Background
Karol began his studies under his father, Marcin Kurpiński, an organist.
composer conductor music educator musicologist
Karol began his studies under his father, Marcin Kurpiński, an organist.
There, around 1808, Kurpiński composed his first opera, Pygmalion. In 1810 he settled in Warsaw. With the help of Józef Elsner he became a conductor of the Warsaw Opera, a position he held until 1840.
He taught music at several prominent schools including one he founded.
In 1820 he founded and edited the first Polish music newsletter. He was decorated with the Order of Saint Stanislaw in 1823.
Kurpiński was one of the most revered composers before Frédéric Chopin, and helped to lay the foundations of a national style and prepared the ground for Polish music of the Romantic period. He died on September 18, 1857, in Warsaw, aged 72.
In 1815 he became a member of many musical societies in Poland and abroad, including the Société des Enfants d"Apollon in Paris.