Ignacy Jan Paderewski

Ignacy Jan Paderewski (Polish: [iɡˈnatsɨ ˈjan padɛˈrɛfskʲi] ^ⓘ; 6 November [O.S. 25 October] 1860 [or 1859] – 29 June 1941) was a Polish pianist, composer and statesman who was a spokesman for Polish independence. In 1919, he was the nation's prime minister and foreign minister during which time he signed the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I.

A favorite of concert audiences around the world, his musical fame gave him access to diplomacy and the media, as well as, possibly, his status as a freemason, and the charitable work of his second wife, Helena Paderewska. During World War I, Paderewski advocated for an independent Poland, including by touring the United States, where he met President Woodrow Wilson, who came to support the creation of an independent Poland. Wilson included that aim in his Fourteen Points and argued for it at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, which drew up the Treaty of Versailles.

Shortly after his resignation from office, Paderewski resumed his concert career to recoup his finances, and rarely visited the politically chaotic Poland thereafter, the last time being in 1924.

Paderewski was born to Polish parents in the village of Kurilovka, in the Podolia Governorate of the Russian Empire. The village is now part of the Khmilnyk raion of Vinnytsia Oblast in Ukraine. His father, Jan Paderewski, administered large estates. His mother, Poliksena, née Nowicka, died several months after Paderewski was born, and he was raised mostly by distant relatives.

From his early childhood, Paderewski was interested in music. He initially lived at a private estate near Zhytomyr, where he had moved with his father. However, soon after his father's arrest in connection with the January Uprising of 1863, he was adopted by his aunt. After being released, Paderewski's father married again and moved to the town of Sudylkov, near Shepetovka.

Initially, Paderewski took piano lessons with a private tutor. At the age of 12, in 1872, he went to Warsaw and was admitted to the Warsaw Conservatory. Upon graduating in 1878, he became a piano tutor at his alma mater. In 1880, Paderewski married fellow conservatory student Antonina Korsakówna. Their son Alfred was born severely handicapped the following year. Antonina did not recover from childbirth, and died several weeks later. Paderewski opted to devote himself to music, and left his son to be cared for by friends. In 1881, he went to Berlin to study music composition with Friedrich Kiel and Heinrich Urban.

In 1884, a chance meeting with a famous Polish actress, Helena Modjeska, began his career as a virtuoso pianist. Modrzejewska arranged for a public concert and joint appearance in Kraków's Hotel Saski to raise funds for Paderewski's further piano study. The scheme was a tremendous success and Paderewski soon moved to Vienna, where he studied with Theodor Leschetizky (Teodor Leszetycki).

Paderewski dedicated three more years to diligent study, and a teaching appointment at the conservatory in Strasbourg which Leschetizky arranged. In 1887, he made his concert debut in Vienna, soon gaining great popularity, and had popular successes in Paris in 1889 and in London in 1890. Audiences responded to his brilliant playing with almost extravagant displays of admiration, and Paderewski also gained access to the halls of power. In 1891, he repeated his triumphs on an American tour. He toured the country more than 30 times for the next five decades and it would become his second home. His stage presence, striking looks, and immense charisma contributed to his stage success, which later proved important in his political and charitable activities. His name became synonymous with the highest level of piano virtuosity. Not everyone was equally impressed, however. After hearing Paderewski for the first time, when Paderewski was exhausted from his American tour, Moriz Rosenthal quipped, "Yes, he plays well, I suppose, but he's no Paderewski."