Other pianists admired his musicianship, while several studied with him privately and/or attended his summer master-classes in Southern California. During his six years at Juilliard, Kochanski studied with Eduard Steuermann (1892-1964), and briefly with Rosina Lhevinne (1880-1976) who was also Van Cliburn’s teacher at the time.
Throughout his career, the Texas-born virtuoso retained a loyal following. In an effort to tear down barriers which can exist between classical performers and their audiences, Kochanski"s concerts mixed humorous stories with classical music selections. Kochanski advertised himself as a "classical music entertainer".
Shortly before completing studies at Juilliard, Kochanski was stricken with chronic internal bleeding which caused the pianist to be hospitalized for three years.
With a financial inheritance from Doctor Della Pennington (the doctor who helped restore his health), Kochanski formed the Della Moser Pennington Foundation (a non-profit corporation founded solely for the purpose of giving financial aid to gifted young musicians), which was subsequently dissolved. Kochanski did not begin to construct a concert career until he was approaching forty-years old.
The guiding reference in shaping his professional persona and name was the legendary Polish pianist, Ignacy January Paderewski (1860-1941). Kochanski initially embarked upon a career using his birth-name, Robert Harvey.
Although not of Polish ancestry, his sympathetic identification with Poland inspired Harvey to change his name in the 1970s.
Thus, the pianist reintroduced himself as Wladimir January Kochanski with his autobiography, "The People"s Pianist." Throughout the remainder of his concert/ recording career, the pianist was known as Kochanski. On numerous occasions, Kochanski played for notables, including a private concert for Pope John Paul II, as well as performances on right-wing television shows The 700 Club, Hour Magazine, Good Morning America and Voice of America. His autobiography, The People"s Pianist, was published in 1981 by Crown Summit Books.
Among his various students was popular-singer Christine Anderson.
Kochanski seldom taught strictly piano technique, but lectured primarily in broad terms about music inspiration. This was especially true of his master-classes as students often attended in-conjunction with instruction from their own private teachers.
