Brian Ganz of Silver Spring says he immediately fell in love with the works of renowned Polish composer Frédéric Chopin when he began playing the piano at age 9.
His passion turned into a quest to perform all 250 of the composer’s works—a goal that began in 2011 and continues Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in The Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda.
“Chopin is the music of my soul,” Ganz, 63, said Thursday. “His music stirs something at the very deepest level for me.”
In 2010, Ganz said he made a “pilgrimage” in 2010 to Warsaw, Poland, where Chopin was from and where his heart is buried separately from his body.
Chopin feared being buried alive and asked that his body be cut open before being buried and his heart be sent over to Warsaw, according to reporting from The New York Times.
“Visiting his homeland was a way of feeling his presence in a way that I had never done before,” Ganz said. “He’s very much the spirit of Poland, and you would often look up there and see pictures of him without even any captions, so it’s clear that everybody knows who he is and knows what his picture represents.”
Ganz began his journey of performing all 250 works in January 2011 with a sold-out performance at Strathmore in partnership with the National Philharmonic, according to a news release.
For his 13th performance, Ganz said he has saved Chopin’s “most challenging and technically difficult works” as well as “his most hummable,” according to a news release. After Saturday’s concert, Ganz said he has two more performances at Strathmore to finish his quest.
Tickets for the show range from $19 to $99. Admission is free for concert goers ages 7 to 17 and there is a 20% discount for military veterans.
Ganz said that when he first performed at Strathmore, it was the largest venue in which he had ever performed. He has been in awe of the venue in every performance since.
“It was absolutely thrilling and the thrill has never left me,” Ganz said.