Moissaye Boguslawski (November 1, 1887 – August 30, 1944) was an American pianist, composer, editor and teacher. Sometimes known as Bogie.

Biography

He was born in Chicago in 1887 to Russian immigrants with significant musical background. Despite the family's poverty, Boguslawski began piano lessons at age 4 and began playing in public at weddings at the age of 10. By age 15 he was performing at a dance hall in Chicago. He also studied briefly with

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. Boguslawski was named head of the piano department at the Kansas City Conservatory of Music when he was twenty years old. Recitals given during this time established him as a well-known pianist, and in 1916 a trip to the East Coast earned him good reviews in New York and Boston. Soon he was a sought-after performer both in concert and as a recorded radio performer. He performed with various orchestras and performers, including

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and

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. For Chicago's WJJD radio station (now

WYLL WYLL (1160 AM) is a commercial radio station in Chicago, Illinois. It is owned by Salem Media Group and airs a Christian talk and teaching radio format. The studios and offices are located in Elk Grove Village. Its daytime transmitter and two- ...

), Boguslawski played all of

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's piano music and all of the sonatas of

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, taking a total of 21 weeks to accomplish. He was a professor of piano at

Chicago Musical College Chicago Musical College is a division of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. History Founding Dr. Florenz Ziegfeld Sr (1841–1923), founded the college in 1867 as the Chicago Academy of Music. The institution h ...

and at the Bush Conservatory of Music; later he was head of the Boguslawski College of Music., where students included

Cecilia Clare Bocard Sister Cecilia Clare Bocard, S.P., (April 13, 1899 – February 15, 1994) was an American musician and composer of works for organ, piano, and chorus. Born Frances Ada Bocard in New Albany, Indiana, she began studying piano in first grade and or ...

. Later in his career, Boguslawski composed pieces of his own, including a comprehensive set of children's teaching pieces with publisher M. M. Cole. Compositions include ''Hungarian Rhapsodie No. 1'', ''Valse Russe'', ''Frog's Frolic'', and ''Overture to a Carnival''. Boguslawski was known for skillfully attracting media attention. A 1936 piece in ''TIME'' magazine said of him, "When straight news about himself is scarce, 'Bogie' is likely to come forth with such a project as his proposal to promote world peace through voice culture, since animosity arises when unpleasant tones are heard." Whatever his motivation, Boguslawski did influence the fields of music psychology and music therapy, contributing his theories about curing antisocial behavior and memory loss.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boguslawski, Moissaye 1887 births 1944 deaths American male classical composers American classical composers American classical pianists American male pianists 20th-century classical composers Composers for piano American music educators American people of Russian-Jewish descent Jewish American musicians Musicians from Chicago Roosevelt University faculty University of Missouri–Kansas City faculty 20th-century American composers Classical musicians from Illinois 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American pianists