Titular organist of the great organ
Karol Mossakowski is renowned for both his interpretation and improvisation skills, he leads an international career in both areas of practice as they mutually enrich one another. He is the winner of an impressive number of international prizes, including the Prague Spring Competition and the Grand Prix de Chartres. In February 2023 he was appointed titular organist at Saint-Sulpice in Paris, as a successor to such musicians as Charles-Marie Widor, Marcel Dupré and Daniel Roth.
This season, Karol performs with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Daniel Raskin, Polish National Radio Symphony and Pierre Bleuse, and makes his debut recital at Hamburg Elbphilharmonie. He also goes on a highly acclaimed recital tour in the USA. For this occasion New York Classical Review wrote: “Karol Mossakowski’s New York debut (…) provided brilliant displays of colors and dynamics, as well as displaying his extraordinary creativity and imagination.”
Karol is the guest of such venues as Radio France, Philharmonie de Paris, MÜPA Budapest, Wroclaw’s National Forum of Music, Lyon’s Auditorium, Warsaw Philharmonie, Musashino Cultural Hall in Tokyo, Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Madrid’s National Music Auditorium, BOZAR Brussels, Palais Montcalm in Quebec, Bamberg’s Konzerthalle, Dresden Philharmonie, Paris, Berlin, Cologne, Vienna, Milan cathedrals. He also performs with such orchestras as the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de France, NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra, or the Odense Symphony Orchestra, under Myung-Whun Chung, Kent Nagano, Andris Poga, Antony Hermus, Mikko Franck, Fabien Gabel, Giancarlo Guerrero, Cristian Măcelaru and Lawrence Foster. In 2023, Karol played the world premiere of « Unstern », organ concerto by Philippe Hersant, with the Orchestre National de Lyon and Antony Hermus.
This same year, he was artist in residence at NOSPR Katowice, after having held a similar position at Radio France for three seasons. Still in 2023, he was the first organist ever to receive an ICMA orchestra award.
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 released his first solo album, Rivages, featuring works from Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Liszt connected by improvisations, on Radio France’s label. Two years later, he recorded Poulenc’s organ concerto and Jongen’s Symphonie Concertante with the NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Giancarlo Guerrero, an album that was released in 2023 and critically acclaimed internationally by the media.
As a composer, he is writing an oratorio for mixed choir and two organs that will be premiered at Saint-Sulpice in May 2025 with, among others, Sequenza 9.3 and Catherine Simonpietri. Composer in residence at the Festival de musique sacrée de Saint-Malo from 2021 to 2023, he wrote « 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. His latest work, « Beauté infinie » for a cappella choir, was premiered in 2023.
In 2014/15 he was appointed Young Artist in Residence at Cathedral of St. Louis King of France in New Orleans (USA). In 2017-2023 he was the titular organist of Lille’s Cathedral. He is professor of improvisation at the Higher School of Music in San Sebastián (Musikene).
Karol Mossakowski started the piano and the organ at three years old with his father. After musical studies in Poland, he entered the organ, improvisation, and composition classes at the Paris Conservatory as a student of Olivier Latry, Michel Bouvard, Thierry Escaich and Philippe Lefebvre.