Josefa Rosanska Collection

Josefa Rosanska was born Josephine Rosensweet in New York City in 1904. From a very early age she played piano accompaniments in performance for her father David Rosensweet, a violinist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Her earliest studies were in Chicago with Eva Koch, Emil Liebling and Heniot Levy. Further studies were with Ernest Hutcheson at the Juilliard School and with Edward Steuermann in Vienna. She played Mozart’s D minor Concerto in her first public concert appearance at age 9, followed by a performance at age 13 of the Chopin E minor Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Frederick Stock. She concertized throughout the United States and Europe, and she won particular acclaim in Central and South America. She performed under many eminent conductors of her time, including Serge Koussevitzky, Otto Klemperer, Pierre Monteux, Ernö Rapée and Ernest Ansermet. Rosanska was the first wife of Viennese violinist Rudolf Kolisch of the Kolisch and Pro Arte String Quartets. Rosanska was friends with George Gershwin and retained a manuscript of an unpublished piano piece given to her by him entitled “rubato”. This work received its first public performance by pianist Joseph Smith in 1987. Josefa Rosnaska died in 1986.