Katarzyna Mycka

The internationally renowned marimba virtuoso and chamber musician Katarzyna Myćka is regarded as a truly exceptional talent on her instrument.
  The musician from Stuttgart with Polish roots is respectfully known as "she who dances with the mallets" among experts in music criticism. "Perfect mallet technique" and "fantastic rhythmic precision" are more examples of the praise which the musician garners. That this praise rather understates Myćka's ability is demonstrated when she simultaneously produces up to six tones on her concert marimba, with its sixty narrow wooden bars and resonance pipes.
  A rarely heard solo instrument, the Marimba reveals a quite extraordinary richness of tone and a fascinatingly broad palette of musical effects under the virtuoso's swirling mallets. The artistic elegance and dance-like energy of her playing places the audience directly under her spell.
  After receiving training in piano and drums, Katarzyna Myćka discovered the marimba as her instrument, her ideal medium for musical expression, while studying at music academies in Gdansk, Stuttgart, and Salzburg. Numerous prizes and awards at international music competitions followed. She performed worldwide as a soloist at the main marimba festivals and also played as a soloist with renowned orchestras around the globe.
  The large concert marimba is a very young instrument, and has only existed in its current form since the mid-1980s. Katarzyna Myćka has quickly become the leading pioneer and ambassador for the instrument. For her this includes a commitment to training young players as well as participating on juries at international competitions, but in particular the International Katarzyna Myćka Marimba Academy (IKMMA), which she established in 2003.
  The artist’s multifaceted solo program includes not only transcriptions of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Sergei Prokofiev, but also original compositions by contemporary and younger composers.