Chopin lovers can't meet their hero, but this pianist got to do the next best thing
The winner of the 2nd Frederic Chopin Competition on Period Instruments all but traveled through time to commune with the Romantic-era piano virtuoso and composer on the day marked as his birthday
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Pianist Eric Guo did everything but travel through time to commune with Chopin.
On March 1, the day celebrated as Frederic Chopin's birthday, the 21-year-old Canadian played one concert at the birthplace of the Romantic-era piano virtuoso and composer, on a piano built during his lifetime. Then he went into town for a second performance, during which he used a piano that once belonged to Chopin.
“You cannot get more connected to Chopin than being in his birth place,” said Guo.
A student at the The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Guo was invited to give the special performances to mark Chopin's 214th birthday after winning the second Frederic Chopin Competition on Period Instruments. He gave a pair of recitals on the day, one at the manor house in Zelazowa Wola where Chopin was born in 1810, now a museum, and the other at the National Philharmonic in Warsaw.
