Did you know there’s a Frederic Chopin Elementary School in Chicago? It’s a magnet school for the fine and performing arts, serving grades K-8. Its auditorium sports two WPA murals painted by Florian Durzynski in 1940, inspired by the lives of Chopin and Stephen Foster. The school has one of the city’s largest orchestras. More than 90 percent of the students live below the poverty line.
Here’s one of Chopin’s etudes, or studies, performed by Yuncham Lim – the Etude Op. 10, No. 8, which bears the nickname “Sunshine.”
Happy birthday, Chopin!