Gifted contemporary neo-romantic composer, Jeffrey Roszkowski, aka John Island, truly captures the senses through the emotional embodiment of the magnificent melodies found throughout his works. A versatile composer, Roszkowski is equally comfortable writing for piano and voice or full orchestral scores in any musical genre or any time period of history.
Born in Ypsalanti, Michigan, Jeff showed an affinity for music by going to a piano and plunking out the notes of melodies he heard at the age of four. After taking lessons with several teachers, he ended up studying with Mischa Kottler, who was a descendant of the great European teaching school that started with Haydn, Beethoven and then by Franz Liszt who taught Emil von Sauer, who, in turn, taught Kottler. After moving to Florida with his family in l966, Jeff studied with Edith Sorin and through her tutelage won numerous award and state competitions. Discouraged from a musical career by Mischa Kottler and his own father, Jeff went off to college to study chemistry and physics.
During Jeff’s college years, he played the piano often and experimented with melodies and the emotional content that could be derived and embodied by the use of different key signatures. Roszkowski graduated with honors and applied his education to growing and selling house and landscape plants as a business opportunity.
That opportunity realized itself in South Florida for the next three decades during the building booms of Florida. It is during this time he wrote, scored and published World of the Heart, a family story book and musical score for full orchestra, created the characters Marvin the Moof and Steady Teddy, and wrote Mama Loves You Now and Sweet Dreams for Sweet Hearts. During this time, Jeff performed at many book signings and sold several thousand copies of his book and CD. It is when he was approached by Books A Million to do a Southeast US tour that his life changed.
In 1995, Jeff married a wonderful woman, Denise, and raised three sons. In the next three years, he wrote Virtues and Vices, neo-romantic piano scoring where two of the works have been adapted for a piano quintet, Adam and Eve, and Dreams of Thalia, the third movement from the work entitled The Gracing of Apollo’s Lyre which he performed with Julia Okrusko and the New England String Quartet.
In 2005 Jeff retired and made provisions to leave Florida and in 2007 moved to the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts. During this time he continued writing a new project entitled My Now and My Forever, which includes Mama Loves You Now, Sweet Dreams For Sweet Hearts, You, Little Angels of the Light, Fire Burns in the City and other pieces.
Currently, Roszkowski is finishing Aglaia’s Dervish, the first movement of The Gracing of Apollo’s Lyre, a piano quintet, recording and posting past as well as new compositions and setting up his website, romanticmelodies.com.
His work is available as sheet music, mp3 or Wave files, and he is currently available for scoring music to film. He can be contacted by text at 954.483.1892 or email at roszkowski@live.com
Jeffrey Roszkowski Music 