Paul Kochanski (Paweł Kochański)

(Odesa [Ukraine], 1887 – New York [USA], 1934)

Paweł Kochański was one of Poland's most outstanding violinists in the first half of the 20th century. He was born in Odesa (then part of the Russian Empire, now Ukraine) in 1887 to Polish-Jewish parents. From an early age, he played the violin with his father and received musical instruction. His next teacher was Emil Młynarski. Młynarski, who settled in Warsaw in 1898 and founded the Warsaw Philharmonic, invited Kochański to become the orchestra's concertmaster in 1901.

Subsequently, Kochański performed throughout Europe, moving from place to place. Upon returning to Warsaw in 1907, he was appointed professor of violin at the local conservatory. After the outbreak of World War I, he moved to Russia and stayed there for several years. At the peak of his career, he moved to the United States, obtaining permanent residency in 1924 and becoming a professor at the Juilliard School in New York.

Kochański was highly regarded as a virtuoso and collaborated with leading performers such as Artur Rubinstein, Karol Szymanowski, and Pablo Casals. Many world-renowned composers also dedicated works to him. His repertoire was exceptionally broad, encompassing almost all works written for the violin, from solo pieces to those with orchestral accompaniment. Although Kochański himself did not achieve fame as a composer, he made numerous well-known arrangements of works by other composers, including Szymanowski, Bizet, and Chopin, for the violin.

In 1934, Kochański died of cancer in the United States. He had long collaborated with Karol Szymanowski on his violin compositions, and in his final months, he continued to offer invaluable advice for the completion of Szymanowski's Violin Concerto No. 2. This work was published posthumously and formally dedicated to him.