September 1848. The window to his room presents a most beautiful view of the „Sterling Castel”. He is a great pianist and Jane Stirling knows it only too well. Happy to host Chopin this rainy summer in her native Scotland, she realises Frederic feels most comfortable at her uncle’s Keir House north of Stirling. She wishes so much that he would visit her in her family residence – Kippenross – just a few miles away.
The 2017 edition of the Jane Stirling Festival included several events organized in April in Scotland and in May in Poland. Below you will find more detailed information on the organized events as well as photographs illustrating what really happened during the concerts.
On July 15, 2016, Stiring’s Holy Trinity Scottish Episcopal Church and its community witnessed an unprecedented event. A Kraków trio under the banner of the AboutProject.com performed what they proudly call An Evening with Jane Stirling to celebrate the 212th Anniversary of the birth of this Scottish heroine – Frederic Chopin’s pupil and friend. The next day they repeated the performance in Dunblane Cathedral – the presumed resting place of Chopin’s benefactor.
The story of how Jane helped Chopin in the last years of his life and he dedicated several nocturnes to her. Jane’s family and other local families gave money towards building the church. Now, almost two centuries later, all the connections are coming together for the special performance.
It was in 1848 that Dunblane-born Jane Wilhelmina Stirling took Frédéric Chopin to Scotland. Bankrupt and terminally ill, he had nothing to lose. Instead, he thought to earn a few pounds and hundreds of new admirers. Prosperous and apparently infatuated, she had a lot to give: her support for this Great Romantic and her pure admiration for his music.
Capture this very moment by watching some of the Nocturnes performed by Anna during An Evening with Jane Stirling that took place in the Jagiellonian University’s Collegium Maius on 23 April 2016. Anna had the privilidge to play on the grand piano that belonged to Jane Stirling – the piano that Chopin most likely played on during his stay in Scotland in 1848.
Jane Stirling’s grand piano – the nineteenth century Pleyel on which Frédéric Chopin played during his stay in Scotland in the fall of 1848 and on which he placed his dated signature a day before his last concert in Guildhall in London – was brought to life last Saturday. The musical revitalization came from Anna Dębowska – the pianist, on a daily basis employed as Assistant Professor at Kraków’s Academy of Music.
The worse the dress rehearsal, the better the final gig – goes a popular saying. Following this thread of reasoning, one could say that the preview performance of „An Evening with Jane Stirling”, which took place at Kraków’s Academy of Music on 16 April 2016, is a harbinger of a real run of success.
An Evening with Jane Stirling We proudly present our official trailer of „An Evening with Jane Stirling”. The event entitled „Chopin the Ungrateful” is a tribute to Jane Stirling and includes narration by Marek Kucharski, illustrated with photographic and video material, readings of Chopin’s letters and music of Chopin’s works performed live by Anna Dębowska. […]
Chopin the Ungrateful: A tribute to Jane W. Stirling We have just begun collecting material for a new project. This time we will attempt to identify the links which Fryderyk Chopin had with England and Scotland and show that we owe galore to this very soil. The project consists of two parts. One part is going […]