An Evening of Czech and Polish Chamber Music
The Czech and Polish Honorary Consulates of Washington state invite you to an evening of classical music from Central Europe. Slavic Postcards is a musical journey from Warsaw to Brno and Prague, and on to Cape Cod. Each piece is a postcard sent home from a different time and place.
November 21st, 2026 at 7-9:30pm
Kirkland Woman's Club - 407 1st St, Kirkland, WA 98033 (map)
Tickets
- $30 general admission, $15 students
- Purchase tickets here
The Program
Door opens 7 pm
From Poland 7:30 pm
- Frédéric Chopin: Variations for Flute and Piano in E major
- Witold Lutosławski: 3 Fragments for Flute and Piano
- Wojciech Kilar: Sonatina for Flute and Piano
Intermission 8 pm
From the Czech lands 8:20 pm
- Leoš Janáček: March of the Bluebirds
- Antonín Dvořák: Romance in F minor, Op. 11
- Bohuslav Martinů: First Sonata for Flute and Piano
The Music
The evening opens with a young Chopin. Before he became the poet of the piano, the teenage composer wrote a lively set of variations for flute and piano on an aria from Rossini’s opera Cinderella. Two 20th-century Polish voices follow. Lutosławski, one of the great modernists of his era, wrote his Three Fragments as music for radio plays. Kilar, known worldwide for his film scores to The Pianist and Dracula, wrote his Sonatina early in his career, before turning to film.
After the intermission, we travel to the Czech lands. Janáček’s playful March of the Bluebirds opens the second half. Dvořák’s lyrical Romance in F minor comes next; it grew out of one of his early string quartets. The evening closes with Martinů’s First Flute Sonata, written in 1945 on Cape Cod while the composer lived in exile in America. It is a postcard from the New World that still sounds unmistakably Czech.
The Performers
Gosia Szemelak-Pellant began her musical journey at the age of nine. Three years later, at the age of twelve, she took up the flute, which soon became the primary focus of her musical studies.
Throughout her musical education, Gosia successfully participated in international competitions and masterclasses, studying with renowned flutists including Peter-Lukas Graf, János Bálint, Łukasz Długosz, and Wil Offermans.
Her principal flute teachers included Cezary Traczewski at the Karol Szymanowski Secondary Music School in Wrocław, Poland, followed by Professor Kazimierz Moszyński and Dr. Wiesław Suruło at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków, Poland, where she earned her master's degree in flute performance.
In 2023, Gosia made her international solo debut performing Mozart's Flute Concerto with the North Idaho Philharmonia Orchestra in the United States.
In 2024 and 2025, she served as principal flutist with the China Vienna Orchestra, touring extensively throughout China. In 2026, she performed in a concert series in Nagoya, Japan, honoring the memory of Shinya Koide, former principal flutist of the NHK Symphony Orchestra.
Beyond her performing career, Gosia is the founder and organizer of the North Idaho Flute Festival, an initiative dedicated to celebrating the flute and fostering musical growth and community. She remains active as both a performer and teacher, sharing her passion for music through performance, education, and collaboration.
Yuchen Qi is a current Doctor of Musical Art student in the University of Washington School of
Music studying with the famous American pianist Robin McCabe, where he is also serving as the teaching assistant of the UW secondary piano.
Yuchen earned his bachelor of art degree, piano performance centered, summa cum laude at the Beijing Normal University, and his master of piano performance degree at the Indiana University Bloomington Jacobs School of Music in 2024 studying with Professor Evelyne Brancart and Professor Gregory Sioles, both of where he had accumulated plenty of solo performance and chamber music experiences in his future endeavors.
As a young pianist, Yuchen has performed in Germany, Austria, China, Hong Kong, the United States and many other places. In 2017, he was invited to perform a solo piece at the European Times Vienna Chinese Cultural Center. In 2018, as an outstanding student representative of the Music Department of Beijing Normal University, he visited the University of Northem Colorado, where he studied with pianist Mr. Lei Weng and performed the first movement of Chopin Piano Sonata No.2 at the student recital. In 2021, he successfully had a solo recital in Beijing Normal University.
His master degree recital in Jacobs School of Music in 2024 and his first doctoral solo piano recital in University of Washington in 2025 had received universal recognition.
During his studying and performing career, he had won numerous av,ards. In 2018, he won the second prize in the 20th Hong Kong-Asia Piano Open Competition. In 2021, he won the second award in the global final of the SIP C Singapore International Piano Competition. In 2023, he got the offer with scholarship from the Orford Music Academy.