Chopin Society of Atlanta

H.M. Cauley
Atlanta Journal-Constution
Thursday, October 24, 2002

Pianist honors Chopin's legacy

There's something special happening within the two-story house at the end of the cul-de-sac off Morton Road in Alpharetta.

When the windows are open to the cool fall evenings, you're apt to hear the strains of a Chopin sonata drifting across back yards and realize there's musical magic inside.

The magician at the keyboard is Piotr Folkert, an award-winning concert pianist and recording artist who has performed around the world and has lived in Alpharetta since 1994.

Folkert, 39, has been playing since he was 5 years old growing up in a village near Krakow, Poland. His heritage introduced him to the works of the most famous Polish pianist, Frederic Chopin, whose works he will perform at the Roswell Cultural Arts Center on Nov. 2.

" Being a Polish pianist, Chopin's music is very special; his music is rooted in the Polish culture," Folkert said.

" No other music is more perfectly suited for a piano than Chopin's. Yet he only gave about 30 concerts in his life; he was very scared to perform."

Folkert, who gives about 50 concerts a year and practices up to eight hours a day on one of his three pianos, has no qualms about taking the stage Nov. 2, when his all-Chopin program will inaugurate the Chopin Society of Atlanta. The society is one of about 60 chapters worldwide and is headed by Folkert and his wife, Dorota Lato.

The idea for creating a chapter in metro Atlanta came to the couple after concerts Folkert performed in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics for Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and the Olympic Committee.

At some of those events, WABE Public Radio's assistant program director John Lemley read from Chopin's letters and introduced the music.

" It gave us the idea to present our culture to people here, and to make Chopin's music familiar to young students," Lato said. "We were encouraged by people who got to know Chopin's life and his letters."

The society also supports a school for young Polish musicians and raises scholarship funds for pianists interested in competing in the Chopin Competition, held every five years in Warsaw. The next competition is scheduled for 2005.

Plans also call for an exhibit of Chopin's life at the Roswell center.

For the upcoming concert, the center will be decorated with posters from the archives of the Chopin Society in Warsaw. Lemley also will attend.

" For a couple of years now, Piotr and I have presented recitals in which he performs some of Chopin's keyboard classics and I narrate with stories of the composer's life," Lemley said.

" With each recital, I'm more and more moved by Chopin's music and Piotr's ability to interpret the compositions. Hearing this music performed by such a talented artist who just happens to be from the composer's homeland is such a treat."

Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. concert are $25; seniors and students, $15 to $20. For more information: 770-594-6232.

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