Chestnut Hill Press Creators

+ Idil Biret (b. 1941)

Idil Biret, born in Ankara, started to play the piano at three. At eight she commenced study at the Paris Conservatoire under the guidance of Nadia Boulanger, graduating at fifteen with three first prizes. She was a pupil of Alfred Cortot and a lifelong disciple of Wilhelm Kempff.

Embarked on her solo career at sixteen, she appeared with major orchestras in the principal music centers of the world—including Boston Symphony, Leningrad Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Symphony, and Warsaw Philharmonic—in collaboration with conductors of greatest distinction such as Erich Leinsdorf, Pierre Monteux, Hermann Scherchen, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Kazimierz Kord, and Antoni Wit.

To her many major festival appearances may be added the juries on which she has served for international competitions including the Van Cliburn, Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians, and Busoni competitions. She has received the Lili Boulanger memorial Award in Boston, the Harriet Cohen / Dinu Lipatti Gold Medal in London, the Polish Cavalry Cross of the Order of Merit, the Adelaide Ristori Prize in Italy, the French Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite and the State Artist distinction in Turkey.

Her more than one hundred LP/CD records since the 1960s include the first recordings of Liszt’s transcriptions of the nine symphonies of Beethoven; Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique; the complete piano works of Brahms, Chopin, Rachmaninov; the three Sonatas of Boulez; the Etudes of Ligeti; all the concertos of Hindemith; the Firebird piano transcription by Stravinsky; the piano compositions and transcriptions of her mentor Wilhelm Kempff; Beethoven’s 32 Sonatas and 5 Concertos, as well as recently recorded concertos of Grieg, Liszt, Ravel, Saint-Säens, Schumann and Tchaikovsky. Idil Biret’s complete studio recordings since 1959 were released in a set of 130 CDs in 2018.

Certainly one of the most gifted pianists of this century or the last, Idil Biret writes with great intelligence, insight, and sensitivity. Her memoir, Idil Biret Life and Music, will be a deep pleasure for lovers of memoir and music alike. Expect it to appear Summer 2023. Sign up for our newsletter to receive advance notice and a special pre-publication offer to enjoy our musicians, our writers, and our artists.

+ Nadia Boulanger (1887 – 1979)

Juliette Nadia Boulanger, a French music teacher, composer, and conductor, taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed as a pianist and organist. Boulanger was the first woman to conduct many major orchestras in America and Europe, including the BBC Symphony, Boston Symphony, and Philadelphia orchestras. She conducted several world premieres, including works by Copland and Stravinsky.

From a musical family, she achieved early honors as a student at the Conservatoire de Paris but, after the death of her sister Lili, she gave up composition and poured her tremendous energy into training and teaching three generations of outstanding musicians upon whom she had outsized influence. Among her many hundreds of students were Grażyna Bacewicz, Burt Bacharach, Daniel Barenboim, Lennox Berkeley, İdil Biret, Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, John Eliot Gardiner, Philip Glass, Roy Harris, Quincy Jones, Dinu Lipatti, Igor Markevitch, Astor Piazzolla, Virgil Thomson, and George Walker.

Boulanger taught in the US and England at music academies including the Juilliard School, the Yehudi Menuhin School, the Longy School, the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, but her principal bases were her family's flat in Paris and, in the summer, the French-American music school at the Chateau de Fontainebleau where she was a founding faculty member in 1921 and director from 1949 to 1979.

Nadia Boulanger is an exceptional prose stylist—elegant and subtle—when writing in French. Her writing in English in her four-decade correspondence with disciple Ruth Robbins is freer, bolder and more direct. Ruth Robbins herself writes with honesty, grace and humor. Two hundred and twenty-seven letters, exchanged from 1941 until Boulanger’s death in 1992, have survived. They reveal an intimate side of Boulanger never before seen. Nadia Boulanger: War Years in America and Her Last Decades publication date is Spring 2023. Order today for a pre-publication discount.

+ Şefik Büyükyüksel (b. 1944)

Şefik Büyükyüksel attended Roberts College in Istanbul, New Trier High School in Illinois, and is a graduate of Yale University. After serving in the Turkish army and a brilliant aviation career with Turkish Airlines and the Association of European Airlines he resigned his senior executive position to manage his wife Idil Biret’s career.

