Chopin. This is also my story

Great stories are written with micro-stories. The hundred years of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition are not only about the fortunes of its 20 past winners, or even the hundreds of participants – they are also, and above all, about the millions of memories and emotions of the audience. Those – committed, absorbed and fascinated – may measure time by successive editions. In the mass of these intertwined micro-stories, this celebration, which takes place every five years, takes on an almost mythical dimension and characteristics. The history of the Chopin Competition is a process, a becoming, and a kind of musical ritual. Each time, the Competition is reborn, it is a beginning, as in Rainer Maria Rilke's aphorism: “Don’t you see that everything that happens again and again is a beginning, [...] beginnings always have something so beautiful about them.” The Competition simply would not exist without all these micro-histories – that is why the stories we present here are a tribute to all listeners, its actual co-creators.

The protagonists of our short documentary films come from many different backgrounds and places, are of different ages and have varying musical backgrounds. They watch the Competition from the inside or follow it from afar. Some have been involved in many editions, while others have only just become associated with it. Each story is unique and moving, and in all of them we can find a reflection of our own experiences.

A young Japanese man living in Osaka is passionate about music and baseball – he listens to Chopin every morning before going to work. In the music he finds a breakaway from the hustle and bustle of the city – just like in the sound of the sea. He is fascinated by the opportunity for self-improvement that playing the piano and baseball offer. He is saving money to travel to Warsaw to see the Chopin Competition in the composer’s city.

Lucia, a pianist studying at the conservatory in Salamanca, rediscovered the meaning of her work and studies after visiting Warsaw for the Competition. Previously discouraged, she returned from Poland transformed, in love with Chopin. When she talks about it, she buzzes with energy and joy. “Chopin changes lives,” sums up one of her teachers.

And then there is Mr. Zbigniew, a farmer who listens to the Competition on the radio, in his tractor, during the October harvest. Chopin calms him down; it suits nature. 

Sawa, a Japanese student and translator, also associates Chopin's music with solace and nature – she turns to it when she needs comfort, and follows the Competition auditions online while walking in the park with headphones on. Sawa is studying Polish, among other things, so that she can talk to Poles about music. She believes that Chopin can bring people together, that his music “can add something special to the whole world, for example, love.”

This love is indeed mysteriously connected with the Competition, becoming the axis of subsequent stories. A married couple of Warsaw’s intellectuals, not musicians but music lovers, have built their own rituals around the Competition. They listen intently – on the radio but sitting in armchairs as if in a concert hall. They discuss and evaluate the pianists, with her particularly engaged in the interpretations and him having a great deal of respect and trust in her intuition.

For a pair of young volunteers working at the 18th edition of the Competition, it is literally a key part of their love story – it was then that they met and fell in love. When they signed up to volunteer, both of them – like the characters in the previous story – were not professionally involved in music but hoped to meet someone with whom they could talk about their musical interests, and they found the soulmates who would be most important for the rest of their lives. “People love and understand each other through Chopin,” wrote the aristocrat, writer, and traveller Astolphe de Custine in 1848, during the composer's lifetime.

Chopin can be identified with Poland – as in the case of Ms. Justyna, who moved to Cordoba years ago for her husband. For her, the Competition is a moment of relief from her nostalgia for her homeland. She cannot imagine life without this music: “If Chopin passes, the world will pass with him.”

Regardless of how long and how you have been involved in the Competition, you are its co-creator. And if you are encountering it for the first time, it is also your story, which is just beginning.
 
 The videos are available on the YouTube channel of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute.

Directed by: Bartłomiej Świderski
Cinematography: Tomasz Szołtys
Sound design: Jarosław Sadowski, inspire YOUR SOUND Studio
Production: ONTO Studio Kaja Nosal
Producer on behalf of NIFC: Aleksandra Włodarczyk
Sound on set: Janusz Dąbkiewicz, Piotr Lasota
Editing: Adam Janeczko