The Project is a tribute to Jane Stirling, who preserved the legacy of Frédéric Chopin. Not many seem to know that it was she who provided help for Chopin in the ultimate years of his life. Alas, Chopinologists may have been too interested in the often more passionate relationships our Great Romantic maintained with his female admirers. Consequently, little has been heard of his Scottish benefactor, who seems to have successfully evaded the limelight and so undeservedly fallen into oblivion. The project is an attempt to bring these facts to light so as to do justice to the woman who "saved Chopin".
For the involvement of Miss Stirling in helping her teacher and friend did not end with the death of the composer. It continued after 1849, clearly indicating how genuine and sincere her loyalty and commitment to Frédéric Chopin had been. After all, it was Jane Stirling who helped to organise and finance the
famous transportation of Chopin's heart from Paris to Warsaw, performed
by Ludwika Jędrzejewiczowa - Chopin's sister. It was Jane W. Stirling
who purchased many Chopin-related artefacts and handed them over to his
family, including his piano, exhibited now in the Frédéric Chopin Museum
in Warsaw. And it was she who tended the memory of
Chopin after his death.
It is a travesty of historical justice that these facts have fallen into oblivion.
Artistic events organized as part of the Jane Stirling Project include piano concerts, photographic exhibitions, as well as poetic-narrative concerts held in Scotland and Poland.
The Project is intended to artistically commemorate the woman who did so much for Frédéric Chopin and who received so little in return. Following the success of An Evening with Jane Stirling performed in Poland and Scotlands in 2016, this seems to be the best and the most appropriate reparation there is to redress the neglect suffered by Chopin's greates benefator. The Project will raise awareness of Jane Stirling's unconditional friendship and unprecedented loyalty to this Great Romantic.
As part of the Jane Stirling Project, more than thirty events have so far been organized, which included piano recitals as well as poetry recitals, readings from the letters of Frédéric Chopin, and photogragraphic exhibitions.
