Anja Kowalski

Instruments : Vocals
Date of birth : 19/05/1971 - Bruxelles

Following her high school education, Anja Kowalski took guitar courses at the Antwerp Jazz Studio, studied Jazz Vocals at the Brussels Conservatory and improvisation at the Liège Conservatory.

She sings in different bands and projects that situate themselves on the threshold between jazz, song writing, rock and improvisation:

Purzelbaum Unlimited (with C. Smet)

Zwiebel (with Manuela Bucher)

Billie King (with Tine Reymer)

BLEED (with P. Vandenberghe and T.Verbruggen)

Solo performance piece for the "4x4" project produced by ‘Les Bains::Connective'

She is working at the moment with a music-theatre production "Le tango des centaures" under the direction of I. von Wantoch Rekowski, which will be performed in october 05 at the Théâtre National ( Brussels).

She is also preparing a performance together with the Norwegian dancer L.H. Haugen.

In the preceding years, Anja Kowalski has worked with a divers range of bands and musicians:
Flat Earth Society" (big band by Peter Vermeersch), Pierre Vaiana, David Bovée, Karl Van Deun, Pirly Zurstrassen, QO2, Lunik, etc.

She has participated in various interdisciplinary projects:

HELIOGABAL (Opera by Peter Vermeersch)

LARF (by Josse de Pauw)

DRUMMING (Ictus Ensemble/Rosas Dance Company)

OKTOBER-OCTOBRE (theatre company Dito-Dito)

PATATBOUM (by the theatre company LAIKA)

SAUNA IN EXILE (produced by the ‘Kaaitheater' and ‘Les Bains: Connective'), and others.

With her bands and projects, Anja has performed on a national as well as an international circuit: Salzburg (A), the ‘Ruhrtrienale' (D), at the Middelheim and the Blue Note Festival in Belgium, in Burkina Faso, Niger, Norway, the U.K., France, Netherlands and Switzerland.

She composes and does musical arrangements for certain bands she performs in and also for dance-and theatre pieces.

Anja is equally active in teaching: she has given courses at the Jazz Studio and the Humanités Artistiques in Antwerp, at the STUC in Leuven, and has given workshops in Belgium, Holland and Burkina Faso. She is currently professor at the academy of Berchem Sainte Agathe.

DISCOGRAPHY:

Flat Earth Society (FES) "live at the Beursschouwburg" 1999

FES "Bonk" 2000

FES "Trap" 2001

FES "The Armstrong Mutations" 2002

Purzelbaum Unlimited "DÖ" 2005

as a guest-singer:

Think Of One "Juggernaut" 1997

Foofango (P. Vaiana) 1999