Polish harpist Urszula Mazurek died on Jan. 18, 2026, in Warsaw.
Born September 17, 1937, in Toruń, Poland, Mazurek graduated in 1962 from her harp studies at the State Higher School of Music in Warsaw, then studied harp with Jacqueline Borot, first at the Paris Conservatoire and then at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, until 1967. Additionally, she studied chamber music at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana with Sergio Lorenzi and Riccardo Brengoli and completed art history and linguistics studies at the University of Siena (French, Italian, and Spanish).
In the 1960s, she became the first Polish harpist to record a solo album. Along with flutist Barbara Świątek and violist Włodzimierz Tomaszewski, Mazurek founded the Warsaw Harp Trio; several Polish composers wrote new works for the group. As an orchestral harpist, Mazurek performed with the Warsaw Operetta, the Bologna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Mexico City Symphony Orchestra, and the orchestras of Monterrey and Morella in Mexico. She recorded solo and chamber works for Polish Radio and Polish Television and for broadcasters in Mexico and Norway.
Mazurek was well-known as a pedagogue. Starting in 1972, she worked at the Academy of Music in Warsaw and obtained the title of professor of harp in 1992. She was a harp teacher at the Karol Szymanowski and Fryderyk Chopin Secondary Music Schools in Warsaw, and a consultant at the Karol Kurpiński Primary Music School in Warsaw. She taught at several other music academies and schools, including the Escuela de Música y Danza in Monterrey, Mexico; the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland; and the Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz Academy of Music in Łódź, Poland.
