about

Kasia Kadłubowska is a Polish-born vibraphonist, percussionist, composer and singer-songwriter whose work moves between neoclassical music, experimental pop, improvisation and contemporary interpretations of folk traditions.

Born in Gdańsk, she began her musical education on piano before switching to percussion at the age of fourteen. As a teenager, she was already performing across different musical worlds — from jazz and klezmer to Kashubian folk music — and appeared as a soloist with orchestras, at the Polish Radio and Television, and with the Percussion Ensemble of Jeunesses Musicales. These early experiences shaped an artistic practice that has remained open to crossing boundaries rather than settling into a single genre.

Her musical language is rooted in the physical and sonic possibilities of percussion. Marimba and vibraphone meet frame drums, voice, electronics and unconventional sound-making, creating music that can be intimate and atmospheric as well as rhythmically complex and raw. Improvisation plays a central role in her work, not as a separate genre but as a way of listening, responding and discovering new forms.

Kadłubowska studied percussion with Marta Klimasara at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart and continued her studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse de Lyon and the Music Academy in Gdańsk. Alongside her classical training, she has worked with musicians from jazz, contemporary, experimental and traditional music, including Mikołaj Trzaska, Dominik Bukowski and Ivan Shopov. Her collaborations have taken her to stages and festivals across Europe and beyond, including Germany, Poland, Portugal, Croatia, Italy, Israel, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Costa Rica.

Her own compositions first came to the foreground with White Lions, an album combining the rhythmic precision of minimalism with influences from world music and folklore. Earlier, Transient (DUX, 2015), recorded with Dominik Bukowski as the Mallet Duo, explored works by Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Terry Riley and Arvo Pärt through arrangements for marimba, vibraphone and electronics.

Kadłubowska is also a founding member of several ensembles, including Mahlukat, Maha Pudma and MAYUKO. With MAYUKO, she explores a more experimental and song-oriented territory, while her work with Mahlukat connects percussion, electronics, improvisation and Eastern European musical traditions. Her most recent artistic focus is ROOTS, a project rooted in the musical and cultural landscapes of Eastern Europe, where ancestral stories, folk traditions, voice, rhythm and contemporary sound meet.

Alongside performing and composing, Kadłubowska teaches percussion, frame drum and rhythm, sharing approaches that connect body, voice and musical intuition. Her artistic work has been recognised with numerous international competition prizes and scholarships, including support from the Polish Ministry of Culture, the City of Gdańsk, the Art Foundation of Baden-Württemberg, the Alfred Toepfer Foundation and Music Fund.

Rather than treating tradition, contemporary music and experimentation as separate territories, Kasia Kadłubowska works in the spaces between them — searching for sounds that carry memory while remaining open to transformation.