Karol Kazimierz Kurpià Âski (March 5, 1785September 18, 1857) was a Polish composer, conductor and pedagogue. He was a representative of late classicism and a member of the Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning (Polish: Towarzystwo Warszawskie PrzyjaciÃ³à  Nauk, TWPN). He is also known for having composed the music to the 1831 patriotic song La Varsovienne with lyrics by Casimir Delavigne. He was also a mentor and an influence on young Chopin.
Karol Kurpià Âski was born in Wà Âoszakowice, Greater Poland, shortly before his baptism on 6 March 1785, probably 4 or 5 March. He was the sixth child Marcin Kurpià Âski (né Kurp), organist at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Wà Âoszakowice, and Franciszka née Waà Âska, the daughter of the village soà Âtys and member of a prominent musical family in Poland. Marcin changed his ethnic family name Kurp to the noble-sounding Kurpià Âski around 1768.
Karol attended the village parish school while learning music theory, violin, and organ from his father. By the age of eight, he was able to stand in for his father as an organist on occasion. In 1797, at the age of 12, Karol became the organist at the Church of St. Andrew the Apostle in Sarnowa, Rawicz, where his maternal uncle Karol Waà Âski was parish priest. Karol was also responsible for two choirs and two orchestras.
In 1800, Karol's maternal uncles Roch and Jan Waà ÂskiâÂÂa professional cellist and a popular composer, respectivelyâÂÂarranged for him to travel to Moszków (now Huta, Ukraine), where Roch held a position in an orchestra under the supervision of starost Feliks Polanowski. The young Kurpià Âski played second violin in the orchestra and remained there until 1808 to continue his musical education. Roch Waà Âski, though only five years Karol's senior, became a father figure for him during these years, and Polanowski often took him to opera productions in Lviv, about 90 kilometers to the north.
Kurpià Âski composed his first opera, Pygmalion, in 1808 at Moszków. 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 1815 he became a member of many musical societies in Poland and abroad, including the Société des Enfants d'Apollon in Paris. He became Kapellmeister of the Polish royal chapel in 1819 and the same year received a lifetime achievement award for his services to music. In 1820 he founded and edited the first Polish music newsletter. He was decorated with the Order of Saint Stanislaus in 1823.
In 1829, together with Józef Elsner he was ordered by the authorities to write music for the coronation of Nicolas I of Russia for King of Poland. For this occasion Kurpià Âski composed Te deum. The work wasn't performed again until 2011.
Kurpià Âski was a romanticist and one of the most revered Polish composers before Chopin, whom he met in 1828. He helped to lay the foundations of a national style and prepared the ground for Polish music of the Romantic period, particularly Chopin. He contributed to the development of Polish opera, introducing new musical devices and achieving a novel mode of expression.
He died on September 18, 1857, in Warsaw, aged 72.