Composer, Conductor. A pioneer of nationalism in Polish music, he was one of his country's most celebrated composers before Chopin. His operas, nearly all on Polish subjects, were very popular in their day and illustrate the transition between the Classical and early Romantic movements. Karol Kazimierz Kurpinski was born in Wloszakowice, Poland, into a musical family. At age 12 he became organist at a local church, and from 1800 to 1808 he was a violinist in the private orchestra of Count Feliks Polanowski at Moszklw. During that time he acquired skills in orchestral technique and conducting, and composed his first opera, "Pygmalion" (c. 1808, now lost). He then served as music master for the aristocratic Rastawiecki family in Lemberg (now Lviv, Ukraine), from where news of his talents reached a onetime resident of that city, the famous composer-conductor Jozef Elsner. In 1810 Kurpinski was summoned to Warsaw by Elsner to become his deputy music director at the National Theatre, beginning a 30-year association with that venue. Apart from conducting he turned out 23 operas and ballets, among them "The Charlatan" (1814), "Superstition" (1816), "The Castle of Czorsztyn" (1819), and "Cecylia Piaseczynska" (1829). In addition he composed six Masses, the "Variations on National Themes" for piano and orchestra (1822), a Clarinet Concerto (1823), and scores of instrumental polonaises. He became Kapellmeister of the Polish Royal Chapel in 1819 and from 1821 to 1822 was founding editor of his country's first regular music journal, "The Music Weekly". In 1823 he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaw for his services to music, including an inspection tour he made that year of theatres in Germany, France, Italy and Austria. Kurpinksi was strongly nationalistic from his youth. Like many Poles in the early 1800s he viewed Napoleon as a potential liberator, and at the start of the Franco-Russian War he composed his "Battle Symphony" (1812) in Bonaparte's honor. His views would later split the National Theatre into rival factions, with Kurpinski criticizing the international fare Elsner preferred as contrary to the theatre's true purpose. In 1824 he succeeded in having Elsner dismissed and assumed the post as music director. On a less contentious note he recognized the genius of the young Chopin. He had the distinction of conducting the first performance of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 (1830) with the composer as soloist. For his part Chopin was wary of Kurpinski, having been a private student of Elsner's at the time of the National Theatre coup. During rehearsals for the concerto Chopin wrote to a friend, "I am curious to know what he says about me, since he greets me with such unbelievable affection". The Polish Uprising that began in November 1830 inspired Kurpinski's most famous work, the patriotic song for chorus and orchestra "Warszawianka" ("Song of Warsaw"), which he premiered to riotous acclaim in April 1831. Five months later the Russian Empire crushed the revolt and suppressed many artists with nationalist sympathies. Kurpinski was kept on as conductor at the National Theatre, but its programming was heavily censored. He wrote nothing more for the stage. After a short-lived attempt to establish a school for singing, he retired in 1840 and spent the rest of his life in seclusion at his Warsaw home. While most of his music faded into obscurity, "Warszawianka" became a treasured underground symbol of Polish freedom. In 1925 it was a top candidate for independent Poland's new National Anthem.