was born in 1988 in Paris. From a young age, she devoted herself to artistic pursuits, learning music, theater and dance. Convinced that the actor-singer is an independent creator, she works on theater and vocal improvisations, writes poetry, and collaborates with composers. She further developed herself in Poland at the Grotowski Institute, in Denmark at the Odin Theater (which was founded by Eugenio Barba, creator of the Anthropological Theater) and in France with the Théâtre du Mouvement. These days, she continues to study classical and contemporary singing with Martine Viard and Sylvie de Guy, as well as improvised singing with Andy Emler and Meredith Monk.

A few years ago, Miléna began revisiting her Yiddish roots, learning the language and enveloping herself in the music and culture. She created the multidisciplary artistic company “Les Haïm” and performed two Yiddish theater plays, Purim Lid and The Tchoulent Gang. She produced records of both plays and innovated with the Hasidic Project, a musical journey at the crossroads of Hasidic music sung in Yiddish with jazz improvisation. As an artist in residence at the Medem Arbeter Ring Center in Paris, she works with the greatest Yiddish teachers, translators and activists, and contributes to the artistic and political programming there.

In 2011 she settled for three months in Williamsburg, a Hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY, where she lived in the “Yiddish House” with two other Yiddish speakers. There she developed a creative research laboratory for a new Yiddish theater, in collaboration with four professional NYC artists. She studied the repertoire of Hasidic music and traditional Yiddish singing and immersed herself within the New York Hasidic world. She also explored the world of the “OTD” or “Off the Derech” (community, consisting of people who grew up in the Hasidic community but left) and worked to create bridges between the Hasidic, Yiddishist and klezmer worlds.

After an amazing encounter between Miléna and Yael Tama, they founded their theater company V&B and created their first play Le Cabaret du Shtetl Parisien.
These days Miléna collaborates with Yael on her new musical poetic solo, “Quand la lune nait”. Miléna performs solo or with her band in France and across Europe. She recently opened for Enrico Macias in September 2012 at the OLYMPIA Hall in Paris, performing her “Hassidish Project”.  She collaborated and toured in Europe with Eva Salina Primack from NYC, performing their repertoire of Roma and Yiddish women’s songs. She is currently working on her first solo album with the Israeli jazz pianist Omer Klein.

Miléna graduated with a BA in philosophy at the Sorbonne Paris IV and a MA in religious philosophy at Bordeaux 3 University.
Photo: Kay-Joon

Videos:
Miléna Kartowski - Hassidish Project
Miléna Kartowski and Denis Cuniot
The NYC Yiddish journey

Centre Medem-Arbeter Ring, Paris