Thaddeus Kozuch - concert pianist, teacher, lecturer, scholar, composer ...
... a "Brilliant Piano Virtuoso"
Thaddeus Kozuch piano recordings
Performances from 1947 to 1991
Welcome to the official Music Artist Portfolio of concert pianist, teacher, lecturer, scholar, and composer Thaddeus Kozuch. Completely American-trained, the young Thaddeus quickly became known as a musical prodigy, performing many challenging works at a maturity level far beyond his age. Over a career of 70+ years Kozuch's performances have been heralded by commentators and enthusiastic music lovers of all ages. Upon hearing the young lad perform Chopin, Artur Rubinstein commented that Thaddeus possessed "a rare talent and maturity". Vladimir Horowitz also noted that Kozuch had "fabulous fingers, great dexterity".
More information about Thaddeus Kozuch may be found on the BIO page.
Mission
This was long overdue
In the last century, Thaddeus Kozuch was an example of one of the great "unknown" Americans and concert pianists of his generation. This situation simply needed to be rectified ... therefore, our website was born (in May of 2021).
These recordings and editing were initially done to honor our father. Upon reflection, however, the work needed to be done for even more important Chicago historical, musical, and archival reasons and also on behalf of Chicago's Polish-American community.
The website is especially created for Classical piano music lovers and piano performance historians everywhere. Thanks to the many advances in communications via the internet, what in the past was known only to the fortunate few ... will now become universally available.
Our mission goals are to:
● continue adding content and more great recordings to the website
● promote the website online and with various organizations
● create Youtube links for convenient worldwide access
● donate the website to a new organization (yet to be selected)
Enjoy ! and thank you ...
... Jon Kozuch, with my sister Ann and help from our extended family.
PS - If desired, we will email you when more music content is loaded.
Recording technology
The recordings presented on this website were made from Thaddeus Kozuch's concert recitals and his Chicago home studio.
Thaddeus Kozuch was a Professor and head of DePaul University Music School's piano department, where he taught and performed often for nearly 30 years. Unfortunately, the DePaul faculty recitals were not recorded regularly, and those few recital recordings that were given to Mr. Kozuch are extremely distorted with very poor audio quality. All remaining DePaul recordings were (sadly) discarded when the university music school moved to its new Chicago campus.
In light of this situation, Kozuch's son Jon began making concert and studio recordings in the later years. Works recently discovered from a 60-year old 1963 reel-to-reel tape made by a friend of the family are being edited to correct audio pitch dropouts in order to properly match the piano's tuning. The ThaddeusKozuch.com website now contains the first of these, Kozuch's only recordings of several Chopin Etudes. The sound quality is acceptable, given the poor quality of the original media. There are also a good number of 1947 disc transfers of works that best illustrate Kozuch's early performances (Hint: check out the incredible 1947 Prokofiev 6th sonata recording).
Before 1970 recordings were done on an Ampex reel-to-reel tape recorder. The recordings starting in 1970 were done with a Revox studio quality tape recorder using a Dolby-B noise reduction unit and two Sony condenser microphones. In the 1980's a Sony DAT tape recorder replaced the Revox/Dolby combination still using the same condenser microphones. In the 1980's a VHS video camera was used, and later a VCR with Hi-Fi sound. In the mid-to-late 1990's, with the advent of digital audio and video data streaming formats and their storage on computers, all recordings were digitized and placed on a network server using lossless audio methods.
Thaddeus Kozuch
... Brilliant Piano Virtuoso
Pianist Thaddeus Kozuch has always been musically gifted and a brilliant virtuoso. From a young age Thaddeus performed a variety of works at a very advanced technical and musical level. Over the years, critics and audiences alike have been amazed by his superb technique and fleeting finger work.
Beyond purely technical facility, Thaddeus Kozuch's Chopin musical interpretations have become known as a particular specialty and highlight of his career. Kozuch has been recognized as a scholar, educator and deeply thoughtful performer of Frédéric Chopin's works and many other composers.
ThaddeusKozuch.com Latest Updates
Website history including new uploads of video and recorded audio performances.
Thaddeus Kozuch MUSIC news
9/11/2023 Scarlatti - Keyboard Sonatas uploaded under the 'S' menu tab.
