Former Moline Sound Conservatory Owner Furious Over Closing Transition
After roughly two years in downtown Moline, Sound Conservatory is preparing to pack up and close at the landmark Carnegie library building at the end of this month.
Andrzej Kozlowski sold the business (at 504 17th St.) to Ben Tinsman of Bettendorf as of July 1, 2025, and Tinsman (who has taught piano at Sound Conservatory) claimed he was unable to negotiate a new lease for the building.
Kozlowski sold the inventory at a much reduced price in order for the new owner to have a good chance of getting on his feet and making the business succeed. There’s a clause in the sales agreement that states in the event that the buyer is unable, after good-faith efforts, to negotiate and execute a new lease concurrent with the closing of the sale, the seller agrees to maintain the lease. The sale required that Tinsman would make lease payments until its expiration.
Sound Conservatory renovated the interior of the 1903 former Moline Public Library in 2023 for a new music school, retail shop and showroom, and performance venue.
So even following the closure of Sound Conservatory (after Oct. 30), Kozlowski is responsible for paying the remainder of the $5,500-per-month lease until August 2026, and stands to lose his $10,000 security deposit. If Tinsman failed to make lease payments, that would be “a material breach” of the agreement. Kozlowski said Ben has paid the lease since July, but has not acquired a lease takeover.
“Basically, he is leaving me with this lease, even though he’s responsible for it,” Kozlowski said recently. “How are you not making this work, when the majority of the lease is covered by the rent teachers pay for the use of the space?”
The building owner showed him his communications with Tinsman regarding a new lease. One option presented was a $12,000-a-month lease, which would relieve the new owner of maintenance, repairs, and all utilities for the building, Kozlowski said. Tinsman was offered the same lease Kozlowski had.
“Six weeks into owning the business, he came to me to talk about it, and he said ‘I decided that this is not for me, and I’m going to be moving forward with selling the business,’ ” Kozlowski said.
He tried to help Tinsman make it work (by eliminating the retail store, for example), and he “wasn’t interested in any option,” he said, noting Tinsman also looked for someone else to buy the business over three weeks. Kozlowski also suggested he look at vacant offices in the nearby Chase bank building for private lessons, which wasn’t pursued.
Sound Conservatory hosted a Chamber Music Quad Cities concert in May 2025.
“It doesn’t make sense after six weeks, that he decided to sell it,” he said of Tinsman, who announced in mid-September that it would close.
“It is certainly tough,” Tinsman said Sept. 22 by email. “I did acquire the business, but ultimately had no choice but to shut down. The financial burden is just too great for anyone not running it as Andrzej did, and we were unable to reach a new agreement with the landlord. I am glad I tried to help keep the business going and did everything I could for teachers, students and the community, but ultimately there just was not a path forward.”
From October 27–30, they will be open for lessons only, and retail sales will conclude on Oct. 25.
They are offering 50% off everything in the retail instrument shoppe and piano showroom during a going-out-of-business Clearance Sale through Oct. 25th during regular business hours (10 a.m.-8 p.m. Mon.-Thurs., 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Fridays, and 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays).
Extensive renovations
Kozlowski and his wife put in $56,000 of their own money to renovate the building (including creation of the performance space), and they didn’t pay themselves any wage to work there, so that was an added expense Tinsman was going to have to staff the business.
Sound Conservatory (which first opened in March 2022) moved from downtown Rock Island in fall 2023 to the former 1903 Carnegie Library building in Moline (which was vacant from 2008 to 2023).
“I offered to help to move everything to a different location, and donate my time,” Kozlowski said. “I’ve made an enormous effort to help him find options to make it work. Everyone that’s been involved in it agrees he was very dismissive to any idea other than closing from the get-go. My concern is, we’ve got all these teachers who rely on this place for a source of income, all these students looking at getting educated, and all the concertgoers.”
“The lack of concern about keeping this going – for a family that has the resources, and claims to be invested in the arts, they have not made a diligent effort, in my opinion, to keep this going,” he said of the Tinsmans.
Tinsman pictured at Sound Conservatory, which moved in fall 2023 from downtown Rock Island to the 1903 former Moline Public Library at 504 17th St.
Kozlowski also said Ben has been ignoring him since Oct. 8, through all forms of communications (text, email and phone). The building owner also has offered leasing the second floor directly to the teachers, to continue their studios, and Tinsman didn’t respond to that.
“Three of the teachers already decided to go elsewhere,” Kozlowski said. “He has not been communicating with the building owner, in any way, in good faith to honor the contract and get the lease out of my name.”
“You are now skipping, by shutting down, profiting off of this, and then leaving me with the burden. How many more times do I need to get screwed over?” he said. “It’s not bad enough I have to leave the country? It’s not like I’m rich; I am far, far from it.”
