f. i. m. m. Karałow / Lebik

As a per­former he explores gen­res such as live elec­tron­ics and elec­troa­coustic impro­vi­sa­tion, com­bin­ing sax­o­phones, elec­tron­ics and sound objects.

His instal­la­tions and sound works explore phe­nom­e­na such as psy­choa­coustics, time-per­cep­tion dis­or­ders and the rela­tion­ship between sound and archi­tec­ture, using white noise, sine waves, feed­back and ambison­ic sound to cre­ate immer­sive expe­ri­ences that rede­fine the bound­aries of sound perception.

Com­pos­er, pianist, impro­vis­er, edu­ca­tor. Doc­tor of Musi­cal Arts. Since 2016 he has been a lec­tur­er at the Fry­deryk Chopin Uni­ver­si­ty of Music in War­saw at the Fac­ul­ty of Com­po­si­tion and Music The­o­ry (from 2020 as an assis­tant pro­fes­sor). He is a grad­u­ate of that insti­tu­tion in the com­po­si­tion class of Prof. Stanisław Mory­to and the piano class of Prof. Bro­nisława Kawalla.

In the 2018/19 artis­tic sea­son he was includ­ed in the LPO Young Com­posers Pro­gramme, as part of which his com­po­si­tion received its world pre­miere per­formed by the Lon­don Phil­har­mon­ic Orches­tra under the baton of Sir James MacMil­lan at the South­bank Cen­tre in Lon­don. His works have been per­formed in Poland and abroad at con­certs and fes­ti­vals in the USA, Japan, Cana­da, Eng­land, Spain, Ger­many, Mex­i­co, Bul­gar­ia, France, Esto­nia, Königs­berg, Aus­tralia, Italy and Hun­gary. In 2023 he was one of the lec­tur­ers at a com­po­si­tion course dur­ing the Take­fu Inter­na­tion­al Music Fes­ti­val in Japan. 

He is a lau­re­ate of numer­ous nation­al and inter­na­tion­al piano com­pe­ti­tions, includ­ing in Paris, Athens, and War­saw. He is also a lau­re­ate of inter­na­tion­al and nation­al com­po­si­tion com­pe­ti­tions, e.g. in Katow­ice, War­saw, Poz­nań, and Miskolc (Hun­gary). 

The rela­tion­ship between image and sound, and the var­i­ous ways in which artis­tic thought can man­i­fest itself in both, is one of his main cre­ative inter­ests. His artis­tic explo­rations there­fore also find expres­sion in work in the visu­al arts, such as pho­tog­ra­phy, in which he seeks to devel­op his skills under the guid­ance of professionals.

He has ten mono­graph­ic, cham­ber and impro­vised albums to his name. These include, among oth­ers: There are some neb­u­lae no eye can dis­pel (mono­graph­ic album, Chopin Uni­ver­si­ty Press), the meta-opera De invi­ta­tione mor­tis (Chopin Uni­ver­si­ty Press) to a libret­to by Maciej Papier­s­ki, and Life & Beyond (DUX, duet with Mał­gorza­ta Wasi­u­cionek-Potera) — all three were nom­i­nat­ed for the Fry­deryk music record­ing award. In addi­tion, his works and inter­pre­ta­tions have been released on sev­er­al dozen albums by labels such as Ablaze Records (Australia–USA), DUX, Requiem Records, Chopin Uni­ver­si­ty Press and Kro­ni­ki Warsza­wskiej Jesieni. 

He has col­lab­o­rat­ed with, among oth­ers, the Lon­don Phil­har­mon­ic Orches­tra, the Nation­al Phil­har­mon­ic Orches­tra, NOSPR, the Sile­sian Phil­har­mon­ic Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra, Sin­fo­nia Varso­via, and con­duc­tors includ­ing Sir James MacMil­lan, Bassem Aki­ki, Szy­mon Bywalec, Michał Klauza, José Maria Florên­cio, Ewa Strusińs­ka, and Jakub Chrenowicz. 

He has devel­oped his piano, com­po­si­tion­al and impro­vi­sa­tion­al craft at mas­ter­class­es in Oxford, Barcelona, Mon­tre­al, Valen­cia, Bergen, Imo­la, Leipzig and Duszni­ki-Zdrój, under the guid­ance of such mas­ters as Beat Fur­rer, Joëlle Léan­dre, Dieter Ammann, Zyg­munt Krauze, Ste­fano Ger­va­soni, Mikhail Vosskre­sen­sky, Boris Petrushan­sky, Arie Var­di and Gary Graffman. 

He is a schol­ar­ship hold­er of the Min­is­ter of Sci­ence and High­er Edu­ca­tion, the Pro Polo­nia Asso­ci­a­tion (twice) and his home insti­tu­tion. In 2014 he received the Award of the Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and Nation­al Her­itage, and in 2015 the pres­ti­gious “Mło­da Pol­s­ka” scholarship.