Şefik’s mother loved to play the piano, and he enjoyed listening. He took up piano with Rana Erksan and Verda Erman at the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory at the age of 5 after taking private lessons from soprano/pianist Gülten Tunceli. While at Yale he haunted Greenwich Village used record stores on weekends, and his room was a gathering place for classical music lovers. He even had a brief career playing the piano in the Catskills during summer vacations. In 1976, after a long courtship, Şefik married Idil Biret. He hasn’t touched the piano since. Why should he?

In the quarter century Şefik has been involved in the music industry, he has learned much about how the business side works. When you pull back the curtain, it isn’t pretty. Find out the real story behind classical music stardom in Şefik’s blog.

+ Paweł Ciach

I studied philosophy at Warsaw University, but as a free student, and later at the Polish Academy of Science. I am writing essays on philosophy for the Nowa Orgia Mysli/the New Orgy of Thoughts.

+ Ross G. Drago (b. 1941)

Ross G. Drago, a Berkeley California artist, is the founder of Energy Arts Studio where he has mentored scores of young artists over four decades. His ceramics, murals, constructions, oils and acrylics featuring energy symbols can be seen in public spaces throughout the Bay Area, and his works are in many private collections. Mr. Drago is also a prolific short story writer. In the fall of 2023, Chestnut Hill Press will publish a book of Ross Drago stories.

+ Alden Heck (b. 1945)

Alden Heck graduated from Sarah Lawrence College where she studied art and art history, then taught art at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia for forty years. She studied at the Académie Julian in Paris, then worked with outstanding mentors to acquire classical painting skills: still-life artist and master frame-maker Robert Kulicke in New York, and in Pennsylvania, representational artist Martha Mayer Erlebacher and art theorist Myron Barnstone. Her work has been exhibited for decades at the Rosenfeld Gallery in Philadelphia.

Trained in the traditions of European oil painters, she also finds find deep inspiration in the Japanese wabi sabi aesthetic, with its appreciation of minor details of life and insights into the beauty of inconspicuous and overlooked aspects of nature. “I am still on the path to perfecting my artlessness,” she notes.

Landscapes: Paintings by Alden Heck, a collection of some of her most subtle and elegant works, will be published in 2023. Sign up for our newsletter to receive advance notice and a special pre-publication offer.

+ George Heck (b. 1966)

George Heck is a professor of chemistry and physics at Arcadia University. He grew up in a family of artists and is an accomplished abstract expressionist himself. He also has a natural talent for realistic images, as evidenced in his magnificent illustrations in Aldek’s Bestiary. They give extra life to already lively stories. Be sure to order your copy today!

+ Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Benjamin Franklin was an American polymath: writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. A drafter and signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, he was the first United States Postmaster General.

As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove. He founded many civic organizations, including the Philadelplhia Library, Philadelphia's first fire department, and the University of Pennsylvania.

As the first United States ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation. Franklin defined the American ethos as a marriage of the scientific and tolerant values of the Enlightenment with the practical values of thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions, and opposition to authoritarianism both political and religious.

This is the spirit of Franklin captured by Romuald Roman in his Polish language book BENJAMIN FRANKLIN Radzi Jak Źyć [Benjamin Franklin Advises How to Live] written expressly to bring Franklin’s pragmatic idealism to the Polish people. Facing strong reactionaryism and authoritarianism in Poland today, Michał Kamiński, Deputy Marshall of the Polish Senate and an enlightened conservative, has given his imprimatur to the book in its back-cover blurb:

“The human and civic virtues of America 200 years ago are like those Kozietulski charged us with. Wise parables apply in any era. They can be useful today to readers along the Vistula River just as they were once useful to farmers on the Susquehanna. Even more, in this book Franklin’s great wisdom is delivered with great humor—that’s why I recommend it.”

Chestnut Hill Press will release softback edition this Polish language book November 15, 2022. A perfect gift for your Polish friends! Order yours now. For the hardback edition, currently available only in Poland, e-mail author Romuald Roman directly at aldekztatr@gmail.com.

+ James Whipple Miller (b. 1945)

The author of Nadia Boulanger: War Years in America and Her Last Decades, James Whipple Miller has a degree in Chinese from Yale, a comp lit PhD from Princeton, and was a professor of comparative literature and classical Chinese at UC Berkeley. His was editor-in-chief of Asian Humanities Press, then left book publishing to edit financial and technology publications in Silicon Valley. This led to a fat Rolodex (remember rolodexes?) of investors and technical innovators, in turn leading to decades in start-up business finance and directorships on many boards.

