John Cozza

John Cozza is in demand throughout California as teacher, coach/accompanist, chamber musician, adjudicator and clinician. He has been the Staff Accompanist at Sacramento State University since 2004, and took over as Music Director and Pianist/Organist at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Carmichael in January of 2018.

A graduate of the University of Southern California, Northwestern University and the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, Austria, Dr. Cozza was named Director of Accompanying at Baylor University (Waco, TX) in 1994 to design and implement the Masters of Music degree program in Piano Accompanying. Graduates of the program he administrated from 1994-2001 hold teaching and accompanying positions regionally, nationally and internationally. He taught Accompanying and Secondary Piano in the Conservatory of Music at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California from 2004-2018.

Collaborating with singers and instrumentalists throughout the United States, Dr. Cozza’s international engagements have included performances as soloist, accompanist and chamber musician in such European cities as Vienna, Bologna, Milan, Cologne, and Budapest.

Dr. Cozza holds a DM degree in Piano Performance, Vocal Accompanying and Chamber Music from Northwestern University. He earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees at USC, where he was named Valedictorian of the School of Music. His principal teachers have been Daniel Pollack in Los Angeles, Dr. David Kaiserman in Chicago, and Professors Hans Graf (solo piano performance) and Georg Ebert (chamber music) in Vienna. He originally attended Vienna’s prestigious Hochschule für Musik as a Rotary Foundation Scholar in 1986-87, then returned for further study from 1988-1991 when he received the coveted Diplom in both Piano Performance and Chamber Music.

Dr. Cozza is the current President of the Sacramento Saturday Club, the oldest musical organization in Sacramento, and one of the oldest west of the Rockies. As stated in its Constitution of 1893, the aims of the organization are: "the musical improvement of its members and the stimulation of musical interests in Sacramento.”