Kalia Vandever is a Grammy Award-winning trombonist and composer living in Brooklyn, NY. Their approach to the trombone is distinctive and defined by their sonorous tone and lyrical improvisational voice. They lean into the challenges of the instrument and allow patience and melody guide their process.

In their compositional practice, Kalia draws from their love of songs and improvisation, creating a landscape of sounds that resonate in the body and hold the listener. They released their debut ensemble album In Bloom in 2019, described as "the rise of an exciting voice for the music" (Seton Hawkins, Hot House Jazz Magazine). Their sophomore album Regrowth released in May 2022 on New Amsterdam Records and "confirms [their] strengths as a composer and bandleader with a distinctly contemporary point of view" (Nate Chinen, WBGO Jazz). Their debut solo album We Fell In Turn, featuring their works for trombone, voice and electronics, released on AKP Records in March 2023. Their newest album, Another View, features Mary Halvorson, Kanoa Mendenhall, and Kayvon Gordon, released in November 2025 and was praised by Downbeat for “its entrancing, cyclical rhythms and longing melodicism.”

Kalia received their Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies at the Juilliard School in 2017.  They have toured and performed internationally with their quartet, performing at festivals such as the Winter Jazz Festival and BRIC Jazz Festival. They are also known for their work as a side-person, performing with jazz artists including  Joel Ross, Immanuel Wilkins, Fay Victor, to name a few. Kalia has also performed with popular artists including Harry Styles, Lizzo, Japanese Breakfast, Moses Sumney, Jennifer Hudson, and Demi Lovato. They have appeared on Saturday Night Live twice, as well as Samantha Bee's Full Frontal. 

Kalia is an awardee of the 2022 Next Jazz Legacy, a program founded by New Music USA and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. Kalia was also selected to curate the 2022 Music Series for The Arts Center at Duck Creek in East Hampton. Along with their performance work, Kalia has been commissioned to write works for groups and individuals including Tesla Quartet, The Westerlies,  Katherine Kyu Hyeon Lim, and Hats & Heels Duo. 

Kalia is also experienced as an educator and is currently on faculty at the New England Conservatory. In addition, they have led masterclasses at universities including California Institute of the Arts, University of Chicago Illinois, Cal State Northridge, Saddleback College, University of Maine Farmington, and University of Missouri.

Kalia is also a founding member of tilt, a Brooklyn-based collective bringing together the voices of Isabel Crespo Pardo, Carmen Quill, and Kalia. The intimacy found in the ensemble is apparent through their evolving chemistry on stage and their symbiotic improvisational approach. They released their debut record something we once knew in 2024 on Dear Life Records.

Kalia endorses Conn Selmer and Bach instruments as well as Denis Wick London.