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The Russian-born Polish marimba player and percussionist, Katarzyna Myćka, was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and grew up in Danzig/Gdańsk. At the age of 16, whilst she was at the music school in Danzig she changed from the piano to the drums. Two years later she began her studies at the Stanislaw Moniuszko Music Academy in Gdansk. Around this time she discovered the Marimba One, and was fascinated not only by the sound of the instrument but also by its lovingly handmade construction and design. She recognised the virtuoso quality of the instrument and chose it as her "ideal medium for musical expression". In 1992, despite being the youngest participant in the Concours des Genève (CIEM), she was awarded a grant to study abroad, following which she continued her studies in 1993 at the Studied at Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg under the drummer Peter Sadlo (December 1993-1997). She won numerous prizes and awards at international music competitions: 1st Prize at Opole Percussion Competition in Opole, Poland (1991); Special prize (scholarship) to study abroad, from the Geneva International Music Competition (1992); 1st Prize and Audience Prize at the International Percussion Competition Luxembourg (1995); 1st Prize at First World Marimba Competition Stuttgart (1996); Finalist at ARD-Competition in Munich (1997); Soloist of the Year at the Neubrandenburg Philharmonic Orchestra's Concert Series (2006). In 1995, she ended her studies in Danzig, and her soloist class in Stuttgart. There followed further grants and invitations to master-classes in the USA, Asia and several different European countries, through which the young musician soon developed a network in the music scene.
Critics have given the internationally renowned marimba virtuoso and chamber musician Katarzyna Myćka the sobriquet “she who dances with the mallets”: “the greatest fluidity”, “perfect mallet technique,” and a “marvelous, rhythmic precision” are characteristic for the musician, who is able to simultaneously produce up to six tones on her concert marimba with the sixty narrow wooden bars and resonance pipes. Expert circles testify to the “extraordinary richness of tone quality” and “fascinatingly broad palette of musical effects” that the marimba, which is rarely heard as a solo instrument, produces under the whirling mallets of the musician from Stuttgart with Polish roots. Audiences are also enthralled by the artistic elegance and dance-like energy of her playing.
Katarzyna Myćka was the first female soloist at the First World Marimba Festival in Osaka in 1998, the International Marimba Festival in Linz in 2004, and the Minneapolis Festival in 2010. She has performed as a solo guest with the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Bochumer Symphoniker, Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn, RSO Luxemburg, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Kammerorchester, Neubrandenburger Philharmoniker, Philharmonischen Orchester Erfurt, Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra, Polish Baltic Philharmonic, Łódź Philharmonic, Szczecin Philharmonic, Opole Philharmonic of Poland, and Sudecka Philharmonic.
In 1999 the Polish Percussive Arts Society conferred upon Katarzyna Myćka the designation "Ambassador of Polish Percussive Arts" followed by an endowment from the Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg as well as an invitation to international concerts and master-classes in places such the USA, Japan, China, Taiwan, and Mexico. Her debut in America was at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Anaheim, Los Angeles. She received further invitations to their international conventions in 2001 and 2008 in the USA. She has been the president of the German chapter of the Percussive Arts Society since 2005.
Katarzyna Myćka's multifaceted solo program includes not only transcriptions of the works of J.S. Bach or Sergei Prokofiev, but also original compositions by younger composers such as Emmanuel Séjourné or Anna Ignatowicz-Glińska. She has in the meantime recorded a cross-section of her repertoire on nine CD's. She dedicates “a lot of time and enthusiasm” to collaborating with composers who “explore and understand the special and marvelous sound of the marimba.” In this, the guiding principle, says the musician to whom numerous concerts and chamber music works have been dedicated, is “musical trust.”
The concert marimba has only existed in its current form since the mid-1980s. Katarzyna Myćka emphatically promotes the popularization of the marimba. For her, this includes a commitment to training young players and participation in juries at international competitions. She has been an adjudicator at international percussion competitions since 1999. She has been a juror in 1999 and 2002 for the International Percussion Competition Luxembourg, in 2000 for the First World Marimba Competition Stuttgart in Warsaw, in 2001 at the percussion competition in Ostrava, in 2004 at the Jugend musiziert ("youth play music") German federal-state competition in Villingen-Schwenningen, in 2005 at the Pendim Foundation International Competition For Percussion Instruments in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and in 2006 at the International Marimba Competition in Linz. Since October 2006, she has been teaching at the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań. It is the first academy in Poland that one can complete a major in marimba as the field of study. Every two years since 2003, she has put on the "International Katarzyna Myćka Marimba Academy" (IKMMA). In 2003, 2005, and 2007 it was in Wrocław, in 2009 in Frankfurt, 2011 in Nuremberg, 2013 at the Conservatoire de Luxembourg, 2015 in Hannover, and in 2017 the well-known and successful academy scheduled to continue in Arcata, California, the home of the Marimba One instrument manufacturer. Since October 2018, she is Professor of Marimba/Percussion at the St. Moniuszko Music Academy in Gdansk, Poland; and since October 2019 Assistant Professor of Marimba at Hochschule für Musik Münster. |
