(Inside) my inner sounds

The Hash­tag Lab Con­tem­po­rary Music Space is co-financed by the Cap­i­tal City of War­saw.
The media patron of the Hash­tag Lab Con­tem­po­rary Music Space is POLMIC​.PL and Dwój­ka Pol­skie Radio.

If you’d like to know more about the artist:

dr Julian­na Kami­la Siedler-Smu­ga — per­cus­sion­ist, marim­bist, per­former, impro­vis­er, music pro­duc­er, edu­ca­tor. Born in Łódź, she trained under out­stand­ing edu­ca­tors in Poland and abroad. She holds Mas­ter of Arts degrees in: per­cus­sion (diplo­ma with dis­tinc­tion — Music Acad­e­my Łódź, class of Prof. U. Bereźnic­ka-Pni­ak and Dr P. Pni­ak), stage marim­ba (Roy­al Con­ser­va­toire of Antwerp — class of Prof. L. Albert and Dr C.C. Lin) and per­cus­sion the­atre (diplo­ma with dis­tinc­tion — LUCA School of Arts Leu­ven, class of Dr C.C. Lin), and was also an Eras­mus schol­ar­ship recip­i­ent at the Roy­al Con­ser­va­toire of Brus­sels (class of Prof. B. Quarti­er, G. François, B. Bouckaert).

In 2017 she was award­ed a doc­tor­al degree in per­cus­sion (the­sis writ­ten under the super­vi­sion of Prof. G. Jur­czyk). Her doc­tor­al dis­ser­ta­tion on “The Most Recent Pol­ish Works for Marim­ba in the Con­text of Clas­si­cal and Uncon­ven­tion­al Play­ing Tech­nique” received excel­lent reviews (Prof. T. Soban­iec, Prof. H. Mikołajczyk).

She also com­plet­ed a music pro­duc­tion course in 2021 and a mix­ing and mas­ter­ing course in 2023.

She has per­formed at numer­ous inter­na­tion­al fes­ti­vals of con­tem­po­rary and impro­vised music, includ­ing Warsza­wska Jesień, Otwarty Jazdów War­saw, Ad Libi­tum, Audio Art, Uma­mi Berlin, Musi­ca Pri­va­ta, Nove Hud­by Plus, Ago­ra Per­cus­sio, Poz­nańs­ka Wios­na Muzy­cz­na, Musi­ca Mod­er­na, Mózg Fes­ti­val Byd­goszcz, Sce­na Robocza Łódź, Dotknij Teatru 2022, Krakows­ki Między­nar­o­dowy Fes­ti­w­al Kom­pozy­torów. In addi­tion to her per­form­ing activ­i­ties, she also com­pos­es music for the­atri­cal and chore­o­graph­ic per­for­mances and shows (includ­ing col­lab­o­ra­tions with Krakows­ki Salon Poezji in Łódź, Con­nect­ing Arts & The­atre Dance Com­pa­ny, ESToK, Ars Pro Cul­tura). Julian­na is a ver­sa­tile artist, though she devotes her­self pri­mar­i­ly to explor­ing con­tem­po­rary and cham­ber music. From 2014 to 2017, togeth­er with Amber Tzu – Chun Chen, she formed the marim­ba duo Equi­lib­ri Duo. In 2017 she began work­ing with the only all-female marim­ba duo in Poland — Dal­ber­gia Duo — along­side Dr Anna Rutkows­ka. In April 2018 the artists won first prize at the Inter­na­tion­al Mas­ter Com­pe­ti­tion for Music Teach­ers in War­saw, as well as a rec­om­men­da­tion from the Pol­ish Music Foun­da­tion for out­stand­ing inter­pre­ta­tion of Pol­ish music; in Decem­ber 2018 they received sec­ond prize in the cham­ber music cat­e­go­ry at the Inter­na­tion­al North Music Com­pe­ti­tion in Stock­holm; and in 2019 the artists won sec­ond prize at the IMKA Music Com­pe­ti­tion in Sara­je­vo in the cham­ber music category.

