The grand finale of the 2025 Cultural Season is behind us!

Last weekend, we hosted two concerts from the nationwide “Chopin en Vacances” festival. One took place at our Temple of Art and Light: the Pearl, while the other took place within the walls of the Monastery of Souls! Curious about how this all came about?

Thanks to the efforts of our “Your Heritage” (Twoje Dziedzictwo) Foundation, we managed to invite the nationwide festival, which has been run for years by the “Ziemia Dobrzyńska” foundation, to both of our venues, along with four amazing classical music recitals, mainly by Fryderyk Chopin.

The four pianists playing with us, though young, are world-class talents. Besides, participating in the Chopin competition requires considerable virtuosity, and this is precisely the league in which they perform. Antonina Waliszewska, Piotr Lara, Yehuda Prokopowicz and Andrzej Wierciński are in a class of their own.

How did it work? The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland, through the National Institute of Music and Dance, contributed to the costs of the artists’ fees by awarding the “Dobrzyń Land” a grant to organise this year’s festival. Since the grant covered only half of the festival’s total costs, the remaining portion was covered by the festival’s partner institutions, which hosted individual concerts. In the case of the concerts at our venues, this was covered by the Your Heritage Foundation, based on invoices issued by the “Dobrzyń Land.” Although these are considerable costs, thanks to you, our Pearl (and slowly emerging Monastic) Audience, and your support for our cultural activities, this was possible. You are wonderful and deserve cultural events like these and even better!

We sincerely thank our partner for Sunday’s concert – the Municipality and City of Nowogrodziec for providing accommodations for the representatives of the “Ziemia Dobrzyńska” Foundation and one of the pianists, as well as a delicious dinner before the concert! Special thanks to the MUZA Culture and Art Center for providing chairs and benches in our monastery, and to our club member Celestyna from Nowogrodziec for delivering them safely to the venue.

But all this might have been insufficient if Messrs. Bogdan and Wojtek hadn’t saved the monastery stage at the last minute! A stage for a concert grand piano must be large, level, and stable—a grand piano weighs over half a ton, sensitive to the slightest tilt. These two friends of ours—residents of the community and members of the Your Heritage Club—were finishing setting up the stage while the piano was already waiting to be unloaded! Almost at the last minute, a level, stable, and tidy stage was created. Gentlemen! Hats off to you!

A special stage also had to be prepared at the Pearl – after all, the Steinway-D concert grand piano was also arriving there. The giant, significantly larger than our resident grand piano, required a much larger space than before. The stage was created by our Founder and the good spirit of the Pearl, Thinloth Korwin-Szymanowska. How such a petite girl can instantly build and level such a sandstone stage remains an unsolved mystery. Although Thinloth has been enchanting in this way since the very beginning of the Your Heritage Foundation, proving that the impossible is quite possible, both on a small and large scale, acting physically, designing, planning and setting the course for the Foundation.

Speaking of the piano, renting the pianos for both concerts was a significant challenge. In both venues, it had to be at least a Steinway-D, which is expensive to rent and incredibly expensive to buy. Our partner for Saturday’s concert at Perła, the Bolesławiec Commune, came to our rescue by covering part of the grand piano rental costs. Thank you! Together we can do even more!