Filip Presseisen - NOSPR

An organist, teacher, and a pioneer of organ improvisation for silent film in Poland. Supported by a scholarship from the Bavarian BAYHOST programme, he graduated with distinction from the organ class of Prof. Dr. (honoris causa) Christoph Bossert at the University of Music in Würzburg and completed his organ studies at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, also with distinction. During his studies, he participated in a year-long Erasmus-Socrates exchange and pursued further organ studies with Prof. Franz Danksagmüller at the Lübeck Academy of Music.

He took part in masterclasses in organ interpretation (run by, among others, W. Zerer, P. van Dijk, H. Vogel, M. Radulescu, M. Sander, R. Mayer, L. Fassang, and A. Cea Galán) and in improvisation (run by W. Seifen and D. Börner). After completing his studies in Warsaw, he undertook a six-month apprenticeship at two organ-building workshops: Wegscheider Orgelbau in Dresden and Torkildsen Orgelbyggeri Åsen in Norway. He also attended an intonation course organised by the International Society of Organbuilders at the workshop of Bernard Aubertin in Courtefontaine, France.

In 2016, Filip Presseisen became a prizewinner of the International Organ Competition (ION) in Nuremberg, receiving the special Antalffy-Preis for the finest interpretation of works performed on historic organs. One year later, he won the First Prize and the Special Prize (i.e. the Cup of the Mayor of Poznań) at the 6th Feliks Nowowiejski International Organ Competition in Poznań. He was also granted the Second Prize and the Audience Prize at the International Improvisation Competition in Schwäbisch Gmünd in 2019. Alongside his artistic achievements, in 2015 he won a competition organised by the Centre for Artistic Education to devise a national curriculum for organ studies at second-level music schools in Poland, and in 2023 he contributed to the development of new core curricula at the request of the Department of Artistic Education.

The musician was granted the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in the discipline of instrumental performance in 2020, followed by the degree of Habilitation (doctor habilitatus) in 2024. He is an expert appointed by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in matters concerning the conservation of historic organs, a member of the Baltisches Orgel Centrum, the Bach-Societät group, the Subcommittee for Organbuilding of the Archdiocese of Kraków, and a consultant to the Centre for Artistic Education.

He appears regularly on concert stages in Poland and abroad, with performances in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Norway, Hungary, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, and the United States. His recorded legacy includes 11 albums as well as recordings for Polish Radio and Polish Television. He collaborates with the ensembles Capella Cracoviensis and Cracow Singers. He is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Church Music of the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków and Head of the Instrumental Section at the Archdiocesan Secondary Music School in Kraków.

A pioneer of organ improvisation for silent film in Poland, he made his first such performance to the film titled Metropolis at the Konstelacja Gwiazd Festival in Szczecin in 2010. From that moment on, he has created improvised music for more than sixty silent films at international festivals in Poland, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States of America. His distinctive expertise in this field was confirmed in 2015, when he was awarded First Prize at the international cinema improvisation competition in Berlin, the Internationaler Kinoorgel-Wettbewerb im Babylon.