Alan Kogosowski

Alan Kogosowski has a special affinity with Frédéric Chopin:

• he has recreated Chopin's final public concert in 1848 in London's Guildhall
• he has written Genius of the Piano, which covers Chopin's life, his contemporaries, and how he avoided strain injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome. It focuses especially on the correct approach to the Études. It also looks at the history and the art of piano playing
• he has produced a 6-part television series about the life and music of Chopin, in which he performs and introduces a wide cross-section of his key works. This was first broadcast in New York in 2003^[5]
• he accompanied the soprano Irena Grainge in the first Australian recording of Chopin's 19 Polish Songs sung in their original language^[6]
• he received praise from Pope John Paul II for his playing of Chopin^[5]
• he has performed in a play about Chopin and George Sand, written by the actress and writer Diana Douglas
• he created a work that he has named "Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 3 in A major". He premiered the piece on 8 October 1999, with Neeme Järvi and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. The opening movement was based on the Allegro de concert in A, Op. 46 (a piece for solo piano that Chopin may indeed have salvaged and reworked from a projected but unfinished third concerto),^[7][8] as restructured, orchestrated and augmented by Kogosowski. For the slow second movement, he arranged the Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth. Lento con gran espressione, for piano and orchestra. The finale was created out of the Bolero, Op. 19, which has a typical rondo form of a third movement, and a ready-made cadenza.^[9]

He conceived and for ten years hosted a series of musical evenings in London, known as "Schubertiades at Sotheby's", with guest artists from all over the world. Members of the British royal family including Diana, Princess of Wales and the Queen Mother often attended, and he performed on many occasions for them after he became friends with Princess Diana.

In 2001 he became Artistic Advisor to the Palm Beach Symphony in Florida, which he has conducted on various occasions.^[10]

Kogosowski has orchestrated Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Trio in D minor (Trio élégiaque), Op. 9, as a piano concerto, called Concerto Élégiaque in D minor, Op. 9b.^[11] This has also been recorded by Neeme Järvi and the Detroit Symphony, with Kogosowski as soloist. The recording, on the Chandos label, was named Best Recording of the Year in 1994 by the American Record Guide.

In 1999, Alan Kogosowski was honored by the Polish branch of the Order of the Knights of Malta with a special decoration in recognition of his many all-Chopin recitals in London, and series of Chopin concerts to raise funds for medicines to be sent to Poland. ^{[citation needed]}