Free at last, he now invests his time in editing and writing projects that have absolutely nothing to do with finance, business, or Silicon Valley. Check out his first book since retirement, an account of the four-decade relationship between his aunt Ruth Robbins and the great master teacher, Nadia Boulanger. Order today for a pre-publication discount.

+ Joseph P. Lawrence (b. 1952)

Having grown up in a Catholic enclave in rural Kentucky, Joseph P. Lawrence taught philosophy for many years at a Jesuit College in New England, where he gained a reputation for his eloquence in the classroom. His primary scholarly contributions were to the study of German Idealism. His goal now, after retiring to France, is to bring philosophy to life through the simple art of telling stories, much as his father once did, back on the farm.

+ Ruth Robbins (1910-2005)

Ruth Robbins was a quiet and modest woman who led an extraordinarily rich inner life. She maintained a close relationship with her mentor, Nadia Boulanger, that is memorialized in the 227 letters between the women that have survived. Robbins’s letters to Boulanger were preserved by the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Center in Paris, while Boulanger’s letters to Robbins were discovered by her family in a wooden box on the bookshelf in the cottage where she died.

Robbins was born and grew up in rugged mining towns in Ontario where her father, who had been general manager of the DeBeers Kimberly mine, managed extraction projects for New York financiers before striking out to Kobuk, Alaska to open his own gold mine.

Her siblings were outgoing extroverts, adventurers, opinionated, and accomplished. Ruth was the quiet one, born in the wrong nest. Her interests were art and music, not flying airplanes or digging tunnels. Except for her grand-nieces who she adored, she had no close relationships with members of her family. She found true meaning in her life from her association with Nadia Boulanger. Nadia offered a vision of hope and growth to Ruth. “Between friendship and art,” Boulanger once wrote, “we will quickly find again the real meaning of life, its beauty and our love for it.”

Their correspondence reveals the classical philosophy Nadia espoused, her relationship with pianist Idil Biret, her take on the war between chaos and beauty; her faith in the spiritual experience accessible through music and ritual; and her time with Igor Stravinsky in California. But most striking is the depth of emotion, often subtly expressed. Nadia Boulanger: War Years in America and Her Last Decades will come out Spring 2023. Order today for a pre-publication discount.

+ Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)

Norman Percevel Rockwell was an American painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of the country's culture.

A prolific artist, Rockwell produced more than 4,000 original works in his lifetime. He also illustrated more than 40 books, including Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack. Chestnut Hill Press has licensed the Rockwell illustrations from Poor Richard’s Almanack for Romuald Roman’s book in Polish, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN Radzi Jak Źyć.

Norman Rockwell’s humorous and evocative illustrations, combined with the wit and wisdom of Benjamin Franklin’s writing, make a beautiful book that captures the spirit of American enlightened pragmatism for the Polish people. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN Radzi Jak Źyć presents a world view that can benefit all societies in conflict.

This book will make a thoughtful gift for your Polish friends. You can order the hardback edition for shipment to addresses in Poland from author Romuald Roman directly by e-mail at aldekztatr@gmail.com. A softback edition of this Polish language book will be released November 15, 2022. Place your order now for a special prepublication offer.

+ Romuald Roman (b. 1949)

Author Romuald “Aldek” Roman is a popular Polish writer whose work has never before appeared in English. A graduate of the Agricultural University of Cracow and Temple University in Philadelphia, Roman has been a naturalist in Poland’s Tatra National Park, mountaineer, teacher, skier, expert on industrial toxicity at the EPA, and UN consultant in Poland and Romania.

A member of London-based Związek Pisarzy Polskich na Obczyźnie (Association of Polish Writers Abroad), he has published seven books in Poland, two novels, four collections of short stories, and the just-released Benjamin Franklin Radzi JAK ŹYĆ.

Aldek’s Bestiary, with rave reviews from Booklife from Publishers Weekly (“a dynamic short story collection, heartfelt and inviting”) and Kirkus Reviews (“Lighthearted, displaying wry wit”) is already proving Romuald Roman knows how to tell great stories in English as well as Polish.

Since 1984, Aldek has resided in Philadelphia. He and his wife of 45 years, Jolanta, have three grown children: Katia, Matt, and Peter.

With two books appearing on our 2022 list, one in English and one in Polish, Romuald Roman is the man of the moment at Chestnut Hill Press. Don’t miss Aldek’s Bestiary, and don’t let your Polish friends miss out on BENJAMIN FRANKLIN Radzi Jak Źyć!