In Octo­ber 2022 they gave the world pre­miere of the sym­phon­ic ver­sion of C.C. Lin’s dou­ble marim­ba con­cer­to — “Dou­ble marim­ba con­cer­to No.1 One World. One Dream. One Love.” — accom­pa­nied by the Świę­tokrzys­ka Phil­har­mon­ic Orches­tra. Julian­na has par­tic­i­pat­ed in nation­al and inter­na­tion­al solo per­for­mance com­pe­ti­tions: in 2013 she was a semi-final­ist at the Inter­na­tion­al Marim­ba Com­pe­ti­tion in Opole; as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Łódź acad­e­my she took part in the Yama­ha schol­ar­ship com­pe­ti­tion in 2013; and in 2014 she passed the pre-elim­i­na­tion round of the Inter­na­tion­al Marim­ba Com­pe­ti­tion in Bam­berg. She was a found­ing mem­ber of the Asso­ci­a­tion of Per­cus­sion Edu­ca­tors and is a mem­ber of the Inter­na­tion­al Marim­ba Asso­ci­a­tion — Marim­ba Fes­ti­va Asso­ci­a­tion — with­in which she is a co-organ­is­er/lec­tur­er of “Marim­ba Gath­er­ings” (inter­na­tion­al marim­ba work­shops), as well as Office and Pro­mo­tion Man­ag­er of the Inter­na­tion­al Katarzy­na Myć­ka Marim­ba Acad­e­my (IKMMA). Julian­na has an ever-grow­ing list of world pre­mieres of com­po­si­tions ded­i­cat­ed to her (by, among oth­ers, Artur Zaga­jew­s­ki, Kuba Krzewińs­ki, Nina Fukuo­ka, Mar­ta Śni­ady, Piotr Peszat, Paweł Mali­nows­ki, Karol Osman); she also arranges music for her own pur­pos­es and com­pos­es. Julian­na is also active as an organ­is­er and edu­ca­tor. Since 2020 she has been an artist/endorser of Adams Per­cus­sion and Schlagkraft Mal­lets as a mem­ber of the Dal­ber­gia Duo. Julian­na also col­lab­o­rates as a per­former of the­atri­cal music on the pro­duc­tions: “The Cher­ry Orchard” direct­ed by M. War­sic­ka with music by Karol Nepel­s­ki at the Ste­fan Jaracz The­atre in Łódź, and “Amadeus” direct­ed by A. Wieczur at the Dra­mat­ic The­atre of the Cap­i­tal City of War­saw (since May 2024 also pre­sent­ed at the Ste­fan Jaracz Dra­mat­ic The­atre in Łódź). Through­out her five years of study and up to the present, she has col­lab­o­rat­ed and con­tin­ues to col­lab­o­rate with pro­fes­sion­al orches­tras, includ­ing: Pol­ish Cam­er­a­ta Cham­ber Orches­tra (as tim­panist), War­saw Cham­ber Opera Orches­tra, Ear­ly Music Ensem­ble Musi­cae Anti­quae Col­legium Varso­viense, Pol­ish Orches­tra Sin­fo­nia Iuven­tus im. J. Semkow, Sin­fo­nia Varso­via, Łódź Phil­har­mon­ic Orches­tra, Baltic Opera Orches­tra, Wrocław Baroque Opera, Orches­tra of the Grand The­atre in Łódź, Płock Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra and Kalisz Phil­har­mon­ic Orches­tra, as well as aca­d­e­m­ic orches­tras (Music Acad­e­my Orches­tras in Łódź, Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra of the Roy­al Con­ser­va­toire Brus­sels). She has had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to per­form under the baton of dis­tin­guished con­duc­tors, per­form­ing an exten­sive reper­toire rang­ing from clas­si­cal music through jazz, film music, sonoris­tic music, and up to the most recent compositions.

