The official opening is to take place on Sunday, 27 December 2015 Melbourne at 2.00 pm in the Swanston Hall, Melbourne Town Hall, 90-120 Swanston Street, Melbourne.

The exhibition will be part of the biggest Australian Polish Arts Festival which is to take place in Melbourne between 27 December and 3 January. PolArt 2015 Melbourne will draw thousands of Polish Australians of various generations from across the country to celebrate the culture and heritage of their forebears.

The Exhibition “Mazurka under the Southern Cross” will be staged at the Melbourne Town Hall documenting the forgotten Polish Australian virtuoso Stanis³aw de Tarczyñski. He arrived in Australia in 1912 and quite rapidly made his mark on the musical and cultural landscape in Australia.

His achievements in Australia were remarkable. “It is very appropriate for this exhibition to take place in the Melbourne Town Hall,” stated Dr Helen Evert, President of the Polish Museum and Archives in Australia. “It was in this Town Hall that both Stanis³aw de Tarczyñski and his daughter Halinka had their most significant performances. It is unfortunate that they have been forgotten despite their contribution to both Australian and Polish Australian culture.” Dr Evert further added “As a historical organisation we are fulfilling our duty in restoring the memory of such significant people.”

His composition "Mazourka Melancolique" was published in 1915 and he edited Kayser Studies for Violin, opus 20. In 1922-36 he taught at the Melbourne University Conservatorium of Music and at the Albert Street Conservatorium. He was regarded as one of the best teachers in Australia: many of his pupils were to achieve distinguished positions in the world of music. Stanis³aw de Tarczyñski became the leader of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and virtually permanent leader of all touring opera companies in Australia and New Zealand which were associated with J. C. Williamson Ltd.

For five years from 1936 he was leader of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. He had close links with famous Polish musicians such as Paderewski, Huberman and Rubinstein who visited Australia. He had strong links with artistic circles in Melbourne including Max Meldrum and Justus Jorgensen (of Monsalvat fame) as his closest friends. Portraits of de Tarczyñski were included numerous times in the Archibald Prize while the portrait of Jadwiga de Tarczyñska by Max Meldrum can now be found at National Portrait gallery in Canberra.

The de Tarczyñski family were actively involved in promoting the Polish cause and culture in the period when there were few Polish people in Victoria. It was in their home in Mont Albert that the first Polish organisation in Victoria was formed in 1949. Stanis³aw de Tarczyñski’s daughter Halinka was a notable opera singer in her own right, performing both on stage and in radio in the 1940s and 1950s.

The Polish Museum and Archives in Australia was established in 1991 as an initiative of a number of people who saw the importance of collecting and preserving historical materials that reflected the individual and community life of Polish immigrants living in Australia.

For further information regarding the exhibition, please contact Dr. Helen Evert, the President of the Polish Museum and Archives in Australia by email everth@netspace.net.au or telephone (03) 9699-6322.