Biography

Vassilena Serafimova is a percussionist trained at the CNSMD in Paris and at the Juilliard School in New York, after completing her percussion studies under her father in Bulgaria.

She is the winner of the Second Prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich, First Prize at the World International Marimba Competition in Stuttgart, the Grand Prize at the FMAJI in France, and the International “Music And Earth” Competition in Bulgaria. She was named “Musician of the Year 2008” in Bulgaria and won Second Prize in duo with Thomas Enhco at the Chamber Music Competition in Osaka, Japan in 2017.

Invited to give recitals and masterclasses across Europe, Central and North America, and Asia, Vassilena made her Carnegie Hall debut in New York in 2014. A year later, in a duo with jazz pianist Thomas Enhco, she was the first to perform the marimba at the Victoires de la Musique Classique in France. Their first duo album, « Funambules », was released by Deutsche Grammophon in 2016. In 2021, the duo recorded their second album, « Bach Mirror », with SONY Classics, which was highly acclaimed by the media and the public.

Vassilena performs as a soloist and chamber musician at numerous festivals, including Les Flâneries Musicales de Reims, Classique au Vert (France), Middelheim Jazz Festival (Belgium), REpercusionES (Costa Rica), Focus! 2011 Festival (United States), and TransART (Bulgaria). She has recorded for Radio France, Bayerischer Rundfunk, and Bulgarian National Radio. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall (New York), Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Théâtre du Châtelet, Salle Pleyel (Paris), Hermitage Theater (Saint Petersburg), Muziekgebouw (Amsterdam and Eindhoven), Herkulessaal (Munich), and Bulgaria Music Hall (Sofia).

Artistic Director of the International Marimba and Percussion Festival of Bulgaria and Co-Artistic Director of the Paris Percussion Group, Vassilena is passionate about promoting percussion repertoire worldwide.

In 2017, Vassilena formed a unique duo with electro music producer Chloé. Invited to collaborate on Steve Reich’s work in the « Variations » series in 2017, the two musicians soon ventured into new repertoire at Xavier Veilhan’s Studio VENEZIA. Since then, the duo has developed its own musical language and performs internationally with their show « Sequenza LIVE ». Their self-titled album was released in 2021 under Lumière Noire.

Vassilena represents Adams Musical Instruments, Avedis Zildjian Company, and has created her own series of mallets with Vibrawell Mallets, bearing her name.

With a master’s degree in pedagogy from CNSMDP, Vassilena teaches at the Haute École de Musique in Lausanne and has been a guest professor at the Conservatoire National Régional de Saint-Maur-des-Fossés since 2022.

She plays on Adams Alpha Series Marimbas and Vibrawell mallets.