In 2019 she record­ed the debut album “Korzenie/Roots” by the Dal­ber­gia Duo, con­tain­ing music by Pol­ish com­posers (P.M. Korep­ta, I.J. Paderews­ki, M. Ptaszyńs­ka, A. Zaga­jew­s­ki, R. Mate­ja, K. Szy­manows­ki). In 2016 she record­ed the album/audio play by Suavas Lewy: “Dźwiękowa his­to­ria Łodzi”, and in 2018 “Rewoluc­ja 1905: Niech się niesie ten siostrzany śpiew”. She also par­tic­i­pat­ed in orches­tral album record­ings with, among oth­ers, the Łódź Phil­har­mon­ic Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra and the MACV Orches­tra (“Wolf­gang Amadeus Mozart – Over­tures” (2020) with the MACV orches­tra and “Krzysztof Herdzin – Kolędy z MACV” (2022)); in 2025 she record­ed the xylo­phone and marim­ba parts for the album “Per­pe­tus” by Gniewomir Tomczyk.

Since 2014 she has also been active as an edu­ca­tor, work­ing in pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary music schools and lead­ing marimba/percussion work­shops in Poland, with her stu­dents earn­ing prizes and dis­tinc­tions at nation­al com­pe­ti­tions. She is also active­ly engaged in pub­lish­ing arti­cles (in, among oth­ers, Glis­san­do and Presto mag­a­zines), speak­ing about her artis­tic activ­i­ties in the field of marimba/contemporary music, and deliv­er­ing lec­tures at inter­na­tion­al music/percussion/marimba con­fer­ences (includ­ing Doc­tors of Per­for­mance, Ago­ra Per­cus­sio Xabia, Online Mal­lets Fes­ti­val) and at music acad­e­mies (includ­ing the Feliks Nowowiejs­ki Music Acad­e­my in Byd­goszcz and the Graży­na and Kiejs­tut Bacewicz Music Acad­e­my in Łódź).

Since 2023 she has been pur­su­ing a solo con­cert career focused on per­form­ing Pol­ish con­tem­po­rary music and giv­ing world pre­mieres of solo com­po­si­tions com­mis­sioned for her. Her main area of inter­est is per­for­ma­tive con­certs that tie a cho­sen reper­toire togeth­er with a sin­gle shared idea, accom­pa­nied by back­ground quotes (dis­played as on-screen sub­ti­tles) drawn from lit­er­a­ture rel­e­vant to the cho­sen theme, or quotes that inspired the com­posers. Julian­na’s per­for­ma­tive con­cert and per­cus­sion the­atre pro­duc­tions include: “The Unknown” (2018), “To the world” (2024), “Inter­sec­tions of the mind” (2025), “(Inside) my inner sounds” (2026).

Since 2024 she has been an endors­er of Schlagkraft Mal­lets and Adams Per­cus­sion as a solo artist (since 2020 as a mem­ber of the Dal­ber­gia Duo); she also opened her own artis­tic stu­dio “Between the Bars” in War­saw. The stu­dio’s activ­i­ties encom­pass col­lab­o­ra­tion with com­posers on new com­po­si­tions, col­lab­o­ra­tion with oth­er instru­men­tal­ists on new projects, record­ing ses­sions for her music pro­duc­tion work, activ­i­ties in the field of music pro­duc­tion, and teach­ing (from begin­ner to aca­d­e­m­ic lev­el) in the area of mal­let per­cus­sion instru­ments and per­cus­sion the­atre (prac­ti­cal ses­sions and con­sul­ta­tions). From the 2024/2025 aca­d­e­m­ic year, Julian­na began a col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Graży­na and Kiejs­tut Bacewicz Music Acad­e­my in Łódź as a lec­tur­er. She also col­lab­o­rates with oth­er aca­d­e­m­ic insti­tu­tions in Poland (includ­ing the Feliks Nowowiejs­ki Music Acad­e­my in Byd­goszcz and the Stanisław Moniuszko Music Acad­e­my in Gdańsk), lead­ing mas­ter­class­es for stu­dents as well as pupils of pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary music schools (includ­ing in Kraków (2025), Łódź (2024), Poz­nań (2024), Grodzisk Mazowiec­ki (2023), War­saw (2022)).

In 2025 the artist was hon­oured with the Bronze Cross of Mer­it for her con­tri­bu­tion to the devel­op­ment of Pol­ish culture.

Tickets

40 PLN