Ashia Grzesik

Harnessing her rousing vocals and whimsical, gutsy cello lines, Ashia Grzesik creates songs with elements of cabaret, folk, pop, and dark americana. Her songs and writing reflect longing for her Slavic roots with Chopineasque and gypsy musings and the blues, rock, and open harmonies of the New World, as well as classical infused Chamber Pop. Her recent release, the EP ‘Bison Rouge’ has been celebrated as “captivating”, by The Portland Mercury and “ Her siren voice calls and dismisses cellos Read more on Last.fm …read full bio

Harnessing her rousing vocals and whimsical, gutsy cello lines, Ashia Grzesik creates songs with elements of cabaret, folk, pop, and dark americana. Her songs and writing reflect longing for her Slavic roots with Chopineasque and gypsy musings and the blues, rock, and open harmonies of the New World, as well as classical infused Chamber Pop. Her recent release, the EP ‘Bison Rouge’ has been celebrated as “captivating”, by The Portland Mercury and “ Her siren voice calls and dismisses cellos, accordion, drums, strings quartets, and trumpets at a whim, whirling your ears down into your heart and out into the aether. It is beautiful.” Seattle Pi Only about a couple years ago, her heart was wooed to the raw and rainy Pacific NW city Portland, OR, where she extensively writes, performs solo works and her talents in operatic vocals, improvisation on the cello, and theatrics are continuously stretched in the bohemian-cabaret band Vagabond Opera. Also being a part of the band and community The Portland Cello Project, she has collaborated with the likes of Laura Gibson, Storm Large, Sally Ford, and Grammy nominated Amanda Richards, plus many more. After training in classical cello and voice, at the age of 21, she was invited to play cello and sing at Cirque du Soleil’s production of “O” in Las Vegas. The experience with aerialists, dancers, physical actors, and circus performers infected her with a strong interest in theatrical and cabaret performance and upon leaving “O”, she recorded her CD “Pay to be Loved” and continued to perform. Ashia has performed Nationally, Internationally including Hong Kong and Europe, and in her birth city Wroclaw, Poland in the theatrical song festival Przeglad Piosenki Aktorskie. In 2010 she received a ‘Drammy’ for folk inspired cello incidental music for the production of The Gray Sisters, by award winning Third Rail Theater. She has played a principal role in the sold out premier run of the Queen of Knives opera written by Vagabond Opera’s Eric Stern.Ashia’s performances vary from the theatrical cabaret, rowdy eastern euro bars, sit-down concert halls, and keen little dives intended for acoustic intimacy and subtlety. What else could become of a Polish immigrant with a whiskey lovin’ blues singer father and a classical music ballet devoted mother, but a cello score writing, skinny leggin burlesqueing, opera misfit, wide eyed feet on the floor mesh of cello and song? Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.

…shrink me down again