In 1939 Kozuch competed against 30 pianists in a contest conducted by the Adult Education Council in collaboration with the Society of American Musicians, winning first prize and the privilege of a performance at Orchestra Hall in Chicago in a 1940 weekly series, along with some of the great pianists of the day, including Gitta Gradova, Rudolph Serkin, Walter Gieseking, Artur Rubinstein, and Alexander Brailowsky.  This award recognized that Thaddeus Kozuch had achieved the highest ranks of piano performance, and with this success launched his professional career.