Tuesday, June 16 at 4:00pm | Hormel Innovation Stage
This year’s lecture with Prof. John Rink invites audiences into one of the most fascinating corners of Chopin’s creative world: the little‑known ossias—alternative passages that Chopin wrote directly into the scores of his students and colleagues. Far from being mere variants, these substitutions reveal how Chopin expected performers to shape, adapt, and even reinvent his music in real time. Drawing on newly published research, the lecture explores what might be called “the art of substitution”—a window into Chopin’s own improvisatory imagination. Attendees will discover how these annotated alternatives illuminate the fluid, evolving way Chopin conceived his works, and how modern performers can use editions such as The Complete Chopin or the Ekier/Kamiński editions to engage more creatively and authentically with his music.
Open to all, this session promises to reshape how listeners and performers alike understand Chopin—not as a composer fixed on the page, but as an artist who embraced flexibility, spontaneity, and expressive freedom.
