Joasia CIEŚLAK

JOASIA CIEŚLAK (Poland), currently based in Finland, is a cellist, composer, improviser, producer and teacher. She graduated with the highest grade from the Soloist Post Grad at the Royal Academy of Music Denmark. She was the only cellist in 2016 accepted to the MA at the Sibelius Academy in Finland  - at that time, sixth best arts academy in the World. Passionate collaborator with love for innovation and art. While she studied classical music, she progressively branched out, using her homeland and classical studies as a foundation from which to explore jazz, pop, hip-hop, film music and composing. She worked with such artists as Pessi Levanto, Eriikka Maalismaa, Niko Kumpuvaara, Nicholas Swensen, Uusinta Ensemble, Ensemble MidtVest and Metropole Orchestra with Snarky Puppy. Her sound and performance practice inspired Matilda Seppälä, Christian Balvig, Heta Aho and Mirel Iancovici to compose for her. She flourishes in cutting-edge performances and projects and chooses to be a talent multiplying leader. Grateful scholarship holder of the National Fund for Musical Instruments of The Netherlands, Sibelius Academy, Statens Kunstfond, The Arts Promotion Centre Finland TAIKE, The Finnish Music Foundation MES, Hanaholmen, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Finnish-Danish Cultural Fund, Valdemar Hansen and Jenny Viskum Foundation and the Holger Arndts Foundation. Joasia has performed in The Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Finland, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Russia, Indonesia and Japan. She premiered music by Lil Lacy, Lauri Supponen, Athanasia Kotronia, Valery Voronov, Hans-Jürgen Gerung, Marzi Nyman (Aleksis Kivi theatre play), Steinn Gunnarsson, Christian Balvig, Mirel Iancovici, Heta Aho, Matilda Seppälä and a solo cello piece generated by an algorithm based on one day of rent prices in Berlin premiered on a Nordic Culture Point board meeting. In 2022 Joasia was an Artist in Residence at EMS in Stockholm. After residency at The University of Arts in Reykjavik she started performing and composing for halldorophone. She appeared as a soloist and chamber musician on festivals in Poland (Ensemble Festival), Finland (Kallio New Music Days, Helsinki Festival, Metrolla Festival), Denmark (Aarhus Chamber Music Festival, Rued Langgaard Festival, invited to New Music For Strings Festival) and Iceland (Omar Festival in Hjalteyri). Norwegian label AMP Music & Record released a CD of her crossover quintet Misceo which Joasia funded during studies at the Sibelius Academy. Since 2023 she is a certified yoga teacher.