Now a rising star, Stashka – also known as Kasia Stasiak – has long dreamed of celebrity. Even at pre-school she insisted on singing in all of their plays. At the age of seven, her grandfather gave her a piano and she took to it like a natural, enrolling at The First Level Music School in Szczytno. Later, she asked her parents to buy her a guitar, so that she could play it at family picnics and bonfires and very quickly she had mastered the basic chords without tuition. She continued her musical education at the vocal department of the State Music School in Olsztyn, where she gained her diploma in 2003, singing arias and operas. By then she was also performing with a gypsy band.
During her studies in Poznań, where she graduated with an MA in Musicology, Kasia became closely involved with The Academic Choir Of The Adam Mickiewicz University, touring Poland and performing abroad in Germany, the Netherlands, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Becoming a solo artist was a spontaneous and natural progression for Kasia, who had begun writing her own lyrics and music. The joy of creating her own work comes across clearly in her songs. She spent three years writing material for her album and the first single from it, Clock, was released in 2011 – not with nervousness or trepidation but in a spirit of celebration. To the Edge of the World followed shortly afterwards and featured widely at premieres and at the 50th National Festival Of Polish Songs in Opole.
Writing in her blog at that time, Kasia said: “People tell me I should not reveal so much, that I should keep the world at arm’s length. But I ask: why? My fans have been with me since the very beginning, since I walked into the studio and recorded my first songs. My fans have watched my career develop, and have seen how it has progressed. I feel the need to share all my experiences with the fans who have come to know me so well.”
Her third single, I Want To Love, is conquering the music charts in Poland and abroad. It stole the hearts of the Swedish audience at this year’s Baltic Song Contest, winning The Audience Award and The Grand Prix Award.
Stashka’s debut album “I want to love” will appear in music shops and on the internet in Autumn this year and will surely only boost the career of Kasia Stasiak, the Mazurian girl with the shining smile and positive attitude to life. She is seizing the moment and making her own dreams come true by sharing the songs which she composes with a refreshing vitality and truth.
Author: Emilian Waluchowski / Pangea Magazine
