Józef Zygmunt Szulc

Józef Zygmunt Szulc, who also signed some works under the pseudonym Jan Sulima, was a composer, conductor and pianist born in Warsaw in 1875 and who died in Paris in 1956. The son of Henryk Szulc, he trained at the Warsaw Institute of Music, studying composition with Noskowski and, according to some sources, possibly piano with Strobl; the exact source of this latter instruction is not confirmed.

His career unfolded between Berlin, Stuttgart, Paris and Poland. In Berlin he continued his piano studies at the Stern Conservatory under Ernst Jedliček and took private lessons with Herman Schramke and Ignacy Moszkowski. In 1897 he was a piano professor at the Stern Conservatory and, at the same time, conducted the orchestra of the Stuttgart opera. He later moved to Paris, where he refined his piano playing with Paderewski and his composition with Massenet. After several years conducting orchestras in Poland, Germany and Belgium, he settled permanently in Paris in 1910.

His output includes two symphonic works, Esther and Sinai, chamber music, pieces for piano and a ballet, but above all nineteen opérettes-bouffes listed in Grove5, premiered in Paris, Liège and Brussels. They were very popular during the composer's lifetime; the first, Flup, premiered in Brussels in 1913 and reached more than five thousand performances in various European cities.