Composer Osip Kozlovsky was a pioneering musical figure at the Russian Imperial court. He is also known by the Polish form of his name, Józef Kozłowski. He was a pioneering musical figure at the Russian Imperial court. Kozlovsky's date and place of birth are matters of dispute. Polish sources hold that he was born September 10, 1759, in Warsaw, but some Belarusian writers assert that he was born near Propoysk (now Slawrahad, Belarus), and he may have been of Belarusian background. In any event, he was trained in Warsaw at St. John's Church after an uncle noticed his musical abilities. He landed a job as a music teacher to the noble Oginsky family from 1773 to 1778. Russian influence in Poland was on the rise during this period, culminating in the complete partition of Poland in 1795, and Kozlovsky moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, to ply his trade there. He joined the Russian army as an aide-de-camp to a Russian nobleman and commander during Russia's conflict with the Ottoman Empire, and in this capacity, he came in contact with the influential Russian statesman Grigory Potemkin, an advisor to Empress Catherine the Great. Potemkin introduced Kozlovsky at the Russian imperial court, and the second phase of his career began. Kozlovsky kept in contact with the Polish community in St. Petersburg, and when the last Polish king, Stanisław II August, was dying, it was Kozlovsky to whom he turned for a requiem mass to be performed at his funeral. That work attained considerable fame and was even performed again, in a revised version by the aging composer at the funeral of the Russian Czar Alexander I, who was also the titular ruler of Poland. Kozlovsky was a prolific composer of many other works, including polonaises for piano; an opera, Zelmira and Smelon (or the Capture of Izmail); the song Grom pobedy, razdavaysya!, which was used as the Russian national anthem in the early 19th century; 28 Russian songs; incidental music for plays; dance music for the court; and a good deal of sacred music, including a Te Deum. Some of this music has been performed and recorded, mostly by Russian musicians, but Kozlovsky's role in the development of classical music in Russia has received little attention in the West. Kozlovsky died in St. Petersburg on March 11, 1831. More than 20 of his compositions have been recorded, including both versions of the Requiem; the original 1798 version was edited by conductor Hans Graf and recorded by him with the Singapore Symphony in 2024. ~ James Manheim, Rovi