artists
Kateryna Kravchenko
Kateryna Kravchenko © Erik Mathias
Between scripted stories and improvised moments.
Kateryna Kravchenko is interested in what emerges when music meets poetry, different traditions and open forms. Whether performing as a duo, in her own compositions or through her engagement with poetry and folklore, the artist seeks to create music that leaves room for nuances, stories and spontaneous encounters.
Born and raised in a small town in south-western Ukraine, Kateryna Kravchenko began playing the piano at the age of four. At eleven, she discovered her love of singing and, shortly afterwards, of jazz. After completing her training in Odessa, she moved to Dresden to pursue her studies, before transferring to the Cologne University of Music and Dance in 2024 to study jazz composition and singing.
In her collaborations with other musicians, she seeks out new forms of musical and poetic dialogue. Together with the Luxembourgish vibraphonist and composer Arthur Clees, she has developed an open, organic form of musical interaction. The duo combines the vibraphone and voice, leaving plenty of scope for improvisation and experimentation. On their debut album *Faces*, the duo sets texts by international poets to music, creating an atmospheric and intimate soundscape.
Exploring her heritage has become an important part of her artistic work. Together with the bassist Béla Bluche, she created the project /inshi/, in which she reinterprets Ukrainian folklore. Traditional songs are not simply preserved, but transformed into moving, contemporary performances. “When I sing these songs, I feel healed,” says the artist. “This music takes away some of the pain and allows me, for a moment, simply to enjoy this beauty.”
“Every performance and every encounter with the music is a highlight for me,” says Kateryna Kravchenko. Her music emerges through exchange – with other musicians, with lyrics and traditions, but also with the moment itself. Between composed music and improvisation, voice and instrument, personal experience and new interpretations, spaces for the unexpected emerge.