Jan Kiepura (1902–1966)

Table of his career:
 

16.05.1902       Born in Sosnowiec

1912 - 1916      Business school (His education was interrupted by the First World War)

1916                Member of the secret Polish Military Organisation (Polska Organisacja Wojskowa)

1916                Member of the Free School for Officer Cadets (Wolna Szkoła Podchorążych)

1919                Member of the I. Beuthen Artillery Battalion (I pułk Strzelców Bytomskich)

1919                Takes part in the First Silesian uprising (He was wounded and returned home)

1920                Takes part in the Second Silesian uprising

1920                Returns from the front

1921                A-levels in Sosnowiec

1921                Starts a course of law at Warsaw University

1921                Begins singing lessons under Prof. Wacław Brzeziński

1924                Engaged in the choir of the Warsaw Opera

1924                 Exmatriculated from his course of law at Warsaw University

1925                First public appearances in Lemberg, Poznan and Warsaw

1926                Engagements in Vienna, later Paris and Milan

1927                Recitals in Kraków, Warsaw and Breslau

1930 - 1937      Various films in Germany

1936                Marries the actress and singer, Marta Eggerth

1938                Engaged by the Metropolitan Opera in New York

1940                Emigrates to America

1953                American citizenship

1948 - 1954      Lives in Paris, appearances all over Europe

1965                Guest appearances in Cologne and West Berlin (The Merry Widow)

1966                15th August. Jan Kiepura dies as a result of a heart attack in Harrison (New York)

Additional information:

In 1935 Jan Kiepura gave a recital at the opening of the German-Polish Institute at the Lessing College in Berlin. Joseph Goebbels applauded him from the first row of the audience and directly after the performance he was given a hearty handshake by the Reichsminister Hermann Göring. In the 1930s there were no limits to Germans’ enthusiasm for Jan Kiepura, both amongst the folk and those in power. This changed dramatically shortly before the start of the Second World War.

The Viennese were always enthusiastic fans of Jan Kiepura, and have remembered him with gratitude in their own particular way. One of the streets in the 14th district of Vienna (Hütteldorf) was named “Jan-Kiepura-Gasse” on 12th May 1975

One of the European night express trains run by Polish Railways from Warsaw to Amsterdam via Germany, is called “Jan Kiepura”.