn – Bartholdi. He traveled a lot – to give concerts and discover the world. But amongst all this he was always in contact and maintained strong relations with Polish emigres.
Frederic Chopin died on October 17, 1849. He was buried in the Parisian cemetery of Pere-Lachaise, but the composer’s heart, according to his last wish, returned to Warsaw where it rests in the Church of the Holy Cross on Krakowskie Przedmiescie St.

Living in the epoch of Romanticism, among people who envisioned a free Polahd, free of foreign rule, Frederic Chopin, expressed profoundly through his music, the pain, despair, heroic moments and longing for his homeland, the beautiful Polishlandc scapes and the sufferingihisnaifgn was undergoing. Chopin’s ‘music has a distinct Polish character and is the symbol of the national culture of this country.