Born in Bulgaria, Tatiana Koleva lives and works at present in the Netherlands. Internationally renown as virtuoso solo and ensemble performer, she is passionately involved in the promotion of contemporary music and art forms all over the world. She has established herself as a leading percussionist specializing in marimba. Her performances leave the audience spellbound with intriguing rhythms and surprising musical developments.?



Ms. Koleva has appeared as a soloist of various orchestras such as Varna and Plovdiv Symphony Orchestras, Sofia Soloists Chamber Orchestra in Bulgaria, Cascais-Oeiras Chamber Orchestra (Portugal) and the Xenakis Ensemble in Nederland. She performs regularly with leading ensembles and theatre groups a.o. with ASKO-Schönberg Ensemble, MusikFabrik, Concertgebouw Orkest, Orkest de Volharding, the theater groups Hollandia and Orkater. Tatiana is one of the founders and member of ELECTRA quartet and has steady duo’s with the organist Jan Hage and the jazz saxophonist Rutger van Otterloo. Next to her activities as a classical musician she is often involved in cross-genre projects with improvised jazz, rock and film music.



Tatiana Koleva has appeared in major international podias such as Barbican Centre and Queen Elisabeth Hall - London, UK, Lincoln Centre-NY, USA, Parktheatret Oslo - Norway, Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon, Portugal, the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam - NL, Berliner Philharmonie, Germany, Alcoy and Camporrobles Percussion Festivals, Spain and more. She has given recitals, master-classes and clinics throughout Europe, the USA, Japan, Jordan, Mexico and Canada.?



In addition to her intensive concert activities Mrs. Koleva is becoming a very respected teacher. She leads regularly master classes, clinics and workshops on international level. Since October 2009 she is also engaged as a regular guest teacher at Codarts Conservatorium, Rotterdam and is leading the marimba class at the Conservatory of Groningen - The Netherlands. That same year marked the beginning of her new very successful project “Youth Percussion Pool”, an education and performing event that will take place annually, including master-classes, workshops and concerts with young professionals. Next to that she serves often as a jury member on various international competitions.



Tatiana studied piano and percussion in her home city Varna and continued her education at the Music Academy Sofia, and the Conservatories of Rotterdam and The Hague. Among her teachers are Dobri Paliev, Robert van Sice, Steven Schick, Siegfried Fink, Wim Vos and James Wood. From the start of her career she is actively promoting new music and has commissioned a number of compositions specially written for her. She works regularly with renown composers such as Louis Andriessen, David Lang, Yannis Kyriakides, Mauro Lanza, Jacob ter Veldhuis, Klaas de Vries, David Dramm, Michel van der Aa, David del Puerto, Tzenko Minkin.



In the beginning of 2010 Tatiana Koleva received the prestigeous Prize ‘Musician of the Year 2009’ by the National Radio and the audience of Bulgaria. She is a winner of the Grand Prize in the "Svetoslav Obretenov" National Bulgarian Competition (1988), the International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition (1993) Rotterdam, and has been awarded with the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis, Darmstadt '94. In 1995 she was finalist in the First World L. H. Stevens International Marimba Competition, Astbury Park, NJ, USA.



Mrs. Koleva appears on various recordings of NovaLinia Records (her own label), as well as on Decca, New World Records, Attacca, Unsounds and BVHaast. Her performances are regularly broadcasted on TV and radio programs.



"... superb percussionist... brilliantly played performance ... explosive energy..." New York Times, USA?"... exceptional musician..." Percussions Magazine, France?"... a truly remarkable percussionist..." Business News Radio, NL?"... sterslagwerkster..." Volkskrant, NL