Albert Rozin (1907-1987) was a talented and dedicated composer, pianist, organist, and piano teacher. However, prior to this year, there was almost no information about him on the internet. In the fall of 2022, NVMTA member, René Johnson, NCTM, assigned her adult students a concerto project. In addition to performing for each other, they would also present information about their composers. Most of the students found wikipedia entries or other information on the internet. But one student, Sheila, found next to nothing about Albert Rozin whose project was “Little Concerto in d minor”.
Research
With a little more digging, Sheila and René found a 1940 census record showing his name. It also listed his wife’s name and a three year old son named Paul. On a whim, they calculated that Paul would be 85 years old and wondered if he were still living. They googled “Paul Rozin” and after weeding out a lot of options, found a retired U-Penn professor with that name. To their great surprise, he answered an out-of-the-blue-email and said he was the son of Albert Rozin.
During the following months, René and Sheila had zoom interviews with Paul and his son, Lex (a music theory professor in Philadelphia) and with one of Paul’s cousins who is an historian. Albert’s immigration story emerged along with his early days in New York and his teaching and composing career. Paul and the niece provided photos. Further research uncovered the Rozin’s family names on a boat passenger list, documentation for immigration, the draft and other important information including articles written by Albert for music teachers magazines. Paul had a list of Albert’s compositions—more than 200. About half had been published but were no longer in print, and Paul didn’t really know where the unpublished pieces where at that point. In February 2023, the unpublished pieces turned up in his daughter’s barn, discovered as she prepared to move.
Website
The AR team was united in wanting to perserve Albert Rozin’s music and story and share it with the world. There is now a website where teachers or students can download the music and learn more about Albert’s story. Please visit albertrozin.com. Pdf’s are free to download and you will find delightful titles and video recordings of the music to share with your students. The compositions are mostly for intermediate level students though he wrote some pieces for beginners as well as some more advanced pieces including arrangements, 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.
If you are thinking of participating in Fall Festival, some of the pieces include contemporary elements as listed on the requirements. (see nvmta.org).
Here are a few examples:
