Albert Pieczonka: works

Albert Pieczonka (1828 - 1912) was a composer, pianist, and music teacher who lived in Germany, England, and the United States. His most famous work, the Tarantella in A Minor, remains a popular piano standard more than 100 years after his death.

In about 1858, Pieczonka emigrated from continental Europe to England, where he performed concerts and gave music lessons to children of the wealthy. In England he composed several of his most recognized pieces including Dancing Waves, Polish Chivalry, and the Tarantella in A Minor.

After emigrating to the United States in 1880, Pieczonka, his wife, and his daughters performed together throughout the United States as the Kempa Ladies’ Orchestra. Pieczonka also gave solo concerts at venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York and the Great Auditorium at Ocean Grove in New Jersey. His performances consistently received favorable reviews from the press.

Shortly after Pieczonka's death, the following pargraph appeared in the monthly music-magazine Etude:

Albert Pieconka, the pianist-teacher-composer who died recently in his eighty fifth year, bore a remarkable facial resemblace to Beethoven. He studied at the University of Konigsberg and also at Leipzig Conservatory, after which he made a series of concert tours in German. His success in London won him the friendship of such men as Liszt and Rubinstein. In America he was more particularly engaged in teaching and composing. His best known work is his Tarantella.