Kai Gluska is a guitarist, composer, and arranger based in Brooklyn, born and raised in Israel.
He earned his BFA with honors from The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, and has spent the years since building a voice that moves comfortably between tradition and invention.
His debut album, Impressions of Yesterday (2023), features his sextet performing original compositions that blend traditional and modern jazz elements. The record has reached roughly 30,000 monthly listeners and earned Kai the Prime Minister's Prize for Jazz Composition, along with a grant from Mifal HaPais recognizing his contributions to the genre.
He's performed at the Bern Jazz Festival, the Tel Aviv Jazz Festival, Zappa Herzliya, the Ilana Goor Museum, Smalls, Mezzrow, and Ornithology in New York, and Beit Haamudim in Tel Aviv, among other rooms.
Beyond performing, Kai has spent nine years connecting musicians with cultural venues — cafés, bars, restaurants — building more than 40 collaborations that create free, public performance opportunities and steady work for jazz musicians. He's now extending that work in New York City.
He's currently touring internationally and writing his next record, centered on an organ trio.
