The world’s foremost Chopin authority died today, aged 100
mainProfessor Jan Ekier, pianist, composer and Chopin editor of the Polish National edition, died today, a fortnight short of his 101st birthday. His death has just been reported on Polish radio.
Jan, born August 1913, came eighth in the 1937 Chopin competition in Warsaw and made his name more as a scholar than as a performer.
He lived through Nazi occupation, Communism and rampant capitalism. I met him last summer at a conference for his centenary where speaker after speaker extolled his virtues and Jan seemed sweetly unmoved – except by the playing of music by Chopin, when he sat alert in his chair, following every note.
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