Josef Szulc

[1] Born in Poland to a musical family, he began his formal training as a pianist at the Warszawa Conservatory under Moszkowski.

In 1903 he moved to Brussels, where he was made chief conductor at the Théâtre de la Monnaie and saw instant success with his ballet Ispahan and several tunes.

His wife, Suzy Delsart, was an operetta star (operette divette) and sang the title role of The Merry Widow by Franz Lehár and also influenced her husband into writing lighter and more popular tunes.

It was recorded by other major artists of the day and was featured in an anthology printed in the United States by International Music Company.

Collections of Szulc operetta scores have been found in the University of Nebraska, Lincoln music library, donated by Jack Rokhar.

The donor pasted many articles and reviews in the flyleaf of these scores and they are an invaluable source of information for researchers.