Marjan Kiepura
American Record Guide
Since the launch of his successful Chopin CD entitled, Images of a Homeland, pianist Marjan Kiepura now has a significant YouTube following.
Born in Paris, he grew up in the United States where he was accepted to the Juilliard School Preparatory Division. He studied with Jeaneane Dowis and later coached with Menahem Pressler. Although Marjan's repertoire has included composers such as Mozart, Schubert, Bartok, his development as an artist has led him to focus on the music of Frederic Chopin.
He has given concerts in the U.S. and Europe of this composer's works. His own Polish ancestry has made Chopin a favorite choice of repertoire.
Highlights of appearances include the International May Festival in Wiesbaden, Germany, London's Royal Festival Hall in their Foyer Concert Series, the Bibliotheque Polonaise in Paris, the Jecklin Forum in Zurich, Dartmouth College, MIT, the Bruno Walter Hall at Lincoln Center, the Kosciuszko Foundation, the 92NY in New York and London's St. John's Smith Square concert hall.
Marjan was particularly proud to perform in a special concert honoring his late father, the Polish tenor, Jan Kiepura, at the Warsaw Opera and where he accompanied his late mother, the Hungarian soprano, Marta Eggerth. For a time Marjan toured with his mother in Europe and the USA performing Lieder repertoire by Franz Liszt, Zoltan Kodaly and Frederic Chopin as well as operetta composers, for which Ms. Eggerth was renowned including Franz Lehar, Leo Fall, Richard Heuberger and Robert Stolz.
He has also given solo recitals in Vermont, New Hampshire, Virginia, Miami, Chicago, London, Germany and Poland.
Marjan Kiepura's debut Chopin CD has received superb international reviews including Amazon, American Record Guide, BBC Music Magazine, Pianist Magazine in London and music journals in the USA, Great Britain, Holland, Austria and Poland. The CD has been aired on radio stations across the United States such as New York's WQXR, Vermont Public Radio, Connecticut's WMNR, Indiana Public Radio, New Jersey's WWFM's hosted by piano expert David Dubal, New England Public Radio; and London's BBC Radio 3. Separately, Marjan has produced and presented radio programs on Frederic Chopin.
In April of 2023, Marjan wrote a feature article on the historic background and performance practices of Chopin's mazurkas for Britain's Pianist Magazine and he was added to the biography section of the National Institute of Frederic Chopin in Warsaw.
Among other appearances, on March 28, 2024 Marjan gave a symposium on Chopin's mazurkas for the Graduate Level Piano Literature course at the Manhattan School of Music. He performed mazurkas and expounded on the history of Poland at the time of Chopin, and how this influenced his music and mazurkas styles.
Marjan Kiepura & Jane Knox-Kiepura
Referred to as the "Guardian of the Heritage" by critic Glenn Loney of The New York Theater Wire; Marjan has embarked on a second career to preserve the legacy of his famous parents. He and his wife Jane have produced CD reissues and have given presentations for the Ohio Light Opera company, New Rochelle Opera Company, the Dutch Treat Club, Sundays at JASA programs, 92NY, the Leo Baeck Institute and the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York. Marjan has produced radio programs on his parents focusing on their opera, operetta and film careers. In this connection he was named a member of the International Advisory Board for the Loren L. Zachary Society for the Performing Arts.
The University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna hosted a major exhibit on his celebrated parents, Marta Eggerth and Jan Kiepura, as part of their "Exil Arte" exhibition honoring those artists who were victims or had to flee as a result of the rise of Nazism. In May 2022, Marjan appeared in Vienna at the "Exil Arte" exhibit where he performed and narrated a program on his parents together with his wife and family archivist, Jane Knox-Kiepura.
Marjan lives with his wife Jane Knox-Kiepura in Littleton, New Hampshire and New York City.