Karol Mossakowski - NOSPR

Karol Mossakowski is renowned for both his interpretation and improvisation skills. He was awarded First Prize of the International Prague Spring Competition and the Grand Prix de Chartres, and leads an international career in both areas of practice as they mutually enrich one another. He is Artist in Residence at NOSPR Katowice, and held the same position at Radio France from 2019 to 2022.

Recent and upcoming highlights include concerts in venues such as Radio France, Philharmonie de Paris, MÜPA Budapest, National Forum of Music in Wrocław, Auditorium in Lyon, Warsaw Philharmonic, Moscow Philharmonic, Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, National Music Auditorium in Madrid, BOZAR Brussels, Palais Montcalm in Quebec, Konzerthalle in Bamberg, Dresden Philharmonie, Berlin, Cologne, Vienna, Milan cathedrals, as well as with orchestras as the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de France, NFM Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, under conductors like Myung-Whun Chung, Kent Nagano, Mikko Franck, Fabien Gabel, Giancarlo Guerrero, Cristian Măcelaru and Lawrence Foster.

Karol Mossakowski seeks to keep music alive thanks to improvisation, to which he gives an important role in his recitals and develops in silent film accompaniment. In 2017, his accompaniment of Dreyer’s Jeanne d’Arc for Lyon’s Festival Lumière was released in DVD on Gaumont. In 2021 he releases his first solo album Rivages featuring works from Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Liszt connected by improvisations, on Tempéraments, Radio France’s label.

As a composer, he is in residence at the Festival de musique sacrée de Saint-Malo, for which he composed Les Voiles de la Lumière oratorio for three organs and mixed choir premiered in 2021, as well as Trois Versets for three organs, premiered in 2022.

In 2014/2015 he was appointed Young Artist in Residence at Cathedral of Saint Louis King of France in New Orleans (USA).

Karol Mossakowski started the piano and the organ at three years old with his father. After musical studies in Poland with Elżbieta Karolak and Jarosław Tarnawski, he entered the organ, improvisation, and composition classes at the Paris Conservatory as a student of Olivier Latry, Michel Bouvard, Thierry Escaich, Philippe Lefebvre.

He is titular organist of Lille and Saint-Sulpice Cathedral, and professor of improvisation at the Higher School of Music in San Sebastián (Musikene).