2023 KF Annual Fundraising Gala Dinner & Dance

Dear Members and Friends of the Kosciuszko Foundation,

Please come and have fun with us at the 2023 Annual Fundraising Dinner & Dance Gala

on December 2nd at the Mayflower Hotel.

The KFDC will host and honor two talented brothers: Oscar-nominated filmmaker Jan Komasa and opera singer Szymon Komasa.

This year, besides the annual award celebrations with dinner, an artistic program by Szymon Komasa, and a short Chopin performance by pianist Brian Ganz, we will also open a dance floor for our guests!

Jan Komasa is one of the best Polish film directors, screenwriters, and younger-generation producers. His film Corpus Christi (Boże Ciało) was nominated for an Oscar in 2019. He is also known for films like Suicide Room (2009), Warsaw 44 (2014), and The Hater (2020).

Suicide Room (2009) premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2011 and became an instant success. Jan Komasa was awarded with the Polish Film Award for Discovery of the Year and Best Editing along with FIPTRSCI at the International Festival of Independent Cinema Off Camera, Best Film and Best Score Award at the Giffoni Film Festival, the Silver Lion at the Gdynia Film Festival, Best Polish Film award at the MTV Movie & TV Awards, Best Film at the Stockholm International Film Festival, Best Film at the Geneva International Film Festival, Best Debut Film at the New Horizons Film Festival, and several others.

His huge box office success came with a blockbuster he wrote and directed – an epic period film, Warsaw 44, which depicts the tragic story of young people fighting in the Warsaw Uprising. The film premiered at the Busan Film Festival, won Golden Lions for Best Actress, Best Sound, and Best Special Effects at the Gdynia Film Festival, received the Polish Film Award for Discovery of the Year, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, and Best Film Award at China’s Golden Rooster & Hundred Flowers Film Festival.

His social thriller, The Hater, portraying a manipulative anti-hero, was selected for the International Main Competition at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival. The film won the Best International Narrative Feature award, and Netflix acquired world rights to the film.

Corpus Christi, inspired by real-life events, a story about a young man experiencing a spiritual transformation, had its world premiere at the 76th Venice International Film Festival. At the 22nd Polish Film Awards, it won in eleven categories, including Best Film. It also earned four nominations at the 33rd European Film Awards and was nominated for Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards.

Currently, Jan Komasa is making his debut in Hollywood with a thriller entitled Anniversary, with an all-star cast: Diane Lane (Man of Steel), Kyle Chandler (The Wolf of Wall Street), Madeline Brewer (The Handmaid’s Tale), Zoey Deutch (Before I Go), Phoebe Dynevor (The Bridgertons), Mckenna Grace (Ghostbusters: Legacy) and Daryl McCormack (Good Luck Leo Grande).

The filmmaker describes Anniversary as “an intimate project with the most personal nightmare.” The film, set in a near dystopian future, is about a family falling apart due to a new movement /social virus called Changes, taking over the United States.

The screenplay, based on an original idea by Jan Komasa, was written in collaboration with Lori Rosene-Gambino.

Jan Komasa is a lecturer at the National Film School in Łódź and an expert at the Polish Film Institute. He frequently participates in academic events such as panels and symposiums at notable universities, including USC, NYU, Columbia, Cambridge, Oxford, Warsaw, and Toronto. He has been a jury member at many festivals, including Geneva, Barcelona, Warsaw, Kraków, and recently at the Berlinale Shooting Stars 2023.

Szymon Komasa is one of Poland’s most talented singers (baritone). He performs in various opera houses in Poland and abroad. In addition to classical opera parts by such composers as Mozart, Bellini, Donizetti, or Verdi, the artist sings parts in operas by contemporary composers such as Korine Fujiwara and Paweł Mykietyn. He also proves his extraordinary performing talent in a much lighter repertoire, singing songs from the famous Cabaret of Older Gentlemen or from the repertoire of an acclaimed Polish pre-war vocalist, Mieczysław Fogg.

Szymon Komasa started learning music at the age of seven by playing the cello. “I’ve been crazy about singing since I was a child, so much so that in elementary school, I pretended to be sick just to stay home and play records at full volume and sing along,” says the singer in an interview with the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza.

In 2004, he began his studies at the Vocal and Acting Department at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. Afterward, he began postgraduate studies in opera singing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Then, he continued his singing studies at the prestigious Juilliard School of Music in New York (Artist Diploma of Opera Singing in the singing class of Edith Wiens).

The singer is also a graduate of the G. and K. Bacewicz Academy of Music in Łódź, from which he graduated with honors.

Szymon Komasa made his debut as Schaunard in La Bohème at the Teatro Filharmonico / Arena di Verona in Italy (2009).

He is the winner and laureate of numerous international vocal competitions, including BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, International Singing Competition V. Dunne, and the International Singing Competition named after G. Lissner.

He has appeared on the stages of opera houses in Poland, USA, Italy, Germany, England, and Austria. He gave vocal recitals at Carnegie Hall (USA) and Wigmore Hall (England). In 2015, he was nominated for the “Polityka Passport” award.

In 2019, his debut album (together with pianist Oskar Jezior), Polish Love Story, was released and was nominated for the Fryderyk 2020.

The album includes songs by Fryderyk Chopin, Stanisław Moniuszko, Stanisław Niewiadomski, Mieczysław Karłowicz, Grażyna Bacewicz and Witold Lutosławski.

“I wanted the listener to know who I am – an ordinary boy who just sings; the song is the most intimate form of connection with the recipient” – says Szymon Komasa.

Szymon Komasa will give a short recital during the Gala.

Brian Ganz is widely regarded as one of the leading pianists of his generation. A laureate of the Marguerite Long Jacques Thibaud and the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium International Piano Competitions, Mr. Ganz has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the St. Louis Symphony, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Baltimore Symphony, the National Philharmonic (USA), the National Symphony (USA), the City of London Sinfonia, and the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra. He has performed with such conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Mstislav Rostropovich, Piotr Gajewski, and Yoel Levi.

The Washington Post has written: “One comes away from a recital by pianist Brian Ganz not only exhilarated by the power of the performance but also moved by his search for artistic truth.”

Brian will give a short Chopin recital during the Gala.

Please join us!

Tickets: $350

Purchase tickets online HERE

Until November 10th, Gala guests may book rooms at the Mayflower Hotel at a discounted price HERE