Galiya

Hailing from Montreal, Canada, Gwendolyne Krasnicki, singing under the mononym Galiya, saw her beginnings in Montreal's pop music scene in 2011. Combining elements of lounge, pop and disco music, she also adds classical melodies played on viola and completes each song with personal and sincere lyrics. Throughout the years she has twice performed at the Liberté en Musique festival as well as some of Montreal's most popular smaller venues. In April 2015 she participated in the Emergenza contest where she made it to the semi-finalist round, and in October 2015 won Best Pop/Dance Song for “Simplicity” at The Akademia Awards and Best Female Solo Artist at the MakeAStar competition.

Being the versatile musician that she is, Gwendolyne is also active in Montreal's classical music scene as a chorister and orchestral musician. She first began her musical journey by learning the piano by ear as a young child, trying to mimic her pianist father. Recognizing that she had musical talent, her father encouraged her to sing at church and eventually signed her up for violin lessons at the age of 9. When Gwendolyne was 17, she was admitted to Vanier College in Violin Performance where she obtained her D.E.C. in 2010. She pursued her musical studies at the Université de Montréal where she obtained her Bachelor's of Music in 2014.

Since 2009, Gwendolyne is a freelance classical musician and has been part of numerous orchestras and smaller ensembles performing repertoire from the baroque period until today's modern works. She is a member of the Choeur de l'Orchestre Métropolitain choir which performs regularly with the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal's biggest concert halls and the Festival de Lanaudière. She was a member of the Orchestre Philharmonique des Musiciens de Montréal (OPMEM) as a violinist and violist from 2012-2015 and was also a member of the Atelier baroque of the Université de Montréal, again as a violinist and violist, from 2011 to 2014.