Ignacy Paderewski

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PADEREWSKI - 'His Life was a Symphony'

by Christopher M. Wright

Fifteen-year old Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941) (pronounced 'pad-e-ref-skee') was broke, hungry and alone in St. Petersburg, Russia, far from his home in Poland, with winter coming on. He had gone on his first concert tour, performing in summer resorts with two friends. As summer drew to a close, the crowds thinned out and the friends had sense enough to go home.

Paderewski finally wrote his father asking him to send money for the trip home. When the money arrived, the pig-headed boy pressed on to St. Petersburg, dreaming of great triumphs there. His luggage and money were stolen! Now what? He was rescued by a kind plumber who took him in off the streets where the youth surely would have frozen to death.

A few days later, a letter from his father arrived at the St. Petersburg Post Office with more money for the trip home. His father had a dream in which he saw his son cold and hungry, wandering the streets of St. Petersburg. He sent money to St. Petersburg, hoping against hope that the boy was there and could be found.

Paderewski learned his lesson, though. He returned to music school in Warsaw, Poland, crammed a year and a half's worth of study into the next six months and graduated at the top of his class.

This was just the first of many achievements to follow. He became a superstar concert pianist in America. He went on 20 tours, giving 1,500 concerts for over 5 million people while criss-crossing the country in his private Pullman railroad car. He was a composer, with his 'Minuet in G' learned by thousands including the young Harry S. Truman who went on to become President of the United States. Paderewski used his fame to fight for Polish independence at a time when most people thought Poland had stopped existing 150 years before. Poland had been conquered and divided three ways between Russia, Germany and Austria. Paderewski, more than anyone else, kept the dream of Polish independence alive and made it a reality following World War I.

The same strong will that helped him graduate at the head of his class also launched his concert career. His first teachers told him he would never be a good pianist. He kept going, however, until the great pianist Anton Rubinstein heard him play and encouraged him to continue. When he was 24, Paderewski studied with the famous teacher Leschetizky, known for producing students with a beautiful singing tone at the piano. The great teacher told him at first he was too old for a concert career. Some years later, Paderewski injured his right arm playing a concert. Today we would call this a 'repetitive motion injury'. The tendons were torn bad enough that he could no longer move his fourth finger. He thought his career might be over but he changed the fingering in his concert pieces and kept going until his arm got better.

Paderewski's determination and drive come through in his comments about the value of hard work. He wrote that he was "always struggling for perfection, pushing on and on to that ever-receding faraway peak of attainment. All work is like that.... The summit of the mountain is always farther and farther away."

The First World War broke out in 1914. Germany and Russia fought battles on Polish territory. Many Polish people were starving. They needed food, clothing, shelter and other relief. Paderewski said, "My country before everything else. After that - art."

He turned his estate in Switzerland into a refugee shelter. He donated money to Polish relief efforts. He helped organized an army 100,000-strong of Poles and Polish-Americans to fight on the side of the United States and its Allies. He came to America to raise more money. He did this by scheduling concerts and talking to his audiences about Polish relief during the war and the need for Polish independence after the war.

He told audiences that Poland shared the same ideals of freedom and democracy as the United States. He said that Poland held free elections of its leaders as early as 1573. He finished these appearances by playing the spirited music of Chopin, Poland's most famous composer.

He held talks with many government officials about Polish independence and won them to his cause. When the war was over, the Allies made Poland a free country. Paderewski, now known as the 'Lion of Poland', became the country's first Prime Minister.

Paderewski died in 1941 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery just outside of Washington, D.C. because Poland had once again been conquered by Germany in 1939. By 1992, Poland was free again and Paderewski's remains were moved from Arlington to his native land. At the ceremony, the first President George Bush said

"God gave Paderewski extraordinary talents, and he was generous in their use. He brought the beauty of classical music performances to hundreds of thousands of listeners around the globe. He shared his financial success with charities and with patriotic causes. He took a leading role in Poland's struggle for freedom. And indeed, more than anyone else, he was responsible for President Wilson's including Polish independence among his Fourteen Points for peace following the First World War. During the period of independence that followed, he put his talents for statesmanship into practice as Poland's Prime Minister. His life was truly a symphony."

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