Monika Bulanda

Bulanda was born in Cracow. From her very early age she started to show interest in art. She became the youngest member of the local art gallery where for many years she was taking painting classes at the Maria Kaminska and Ignacy Kurowski atelier, and at the same time actively taking part in painting competitions that she won couple of times. She started private piano lessons at the age of 6, but later began to learn how to play the drums from Wiesław Piszczyński who also encouraged her to continue with music professionally. At the age of 13 she began to perform at local weddings and parties with professional bands, gaining her first performing experience. She also participated in regional young instrumentalist competitions that she won a couple of times in a row.[2]

Monika performing with ''Matka'' in 2002.

Preparing to enter art school, she ended up entering VILO im. A.Mickiewicza in Cracow specializing in linguistics. She graduated with bilingual (Spanish and Polish ) education. At age 16 (although illegal because of her young age) she started to appear in music clubs in Cracow making her name as one of the first female drummers in Poland. During jam sessions and concerts she met important musicians such as Paweł Maciwoda, Marek Stryszowski and others with whom she also had a chance to perform with. This same years she was voluntarily working at the Warsaw Summer Jazz Days and Jazz Jamboree where she met most of the renowned jazz musicians with whom she played at jam sessions and got encouragement to continue with her music career. She appeared on the "Droga do Gwiazd" young talent contest where Sony Music proposed her to join the female pop-rock band Matka, which she accepted. Due to playing with Matka, she gained most of her performing experience, appearing on different programs such as [[:pl:Kuba Wojewódzki (talk-show)[edytuj]|Kuba Wojewodzki Show]], "Bar" and many popular soap operas. When she was 19 the band Matka started to collaborate with polish pop singer Michal Wisniewski. She continued to develop her druming skills with Artur Malik at the Cracow School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, later Wroclaw School of Jazz Music under tuition of Andrzej Lewandowski. She entered Katowice Academy of Jazz Music and continued to study with Adam Buczek. At the same time she also studied in Warsaw at Chopin School of Music "Bednarska" where she was a student of Kazimierz Jonkisz. To continue her interest in linguistics she also entered the University of Warsaw at the Oriental Department studying Chinese Language and Culture. Bulanda simultaneously graduated from both Universities and holds BA in Music and BA in Sinology. [3]

After graduating from two universities she quit all her bands, and after 2 weeks she left to Beijing, China to in order to "discover the world". She got admitted to Beijing Film Academy at the Foreign Department of Chinese Language and Culture. Very soon she started to appear at Beijing Music scene playing with different Chinese musicians and bands in clubs and during music festivals around China. She was also invited to conduct drums workshops for Sonor Drums in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia that finished with releasing the workshop DVD.[2]

Invited by American bass player Tony Jones to join his project in Turkey for a couple of months, she came to Bodrum but then moved to Istanbul and continues to live there. She collaborates with Turkish pop singer Kenan Doğulu as well as Mabel Matiz playing percussion. She is also drummer on popular TV Show in Turkey- Elin Oğlu.She recorded drums for Turkish guitarist Bilal Karaman on his album Bahane and Turkish pianist Selen Gülün with her project Kadın Matınesı, getting involved in many DJ acts as well as appearing on Jazz Festivals and concerts through collaborations with jazz musicians. Besides collaborating with many Turkish musicians she began developing her music project - writing music, lyrics and singing. In April 2015 she released her solo pop album Forever I'll Be Young that she produced under Turkish music label 3 Adım Müzik.[2]