Bela Rozsa archive, 1923-2006

Dr. Bela Rozsa, composer, pianist, organist, and chess enthusiast, taught at The University of Tulsa School of Music from 1945 to 1974, serving as head of the department of music theory and director of graduate study. He was born February 14, 1905 in Kecskemet, Hungary, son of the opera singer Lajos Sandor Rozsa, a leading baritone in Vienna and Budapest. Bela Rozsa began his musical studies at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, and at age thirteen he began to accompany his father in concerts. Two years later, in 1921, the family came to the United States, where his father joined the New York Metropolitan Opera. In a letter found in the collection, Bela Rozsa writes "Shortly after our arrival here, my father became a member of the Metropolitan Opera Co., and died a year after in very tragical circumstances." The teenage Rozsa goes on to relate how he had been supporting himself and his mother, working "from as a stock boy up to a 'second class' movie pianist playing in one of those cheap uptown theatres." At the same time he continued his musical studies at the Institute of Musical Art (later the Juilliard School of Music), receiving a diploma in composition in 1928. Winning the Seligman Prize for chamber music composition gave him the opportunity for further study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. Rozsa continued to live in New York City, conducting orchestras and choruses, producing operas, and serving for five years as staff pianist and organist at the National Broadcasting Company. He undertook graduate studies at the University of Iowa, and in 1943 he was awarded a doctorate in Composition and Psychology of Music. Before joining the faculty of the TU School of Music, he taught at Baylor University and was the head of the music department at Iowa Wesleyan University. Dr. Rozsa was also an avid and passionate chess player. In 1940 he won the North Texas Championship, and twice (1942 and 1948) tied for first place in the prestigious Southwestern Open. He was a ten-time Oklahoma State Chess Championship, and in 1952 won the Tenth Grand National Correspondence Chess Tournament, a ten year event in which over 1,000 players competed. The Oklahoma Chess Association continues to honor him with an annual tournament. Bela Rozsa's legacy at the University of Tulsa School of Music is considerable, and continues to the present day. He is honored every year with a memorial concert and nationwide composition contest for high school and college students.