Richard J. Codey and Mary Jo Codey, HONORARY CHAIRS OF 2010 PROGRAM
Distinguished legislative leader and former Acting Governor Richard J. Codey and Mary Jo Codey have been in the forefront of acknowledging mental health issues and advocating effective public policy to address these needs.
Read recent interviews of Senator and Mrs. Codey conducted by NAMI Mercer here.
Dr. Richard Kogan, psychiatrist and concert pianist will perform the works of Frédéric Chopin and discuss the healing power of music in the composer’s life. Concert at 3:00 p.m. at the Music Building, The College of New Jersey, Ewing.
Silent auction and gala reception at 5:30 p.m. at Eickhoff Hall. Proceeds will benefit NAMI Mercer’s free education and support programs. Watch for further details here!
Program Details:
The program commemorates the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth. "Chopin was a genius of universal appeal”, said Arthur Rubinstein, one of the 20th century’s greatest pianists. “His language is the universal language of human communication."
According to Dr. Kogan, Chopin’s life is an excellent demonstration of the healing power of music. An exile for his entire adult life, Chopin coped with his homesickness by composing music reminiscent of his beloved Poland (75 of his surviving 230 works are Polish mazurkas and polonaises).
Although sickly, Chopin filled his music with tremendous power and vigor. In response to Russia’s occupation of Warsaw, Chopin wrote in his diary: “The enemy is in the house…I here, useless! And I here, empty-handed. At times I can only groan, suffer, and pour out my despair at my piano!” These outcries of a tormented heart found musical expression in his Scherzo in B minor and "Revolutionary Étude."
Frédéric Chopin was born in Poland in 1810 to a French father and Polish mother. Early in his young life, he exhibited his gift at the piano, playing for the aristocratic families of Warsaw at the age of six. He had a polonaise published when he was only seven, played for the Grand Duke Constantin at 10, and for the Tsar at 15. From the ages of 16 to 19, he studied at the Warsaw Conservatory.
After giving two big concerts in Warsaw at which he introduced his two piano concertos, Chopin left for Vienna in November 1830, where he learned about the failure of the Warsaw uprising. He made his way to Paris where other Polish émigrés took refuge. Chopin never saw Poland again. It is said that wherever he went, he carried a cup of Polish soil with him.
In Paris, Chopin preferred performing for small gathering rather than large audiences. Because of his popularity, he was able to earn a good living from teaching piano to both rich young ladies and serious students. His music sold well, and from 1833, it was published simultaneously in England, France and Germany.
Chopin never married but had a long, turbulent relationship with the famous French writer George Sand (Baroness Dudevant).
After suffering from tuberculosis for many years, Chopin died at the young age of 39. He was buried in the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, but it is said that, in accordance with his wishes, his heart was removed from his body and taken back to Warsaw by this sister.
During his brief life, Chopin created approximately 80 opuses including 58 mazurkas, 26 preludes, 21 nocturnes, 20 waltzes, 17 polonaises, and 27 etudes. He is perhaps most famous for his etudes that combined technical challenge with musical substance and emotion. Chopin’s first set of études, Op.10 (1830-32) and their sequel, Op. 25, were powerfully poetic pieces that set the standard for modern piano technique.
Richard Kogan
Richard Kogan has had a distinguished career both as a concert pianist and as a psychiatrist. The Boston Globe wrote: "Kogan has somehow managed to excel at the world's two most demanding professions."
A graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, Harvard College, and Harvard Medical School, Kogan completed his psychiatry residency and an academic psychiatry fellowship at New York University. He currently has a private practice in psychiatry in New York City and is affiliated with Weill-Cornell Medical School as co-director of its Human Sexuality Program.
As a musician and scholar, Kogan has gained renown for his presentations that explore the influence of psychological forces on the creative output of composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Bernstein, and Gershwin. Winner of the Concert Artists Guild Award and the Chopin Competition of the Kosciuszko Foundation, Kogan also received the 2005 Artsgenesis Creative Achievement Award. He frequently performs with world-famous cellist Yo Yo Ma, who was his roommate at Harvard.
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Frédéric Chopin was born in Poland in 1810 to a French father and Polish mother. Early in his young life, he exhibited his gift at the piano, playing for the aristocratic families of Warsaw at the age of six. He had a polonaise published when he was only seven, played for the Grand Duke Constantin at 10, and for the Tsar at 15. From the ages of 16 to 19, he studied at the Warsaw Conservatory.
