Aleksandra Raczynska is a vocalist, violinist, singing teacher and choir conductor. She gained professional qualifications at the Academy of Music in Gdansk and Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya in Barcelona. For several years she was a choir singer of the prestigious Polish National Youth Choir and the leader of the Solifonia Vocal Quintet. She is also the creator of the bands Almadera and Fasola.
She currently lives in Copenhagen, where she started her education in Business Administration. She is also the conductor of the Modern Vocal Ensemble, vocal coach of ACE singers and the founder of the CHOIR CLUB at the “Korskolen” choir school.
I was singing before I could even talk. That’s why I got to study music.
I come from a family where music has always been present – my grandfather played violin, my mother – piano, and my older siblings went to music school. One day, walking with me in a baby carriage, my parents heard me singing “note by note” a rooster crowing. Then they already knew that I would be musically talented. At the age of 4, I sang my first concert as a soloist with the Representative Choir of my hometown and immediately after that my parents signed me up for singing lessons.
In the following years, I took part in many song competitions and festivals in Poland, including the popular musical show for children – “From Kindergarten to Opole” (where I received a positive feedback, as it turned out that I was the only participant in the edition who could sing a cappella and did not lose the sense of the key), “Win a Success” or “National Competition of Recitation”, from where I brought prizes and awards. Already as a little girl I showed a lot of musical skills, such as playing melodies by ear on the piano.
Why do I make music? And why do I want to do it?
I want to use my talent and the skills that I have developed to give others pleasure. I wish that they can relax with my music, or run into a completely different world and for a moment break away from reality. I do not have a big plan to change the world. Perhaps over time, the idea for a bigger project will appear which will be able to somehow contribute to the improvement of life on our planet. For now, I am getting closer to it with small steps, working with different people and looking for different paths of development.
Such a path of development could be START 2000, during which, thanks to a grant, I could focus on creativity and its study.
My artistry does not manifest itself visually – I express myself through sounds.
But what do I say?
I express emotions. In each, even a small excerpt of my music, I place my emotions. I do not necessarily know how to name them and everyone will feel them differently. But I never want to make music for commercial purposes; I always want to express the truth.
From the very first concert at the Academy of Music, the commission that assessed my work appreciated my willingness to express myself and the truth. I am never going to pretend that I am someone who I am not. During my studies, I did not intend to follow in the footsteps of most students who had found themselves the best in singing soul, funk and other types of “energetic” music.
I have noticed that I am mainly expressing myself through improvisation – which I would like to be able to teach to the people in the future and inspire them to look for their ways of expression. Not necessarily jazz improvisation – based on specific harmony, consciously using jazz scales, swing and appropriate “licks”. I would like people to express themselves using the knowledge and skills they currently have available.
Work
Education
Jazz vocal performance
Graduated in Jazz Vocal Performance (with one year exchange in ESMUC, Barcelona) at the Stanislaw Moniuszko Academy of Music, Gdańsk, 2018
Master’s thesis: The Individual Musical Language of Bobby McFerrin. Improvisation and CircleSong Form (with the review of Bobby’s CircleSong concert, Warsaw, Poland, 2018), under supervision of prof. Grzegorz Piotrowski
Choir Conducting
Graduated in Choir Conducting at the Stanislaw Moniuszko Academy of Music, Gdańsk, 2017.
Master’s thesis: Specificity of Conductor’s Work in Stage Music Repertoire with Regard to Selected Pieces with one chapter about CircleSong; under supervision of prof. Aleksandra Grucza-Rogalska.
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Almadera | Aleksandra Raczynska
contact@almadera.art