Kateryna Kravchenko's musical beginnings lie in Ukraine, where she was born near Odessa in 1999. Her first experiences on the piano and singing in a choir were still classically influenced. ‘Then I discovered the world of jazz. I got to know Ella Fitzgerald on YouTube and was fascinated by her vocal improvisations.’ At 14, she moved to the city of Odessa, where she studied popular music, played in an ensemble and learned to improvise. ‘There was a lot of culture on offer and I watched and listened to as much as I could. In addition to music, there was also dance, theatre, visual arts and literature. I think it's important not to separate the artistic genres so strictly from each other, you should rather look for the connections.’

However, jazz is not offered at the music academy in Odessa. Classical music is the only true art, according to the prevailing conservative credo. This world eventually became too small for Kateryna Kravchenko, and after four years she transferred to the Carl Maria von Weber Academy of Music in Dresden. She began studying jazz, rock and pop singing and composition there in 2018. As a foreign student, she doesn't have to pay university fees and she had already learnt the basics of the German language in Ukraine, but the start was still not easy. ‘I had no friends, no family, it was a different country with a different language. I was glad that you can often communicate much better with music than with words.’

In Dresden, Kateryna Kravchenko is able to further develop her artistic personality. Her striving for cross-cultural understanding through music becomes an important motif in her work. Together with fellow students, she founds the international Kateryna Kravchenko Quartet. In 2019, the band won the chamber music prize in the jazz category of the university's ensemble competition and released their debut EP ‘Stories’. It combines influences from Slavic folk music, the aesthetics of great jazz singers such as Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, and the harmonic and rhythmic concepts of contemporary jazz. Kravchenko sings in Ukrainian, Polish and English.

Kateryna Kravchenko wants to see the world and gain new experiences. She successfully applies for a place in the German National Jazz Orchestra - from which the Grizzly Jazz Foundation also selects its scholarship holders - and plays there from 2020 to 2022. She spends an exchange year at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm as part of the Erasmus programme. When war breaks out in her home country in February 2022, it feels unreal. ‘The peaceful, picturesque situation on campus and the knowledge of the war don't go together,’ she says and offers help where it is needed. She is committed to helping Ukrainian refugees and supports them with charity concerts. One highlight is her involvement in the ‘United for Ukraine’ concert organised by the Grizzly Foundation, where she performed alongside jazz choreographer Lars Danielsson. ‘As an artist here in Germany, I feel privileged. Who, if not us, can support Ukrainian culture? Culture creates identity, because without it you forget who you are.’