Minuet at Cecil Green

Cecil Green Park is the name of a magnificent old home on an equally magnificent property at the corner of Chancellor Boulevard and Marine Drive in the Point Grey area of Vancouver, British Columbia.
 
This beautiful house was magnanimously turned over to the university in 1967 and has subsequently been used for conferences, seminars and other public and private functions. Those directly connected with the university have first dibs for reservations, but with lots of lead time it is available to the public for weddings, receptions and other similar celebrations.
 
My wife and I were privileged to attend a wedding at Cecil Green where John, a handsome groom, and Louise Voiles, a stunning beautiful bride, exchanged vows in the estate's garden.
 
Following the ceremony, there was a champagne buffet in the Grand Hall, where we dined to the sounds of light classics played by a quartet – two violins, a cello, and a large grand piano – everything was perfect.
 
Did something go wrong? Not at all. But I learned some wonderful things that afternoon about the grand piano that Monica Pfau was playing, and something of its history.
 
Jan Ignancy Paderewski was born in Poland in 1860, and as well as becoming hiscountry's first Prime Minister, he is also remembered as an internationally-famous virtuoso pianist and composer.
 
Paderewski played in the opening season of Carnegie Hall in 1891 and along with New York and many other cities, Jan Ignancy Paderewski - surely a name that only a mother and perhaps a friendly critic could love! - also came to Vancouver.
 
As often happens with the best of pianists, Paderewski brought his grand piano with him. And at Vancouver, the last stop on the tour, after it had done yeoman concert service and been carried for many thousands of gruelling recital miles, the piano was put up for sale.
 
The buyer was the Marquess of Anglesley, who moved it to the Thompson Valley area of British Columbia, about 200 miles northeast of Vancouver, to a place called Walachin.
 
It was many years later that Vancouver's Dr. William Gibson initiated a drive to bring the Paderewski piano back to the city. Cecil Green Park was being refurbished in the mid-60's, and Gibson apparently coaxed or cajoled the residents of Walachin to entrust the piano to the University of British Columbia.
 
They did; it was brought to the coast, and remains today as an often used, wonderful piece of musical history in Cecil Green Park.
 
On his visit in 1891 to New York, he ended up as a guest speaker at a polo club. Slightly confused, he is alleged to have said: "You are souls who play polo, and I am a Pole who plays solo!" Beverley Sills told the story on the PBS broadcast that celebrated Carnegie Hall's 100th anniversary.

On another occasion, a young mother in some major  unnamed city had a dream and a wish that her young son might someday become a concert pianist. But her encouragement for him to practice, practice, practice fell on deaf ears.
 
"If only he could hear and see Paderewski play," she thought. "Perhaps it would inspire him."
 
As fortune would have it - forgive me, but it's a turn of phrase that's always used in stories like these - Paderewski came to town and the mother bought two tickets. On the evening of the recital, she dressed her son in his concert best and off they went to see the famous man play.
 
At the hall, distracted by the crowd, by friends and neighbors, she didn't see her son heading off to the stage, drawn to the shining piano that stood waiting to be played.
 
He climbed onto the huge bench and began to peck out the chords of Chopsticks,familiar to anyone who has even been close to a piano.
 
"Who's the kid?" someone yelled. "Get him off the stage!"
 
"Who'd bring a kid here anyway?"

In his dressing room, Paderewski heard the commotion and the music. He grabbed his coat and ran onto the stage. As he encouraged the boy to keep going, the Polish maestro engulfed him with his arms and improvised a spectacular accompaniment around the rhythm of Chopsticks' simple chords.
 
The crowd cheered and Paderewski and the boy proudly took their bows.
 
"Don't quit," whispered Paderewski. "Keep playing. Keep practicing. Be persistent."
 
I don't know whether or not that young boy ever made it to the concert stage. But I suspect that Paderewski's encouragement kept him going, and opened the doors that night to a new world of musical appreciation. If nothing else at all had come from that chance encounter, it still would have been a great, great gift.
 
I thought about all these things at the wedding at Cecil Green Park - seeing the young couple take their vows in the midst of all that beauty, hearing the music and knowing a little more about the piano, its history, and about the man who gave us delicate and beautiful 'Minuet in G' and left a piece of priceless history that would keep on making music for British Columbia and its visitors for many, many years.
 
I suspect that those of us who have been married for 25 years, or even 25 minutes, sometimes think we're as insignificant as Chopsticks on a concert grand, that the world tours and the curtain calls are being taken more often than not by people other than us.
 
We could think like that. Or we can think differently and hear Paderewski's encouraging words. Keep going. Keep on going. Don't give up.
               
We could think about the first Prime Minister of Poland and think too of the uphill battle of Lech Walesa, that country's newest Prime Minister. A new story of incredible persistence. Another Pole giving the world the same encouraging message.
 
When you come to Vancouver, and sooner or later everyone does, be sure to stop by Cecil Green Park. The folks there will make you very welcome.
 
Ask to see the piano. And maybe when no one is looking, you might peck out the chords of Chopsticks.