Composer, songwriter, and vocalist Leela Oleszkiewicz has been a performer since the age of five. Her work as a vocalist has ranged from classical art songs and Polish folk music to Sanskrit hymns and ’70s singer-songwriter jams. She is co-founder of In Late Bloom publishing, the songwriting partnership of Kylland + Leela O., and half of synth-pop duo Basetla, who released their debut album Woman on The Run in 2021.

A student of Slavic folk music, classical composition, and pop song structure, Leela first began absorbing Eastern European folk and classical idioms while growing up in Poland. After years of traveling the world and working as a singer, dancer, lighting designer, and emcee, Leela began studying music composition at Mills College. There, she divided her focus between classical piano (Robert Schwartz), harmony and orchestration (Roscoe Mitchell, Fred Frith, Maggie Payne, and Zeena Parkins), electronic music (James Fei and John Bischoff), and voice (Molly Holm). Her composition “On Water” earned her the Elizabeth Mills Crothers Award for outstanding work in composition. She graduated with honors in 2017.

Outside of Mills, Leela has studied vocal technique with Raz Kennedy, Krista Pfeifer, and Lucy Kinchen, and she has also learned valuable lessons from classical pianist Dale Tsang and jazz pianist John Gove. She has been a songwriter, vocal coach, vocal editor, a choir soloist, and a music theory tutor.

         Most recently, Leela has been co-composer of Giraffes Can't Dance: The Musical, a joint commission by Rose Theatre in Omaha, Nebraska and Bay Area Children’s Theatre in Berkeley, California. Giraffes is scheduled to open and begin touring in spring 2022.