Slovenian pianist-composer. After studying jazz piano and classical composition at the Groningen and Amsterdam conservatoires, she decided to stay in the Netherlands, where she became an active member of the improvised music scene, at the same time performing extensively all over the Europe. Her main music project is Kaja Draksler Octet, founded in 2016 in Amsterdam. She gives solo concerts, and in recent years has been performing internationally with Punkt.Vrt.Plastik trio, Hearth quartet, as well as in duos with Terrie Ex, Susana Santos Silva, Eve Risser (To Pianos), Onno Govaert (Feecho), and Szymon Gąsiorek (Czajka and Puchacz). Draksler is also a co-founder of the interdisciplinary I/O group and the internationally acclaimed collective Doek. As a composer, she has accepted commissions from vocal and chamber ensembles, big bands, and orchestras. She explores the possibilities of combining composed music with free improvisation by working with various structures and musical logic. Embracing the traditions of Dutch jazz and improvised music, she rejects stylistic divisions and historical distinctions in music in favour of discovering her own language of personal expression in both musical composition and improvisation.