Krzysztof URBANIAK

Krzysztof Urbaniak is Professor of Historic Organ and President of the Arp Schnitger Institute for Organ and Organ Building at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen, as well as Professor in the Organ Department of the Music Academy in Kraków. In Bremen, he focuses his organ class on the rich organ heritage of Northern Germany. In Kraków, he integrates gradually rediscovered and restored historic organs into his teaching.

He received his education in organ and harpsichord at the Staatliche Musikhochschule in Stuttgart and at the Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw (Master’s degree, Künstlerische Ausbildung, Konzertexamen), studying with Józef Serafin, Ludger Lohmann, Jörg Halubek, and Leszek Kędracki. In 2012, he earned his PhD in Kraków; his habilitation followed in 2016.

Krzysztof Urbaniak has received numerous prizes at international organ competitions and he has served as a jury member at several international organ competitions.

His intensive concert career over the past twenty years has taken him to most European countries, as well as to Japan and South Korea.

He is the founder and artistic director of the organ festival and International Organ Academy in Pasłęk (Andreas Hildebrandt organ, 1717–1719) and serves as ECHO Artistic Director for the city of Olkusz (organ by Hans Hummel and Georg Nitrowski, 1611–1631).

As an organ expert, he has advised on numerous organ restoration and construction projects in several European countries. He regularly publishes CD recordings – some of which have been nominated for the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik – as well as music editions, and scholarly articles on historic organ building and performance practice. His most recent major publication is a two-volume monograph on the Olkusz organ and the organ-building families Hummel, Nitrowski, and Brandtner (Ortus Musikverlag, 2024).

Since 2023, he has been a member of the Section for Historic Organs at the National Heritage Institute—an expert body unique on a European scale, responsible for inventorying and classifying Poland’s collection of historic organs, comprising approximately 10,000 instruments.