Vivi Vassileva
MA B.Mus
Described as "an artist who captivates her audience and explores and pushes the boundaries of the world of percussion," Vivi Vassileva is celebrated not only for her brilliant technique but also for her outstanding virtuosity and athletic performance. As one of the leading figures of a new generation of percussionists, she is redefining the role of percussion in 21st-century concert music.
Recent engagements have included concerts with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Klangforum Wien, the Zagreb Philharmonic, the Britten Sinfonia and the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana. Since taking over the artistic direction of the Percussive Planet series at the Vienna Konzerthaus in the 2023/24 season, she has continued to curate innovative programmes showcasing the versatility of percussion. Her chamber music projects have taken her to venues including Munich's Prinzregententheater and the Vienna Konzerthaus, and she has returned regularly to major festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.
Highlights in recent years include the premiere of the percussion concerto A Savage Beat by Finnish composer Sauli Zinovjev with the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, a tour with the Luxembourg Philharmonic, and the recording of two highly acclaimed percussion concertos: Daníel Bjarnason’s Inferno with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and Gregor A. Mayrhofer’s Recycling Concerto with the SWR Symphony Orchestra.
Vivi Vassileva is passionate about expanding the percussion repertoire through the commissioning of new works by composers including Bushra El-Turk, Christian Jost, Avner Dorman, Sauli Zinovjev, and Gregor A. Mayrhofer. Her concert repertoire also includes works by Kalevi Aho, Oriol Cruixent, Tan Dun, John Corigliano, Avner Dorman, Friedrich Cerha, Daníel Bjarnason, and Keiko Abe.
Vivi Vassileva is admired for her innovative programming style and creates innovative concert programmes that offer audiences new ways of experiencing percussion, such as through environmental projects featuring percussion instruments made from recycled materials. She performs regularly with partners such as pianist Frank Dupree and guitarist Lucas Campara Diniz, as well as with her own percussion ensemble, Extasi, at venues such as the Berlin Philharmonie, Tonhalle Zurich, Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Philharmonie Essen, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Snape Maltings, and at renowned festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, the Solsberg Festival, and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.
She has been signed to Outhere Music France’s Alpha Classics label since 2019. Her debut album, Singin' Rhythm, features works by Guillo Espel, Eric Sammut, Oriol Cruixent, and Keiko Abe – many of them world premiere recordings – as well as several arrangements that have rarely or never been heard before and compositions by Vassileva herself.
Vassileva began studying percussion at the age of ten with Claudio Estay and was later accepted into the German National Youth Orchestra as its youngest member. Further successes followed, including prizes at international competitions and special awards at the prestigious 2014 ARD Music Competition. She received the 2016 Kulturkreis Gasteig Music Prize for her original composition and arrangement of the Bulgarian folk song “Kalino Mome.” In 2017, she received the Bavarian Arts Promotion Prize, and in 2023, the Leonard Bernstein Prize. Vivi Vassileva is a graduate of the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, where she studied with Martin Grubinger.