8/29/2023 Chopin - Etudes (newly found 1963 studio tape recordings) uploaded
8/27/2023 Mozart - Fantasy in C minor uploaded
June 11, 2023 Footsteps CD (2002) uploaded - Debussy, Brahms and Chopin - by Thaddeus Kozuch.
4/05/2023 VIDEO uploaded - Albéniz Iberia Book 2 (Triana)
4/04/2023 VIDEO uploaded - Albéniz Iberia Book 1 (El Puerto)
4/04/2023 VIDEO uploaded - Albéniz Iberia Book 1 (Evocación)
3/20/2023 Smetana - Bohemian Dance and Polka [from 1968 DePaul recital] uploaded
3/12/2023 VIDEO uploaded - Ginastera Sonata 1 Opus 22
3/07/2023 VIDEO uploaded - Robert Muczynski Preludes Opus 6
3/07/2023 VIDEO uploaded - Chopin's Mazurka Opus 41 No. 2 in E minor
3/05/2023 VIDEO uploaded - Ravel's Habanera
3/05/2023 VIDEOs are now located in the corresponding composer sections.
9/29/2021 Chopin - Scherzo #2 Opus 31 uploaded (1986 concert performance)
9/28/2021 Chopin - Preludes Opus 28 (complete) uploaded
9/13/2021 Chopin - "Heroic" Polonaise Opus 53 uploaded
8/19/2021 Szymanowski - Mazurkas uploaded
8/19/2021 Wieniawski - Kujawiak uploaded
8/18/2021 Lecuona - Gitanerias uploaded
8/18/2021 Prokofiev - The Love for Three Oranges March uploaded
8/15/2021 Chopin - Polonaise Opus 26 #2 uploaded
7/26/2021 Chopin - Ballade#1 sound glitch fixed
7/04/2021 Chopin - Etude uploaded
7/04/2021 Chopin - Impromptu uploaded
7/02/2021 Russell Wood - Sonata & Waltz uploaded
7/01/2021 Concert Miniature (1947) 78's uploaded
6/18/2021 Ravel - Prelude, Habernera, La Valse, Alborada... uploaded
6/17/2021 Debussy - Preludes uploaded
6/15/2021 Chopin - Ballades uploaded
6/11/2021 Chopin - Nocturnes uploaded
(5 works in 8 recordings)
6/09/2021 Chopin - Mazurkas uploaded
(15 in group1, 12 in group2 same works)
5/18/2021 Chopin - Etude & Nocturne VIDEOs uploaded
5/15/2021 Brahms - multiple uploads
5/12/2021 Beethoven - multiple uploads
5/09/2021 Bartok - Sonata uploaded
5/03/2021 Thaddeus Kozuch website launched with just a few Albeniz recordings and limited narrative.
Thaddeus Kozuch SUBSCRIBER news
FUTURE subscriber news will be in a new, yet to be installed BLOG.
September 2021 - Ginny, a student of Thaddeus Kozuch, is now a subscriber
August 2021 - Ema is our first Serbian subscriber
June 2021 - Mark is our first Florida subscriber
May 2021 - Larry is our first world sailor & subscriber
May 2021 - Kathryn is our first Texas subscriber
5/24/2021 - Lisa was our very first subscriber !
Thaddeus Kozuch WEBSITE news
9/11/2023 Menu item for Scarlatti was added under the 'S' menu tab.
3/20/2023 Additional menu tabs have been added at the top of each page.
2/28/2023 Some website links were not working. They have been corrected.
September 2021 - Chopin Ballades are now in 2 collections of recordings
8/18/2021 - St.Cecilia Grand Rapids correctly identified for 10/03/1986 concert recordings.
June 2021 - Narrative improvements
6/09/2021 - UPDATES page added
6/08/2021 - Composer(s) new pages added
5/31/2021 - BIO new page added
5/15/2021 - PICTURES pages added
5/03/2021 - Website launched - with just a few recordings and limited narrative.
Thaddeus Kozuch HISTORICAL news
Thaddeus Kozuch was a Polish-American patriot. Information about his involvement with Polish and American organizations will be added in this section.