Oktawia began playing the violin at the age of 8. Ever since, she has been involved in choirs, orchestras and other musical groups and has played and sung at a number of weddings. At the age of 13, she went on to study the violin, piano, theory and composition at the Royal College of Music, Junior Department. When Oktawia was 18, she took up singing lessons at the RCM JD, which led to her becoming a first study singer at Sussex University, where she received three years of classical voice training with Ian Kennedy, from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
After graduating, Oktawia joined several choirs in London and later received further vocal training from Paula Anglin. She has performed at venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, the Barbican Centre, the Southbank Centre and Sadler's Wells, and has been involved in various projects with different artists and art forms, including dance, acting and poetry. Her performance highlights include: being directed by Sir Simon Rattle while singing Schumann's 'Das Paradies und de Peri' with the London Symphony Chorus in 2015; singing in Mons, Belgium during the World War I Centenary Commemoration Service in August 2014, also with the LSC; performing at the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival in a music and spoken word trio called 'The Stories of Shakey P' (rap retellings of Shakespeare's plays with musical accompaniment). Later in 2013, Oktawia performed in 'Wild Card: Take a Closer Look' at Sadler's Wells in another collaborative music-dance-spoken word trio. The piece was a creative interpretation of the disease multiple sclerosis.
During 2010 - 2014, Oktawia played the violin in a cabaret comedy duo called 'Marianna Harlotta', who performed pop song covers in a classical/opera style, such as 'Beat It' by Michael Jackson and 'Telephone' by Lady Gaga. Oktawia arranged and transcribed the instrumental parts of each of the songs for violin. In 2011, Oktawia joined a Manchester-based band called Neghed, who are a fusion of punk, classical and breakcore electronic music. Oktawia played the violin and did opera vocals for this band.
Oktawia has continued to provide violin and vocal accompaniment using structured improvisation for dancers, actors and spoken word artists; and enjoys creating and experimenting with her loop-pedal compositions on violin and vocals.
