Marketing the maestro
A statue of Chopin in a Warsaw park - one of the many images of the composer scattered around the city.
Photo: Patrick_f (flickr)
Frederik Chopin's name is synonymous with musical genius, uplifting piano pieces...and, now it seems, babies' bottoms. Warsaw has gone Chopin-crazy over the 200th anniversary of the composer's birth, coming up with some unusual ways of celebrating the art and life of its favourite son.
The Polish capital is pulling out all the stops to promote itself as the "City of Chopin " during the year-long festival marking the composer's 200th brithday
As you might expect, images of the composer are appearing on posters all over the city and a multitude of concerts are scheduled. But visitors may soon have to battle past benches playing Chopin's music, piano key zebra crossings and Warsaw toddlers covered in Chopin-branded baby rompers as the marketing campaign goes into overdrive.
Head of Warsaw City's Promotion Office Katarzyna Ratajczyk explains that they are exploring all possible avenues in an attempt to make Chopin the musical hero of the city, the same way most people connect the city of Salzburg with Mozart.
The promotional drive has left some critics are wondering whether online games, Chopin lollipops and casts of the composer's nose are really the best way of commemorating the life and work of a musical genius, but Ms Ratajczyk disagrees. "I think these kind of ideas can help us bring him more down to earth, because actually it's very difficult to talk about Chopin to people who normally do not listen to his music,” she says.
The promoters even have ambitious plans to instil a love of Chopin in those citizens that have not even been born yet. Expectant mothers all over the city will be getting an extra gift this year when their baby arrives - a romper suit from the city authorities, brandishing an epitaph to Chopin: “Varsovian by birth, Polish by heart, and citizen of the world by talent.”
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