Biography

10.08.1973 - Roksana Vikaluk was born in Ternopil, Ukraine.

In 1994 she moved to Poland. Originally it was supposed to be just a short visit, but due to circumstances she remained there permanently and now Poland has become her second home. It was here, in Poland, that she continued her studies of music. At first, due to the help and support of Ewa Bem she entered the Postliceal Jazz Studio in Warsaw to study singing. There she was pursuing her studies under Ewa Bem’s careful supervision. Then she has finished composition and arrangement in the Department of Jazz and Recreational Music of The Music Academy in Katowice (now Institute of Jazz).

While living in Silesia, she got acquainted and initiated a fruitful cooperation with Józef Skrzek www.skrzek.com , the founder of the legendary SBB group. This cooperation resulted in numerous audio and video records, as well as in the foundation of the IN CORPORE group, including: J. Skrzek - keyboards, P. Wojtasik - trumpet, M. Muzykant – percussion, R. Vikaluk and A. Karma?ska-Poniszowska - vocals, W. Muzykant, A. Zeliszek – scenic movement. For Roksana this was an important contact with a kind of a musical play, comprising film illustrations as well as contemporary dancing. Later there were many other common enterprises, among which a solo concert at the People’s Philharmonic, participation in the Jubilee Concert of SBB in the Congress Hall of the Palace of Culture and Science. Until now Józef Skrzek remains an artistic master for Roksana.

In 1999 Roksana moved to Warsaw. Here she became a co-founder and a leader of the MIZRAH group (R. Vikaluk - vocal, piano, R. Borowski - flutes, P. Aleksandrowicz - guitar, W. Traczyk - contrabass, M. Trela - percussion). The group was distinguished at the "Nowa Tradycja" ("The New Tradition") Contest in Warsaw. This helped to release the records of the "Mizrah" music by Jazz Forum Records in 2002. The record included Roksana’s arrangements of jazz and Eastern European music. Cooperation with the flautist Ryszard Borowski represented another important episode of her life. Together they were performing their own compositions and arrangements of old and folk music.

Although Roksana is spending most of her time in Poland, her roots have always been in Ukraine. From there she is getting her strength and energy. She comes back to Ukraine very often not only to visit her family home, but also to give concerts and to record music. She participated, among other events, in the All-Ukrainian Jazz festival in Ternopil. She recorded jazz standards for the Radio Ukraine as well as the video clip to L. Hampton’s standard "The Midnight Sun" which was ranking in the top ten among other records. Since recently she has been concentrated on the in-depth study of the Ukrainian archaic folk music. Ukrainian archaic motives are becoming more and more evident in Roksana’s artistic activity. Roksana is participating regularly in the Ukrainian Culture Festival in Sopot: in 2003 with her group (R. Vikaluk - vocal, R. Borowski - flute, J. Orlowski - guitar, W. Pulcyn - contrabass, R. Siwak - percussion) and with the solo programme in the next years.

An exceptionally creative mood of Poland and cooperation with the artists in Homeland display a significant influence on Roksana’s artistic route. Presently she is appearing in concerts with a solo programme, combining Eastern roots and the Western influences www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEgYGtqVADo