Pianist Brian Ganz Will Complete His Quest To Play All Of Chopin's Music This Month at Strathmore

Pianist Brian Ganz will conclude his 16-year journey to perform every work composed by the legendary Fryderyk Chopin on Saturday, April 11, at 7:30 p.m. at the Music Center at Strathmore (5301Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, Md.). Included on the full program will be masterworks such as the great Barcarolle, Op. 60 and the intimate Berceuse, or "Lullaby," Op. 57, as well the recently discovered Waltz in A minor, found in 2024 by a Yale School of Music alum in the Morgan Library in New York City. At the start of the program, Ganz will receive a prestigious Polish cultural award, most recently awarded to the American filmmaker Martin Scorsese for his contributions to Polish film. 

Ganz began his quest to perform all 240 of Fryderyk Chopin's works at the Music Center at Strathmore in 2011. After the inaugural recital, The Washington Post wrote: "Brian Ganz was masterly in his first installment of the complete works [of Chopin]." “Chopin's music is the language of my soul, and I have dreamed since childhood of someday performing all of his works,” said Ganz. 

At the start of the April 11 concert, a senior Polish Embassy official will present Ganz with the Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis. This is one of Poland's most prestigious cultural honors, reserved for individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the arts or the promotion of Polish culture. Last year's recipient was the legendary Martin Scorsese, who was awarded the medal for his contributions to Polish cinema. “I am incredibly honored to receive this award,” Ganz said, “and will cherish it always.”

This final performance will include the following Chopin works: his final essays in the nocturne and mazurka genres, Opp. 62 and 63, respectively; Waltz in A minor, Op. Posth.; Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor, Op. 39; 4 Mazurkas, Op. 67; the youthful Rondo in C major, Op. 73 (version for solo piano); Andantino in G minor (after the song Wiosna); Sostenuto in E-flat major; the Barcarolle, Op. 60; and the Berceuse, Op. 57. Rounding out the program will be little the known gems Album Leaf in E major, Galop Marquis (a work inspired by George Sand's pet dog) and the short but passionate waltz recently discovered in the Morgan Library. 

In 2010, Ganz visited Poland, invited by the renowned conductor Mirosław Błaszczyk to play with the Filharmonia Śląska and Filharmonia Pomorska. Visiting Chopin's home country affected Ganz profoundly. “Chopin is Poland's national treasure. His face was pictured everywhere, sometimes with no name under it and no caption of any kind. It is almost as if he is the air people breathe. This was profoundly satisfying to me, because he has always been the air I breathe,” Ganz said. “I visited the church where his heart lies in Warsaw. I visited the monument where outside concerts take place under a graceful, sweeping statue of him. I took a taxi to his birthplace in Żelazowa Wola. The whole experience was a pilgrimage for me.”

Ganz's Chopin inspiration started at the age of 9 when he began to study the piano. In an article about Ganz's quest to perform Chopin's complete works, the Baltimore Sun wrote about an experience he had a few years after his lessons had begun: “Ganz found himself alone at home one day listening to Chopin's Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Opus 23. Something in the piece struck Brian Ganz like a bolt from stormy skies.” Ganz recounted that moment, saying, “How can it be so beautiful that it hurts? That was the moment that I like to say Chopin wounded me.”

Ganz has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, The National Philharmonic, the Baltimore and the National Symphonies, the City of London Sinfonia, and L'Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo. He has performed in many of the world's major concert halls and has played under the baton of such conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pinchas Zukerman, Jerzy Semkow and Yoel Levi. He is Artist in Residence and is on the piano faculty at St. Mary's College of Maryland. A critic for La Libre Belgique wrote of Ganz's work: “We don't have the words to speak of this fabulous musician who lives music with a generous urgency and brings his public into a state of intense joy.”