Jan Ignacy Paderewski
This Wednesday, 30 June, marks the 75th anniversary of the death of Ignacy Jan Paderewski, a Polish pianist, composer and statesman. At this occasion an open-air musical marathon has been scheduled along the so called Royal Route in the centre of Warsaw’s Royal Route, with a big number of performances and films about Paderewski.
After Poland became an independent country in 1918, Paderewski served, for a brief period in 1919, as Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister. He signed the Treaty of Versailles. At the beginning of World War II he fled to the United States where he died in 1941, aged 81. Following a decision by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he was buried at Arlington Military Cemetery in Washington. In 1992 his remains were transferred to Poland and buried at St John’s Cathedral in Warsaw.
