I’m so excited to share a project I’ve been working on with one of my adult students for the past year! In the fall of 2022, I had all of my adult students working on concerto projects (played on two pianos). All of the students were preparing to perform their pieces and share a little about their composers with the group. Sheila’s piece was “Little Concerto in d minor” by Albert Rozin. We were surprised that there was almost no information about Albert Rozin on the internet. We found his name listed on a 1940 census and that was about it, along with a few published pieces that are out of print.
We decided to dig a little deeper to see if we could find out more. And we did! It’s a great story (more to come later) and it has kept both me and Sheila very engaged in the project for many months. Serendipty, happenstance, mystery, historical records, around 100 unpublished pieces (found in a barn, no less), new friendships, a trip to Philadelpia, zoom interviews with Albert’s son, grandson and a niece, articles written, family trees created, photographs gathered, a former colleague contacted (another story!), presentations prepared, a trip to the Library of Congress, communications with publishers, new music recorded, and a website created to share this information with the world—— all came out of this project. We want Albert Rozin to be remembered!
Albert Rozin wrote over 200 pieces, about half of which were published. We are sharing the unpublished pieces and those that we have been given rights to from the publishers. We are grateful to the publishers who are working with us to make these pieces available again. The compositions are mostly for intermediate level students though he wrote some pieces for beginners as well as some more advanced pieces including arrangements, and vocal and religious music. He delighted in writing pieces that would be appealing for students (of all ages) and put a lot of effort into matching the titles with the style of music he wrote. For example titles include Corn Chowder, Cherry Blossom Time, Snowflakes, Ping Pong.
I’m happy to announce that the website was published on August 21, 2023. We will continue to add music to the site over the next few months as we work with publishers and complete the engraving. Please visit albertrozin.com and explore his music and his life history. Pdf’s of the music are available for free.
