Collection Overview
- 4.75 linear feet of music
- 0.9 linear feet of recordings
Resources
Franciszek Zachara (1898-1966) was a Polish-American concert pianist, composer, and college music educator. He was born in Poland in 1898, and studied in Saratov and St. Petersburg, Russia. He taught at FSU from 1948 until his death in 1966.
Zachara composed well over 300 works, and was very active as a performer. He had given more than 500 concerts in Europe before coming to New York City in 1928, where he made his American debut. He had extensive radio experience, with frequent appearances over New York stations WOR and WNYC, and weekly programs for eight years over Atlanta station WSB. He made frequent television appearances in Jacksonville, Florida, and on Educational WFSU-TV. One of his video tapes from the Music Hall Series at FSU is held by the Warren D. Allen Music Library. He possessed a phenomenal repertoire at the piano, including the entire works of Chopin, a field in which he was a specialist.
Included in his publications are Twelve Master Preludes (1931), Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra in E Major (1937), Twelve Master Etudes (1938), Three Organ Chorales (1954), and Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (1964). Following his death, the Music Library acquired many manuscripts of his works, as well as a handful of recordings on reel-to-reel tape and 78 rpm records. A print of the Music Hall performance (mentioned above) is held in the Zachara Collection, as are six works for symphonic band, a string quartet, his Symphony no. 1, and various other works.
The uncataloged manuscripts in the Franciszek Zachara Collection consists of 29 complete works, and roughly 13 incomplete works. Sadly, this seems to be only a small fraction of what he composed in his life.
Much of the music does not appear in the online catalog. Because of its unique nature, the collection is available for research by appointment only. For information, please contact our Special Collections staff.