Kozlowski, a native of Poland, moved to the U.S. permanently in 1992, trained at the prestigious Juilliard music school in New York City, and has been considered a permanent resident (green card) by the government. He said last month that his application for U.S. citizenship was “terminated” by the current administration without giving any formal cause or reason.
Charlotte Blu performed at a Library Sessions concert at Sound Conservatory, April 27, 2025.
“I was then notified that my eligibility to renew my permanent residency (green card) was revoked,” he said by text. “So I am being forced to leave the U.S. That was the reason I had to sell the business.”
“Losing that $10,000 deposit on top of everything else, is causing us serious problems when it comes to moving to Europe,” Kozlowski said later. “We are scrambling financially to figure out what to do. He has no care about this whatsoever.”
“I never threatened him, or cursed him out,” he said of last speaking to Tinsman Oct. 8. “I expressed to him: this is the position you put me in. Figure this out, because I’m not going to have you hold me responsible for what you’re supposed to take care of.”
Sacrifices of time and money
Kozlowski said he and his wife have made countless sacrifices of time, money, and health to make the business work.
“I’m angry,” he said, noting he may be sued by the building owner for lease payments.
“They are messing with someone who is already being hurt in different ways,” Kozlowski said of the Tinsmans. He sent Ben a legal letter of intent to sue for damages and breach of contract if this isn’t resolved, and Tinsman has not confirmed he received it.
“Absolutely no communication back,” Kozlowski said. He also offered to buy back the Sound Conservatory piano moving business.
“It’s childish that he can’t at least send me a middle finger, something,” he said. He told Ben he was contacting all the piano moving clients going forward that he was no longer available.
An excerpt from a Chamber Music Quad Cities concert at Sound Conservatory, which opened at the former 1903 Carnegie library in downtown Moline in November 2023.
“What bothers me is, he claims that financially, they can’t make this business work. You are a financial analyst,” he said of Ben.
“He’s walking away unscathed from something that hurt a lot of people and is hurting us. And I want them to take responsibility,” Kozlowski said. “You took on this business knowing what it entails, what the costs are…It’s not fair.”
He went to see Tinsman in person at Sound Conservatory on Oct. 16, claiming Ben and his father avoided talking to him, and “when I asked them why they’re ignoring me they told me that they don’t have to speak to me, and that they are not obligated to do so,” Kozlowski said by text, noting they threatened to call police on him.
“They claimed that I didn’t take care of my end of the agreement and somehow, which I don’t know what they’re talking about,” he added. “And that if I’m not happy with it that I can sue them and then they smiled at me.”
Kozlowski and his wife plan to move to Ireland within a month.
Tinsman’s responses
In an Oct. 19 email, Tinsman wrote:
“When we purchased Sound Conservatory, our goal was to give it a chance to succeed for the community in the face of imminent closure. From the beginning, though, it became clear that the business was not financially viable. The business was losing money every single month, and continuing would have only dug a deeper hole. After careful review, we realized that waiting longer or making operational changes wouldn’t change the outcome, it would only make the eventual closure harder on everyone involved.
“We didn’t take that decision lightly,” Tinsman wrote. “We reached out to others in the community to see if they wanted to take on the Conservatory, all being offered the business as a donation. They declined in part due to concerns tied to its prior management. That made it clear that, regardless of our intentions, the business wasn’t something others were prepared to continue under its existing name, structure, or financial situation.
“Mr. Kozlowski was unhappy with any and all ideas of this nature, citing that any of these potential organizations would ‘change the name’ of the business and ‘ruin his legacy’,” he said.
Ben Tinsman (left), a 2018 Bettendorf High alum, is taking over Sound Conservatory in downtown Moline from founder Andrzej Kozlowski, a Juilliard-trained pianist.
“Even then, our priority was the teachers and students. A couple weeks ago, I personally called teachers to connect them with the landlord so they could continue teaching in the building, even if the Conservatory itself closed,” Tinsman said. “We wanted them to know we cared about their future, and we tried to support that transition as best we could. Ultimately, the decision about leases rests between the landlord and the teachers, and I fully support these efforts.”
The purchase agreement clearly states that he did not assume the building lease, and he has paid rent for the period Tinsman occupied the space.
“The lease remains in Mr. Kozlowski’s name under the agreement,” he said by email. “If Mr. Kozlowski felt that I was always responsible for the lease of the building, then his active attempts to get me to relocate to another property shows a disturbing motivation.
“We recognize this has been painful for the teachers and students, and that’s what has weighed on us most,” Tinsman said. “But at the end of the day, our responsibility is to be honest about what was possible and to avoid making promises we couldn’t keep. We’ve made every effort to close this chapter responsibly, and any potential legal claims raised will be handled properly through attorneys, not through back-and-forth in the media.”
Tinsman did not reply to follow-up questions.
