Ruth Reinhardt & Vivi Vassileva

The 2024/25 season sees Ruth Reinhardt conduct orchestras on four continents, making her debut in Asia with both the Seoul Philharmonic and Hong Philharmonic, and in South America, with the Orquesta Sinfonica Estado Sao Paulo (OSESP). She begins the season at the Lucerne Festival conducting a programme celebrating the centennial of Pierre Boulez with the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra. Ruth debuts with symphony orchestras in Bamberg, Nuernberg, Beethovenhalle Bonn, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, and the Residentie Orchestra in the Hague, and returns to the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Stockholm Philharmonic and Malmö Symphony Orchestra. In the US, Ruth conducts the Rhode Island Philharmonic as Music Director Designate, and makes debut appearances with the St Louis Symphony and Charlotte Symphony. She also returns to the Milwaukee and San Diego symphony orchestras.

Programmatically, Ruth’s interests have led her toward an in-depth exploration of contemporary repertoire, leading the symphonic and orchestral world into the 21st century. Strongly centered on European composers, with significant emphasis on women composers of the second half of the 20th century and early 21st century, she brings new names and fresh faces to many orchestras for the first time. Among those whose works appear often in her progams are Grażyna Bacewicz, Kaija Saariaho, Lotta Wennäkoski, Daniel Bjarnason, Dai Fujikura, and Thomas Adès. Parallel programming can be complementary or contrasting, from the classic moderns such as Lutosławski, Bartok, Stravinsky, and Hindemith, or core composers of the symphonic canon – e.g. Brahms, Rachmaninoff, Dvořák.

In recent seasons, Ruth has made an important series of symphonic debuts in North America with the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, and symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Detroit, Houston, Baltimore, Milwaukee, and Seattle. In Europe, her appearances have been no less impressive – the Orchestre National de France, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Tonkünstler Orchester, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.

Born in Germany into a family of Bulgarian musicians, Vivi Vassileva began her musical studies on the violin with her father, but on hearing a group of folk artists on Karadere beach on the Black Sea coast she was immediately inspired to take up percussion. It was these colourful and exotic Balkan rhythms which moulded her into the multifaceted musician she has become and which continue to influence her classically- trained style. Admired for her innovative programming style, Vassileva offers new ways for audiences to become acquainted with her instruments and her craft, be it in story-telling with renowned Austrian author Michael Köhlmeier regaling tales of popular sports legends, or pioneering environmental projects with percussion instruments made from recycled materials. She makes regular performances alongside recital partners including Kian Soltani, Frank Dupree, Pablo Barragán and guitarist Lucas Campara Diniz as well her self established percussion ensemble „Extasi Ensemble“ including at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Snape Maltings, March Music Days in Ruse, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and the Salzburg Festival. Vassileva began her formal training at the age of ten with Claudio Estay and after winning First Prize at the national competition Jugend Musiziert in Germany she entered the National Youth Orchestra of Germany as youngest member. More successes followed including prizes at international marimba competitions in Paris 2009 and Nuremberg 2010, the Ingolstadt Music Cultivation Prize 2013 and two Special Prizes as the youngest semi-finalist at the prestigious ARDMusic Competition in 2014.

It’s the century of percussionists. Drums are the oldest instrumenst in the world and at the same time very, very new.
— Vivi Vassileva

At 16 she was accepted into the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich, where she completed her Bachelor of Music under Raymond Curfs and Peter Sadlo. She is currently studying part time at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg under Martin Grubinger. She received the Kulturkreis Gasteig Musikpreis 2016 for her own composition and arrangement of the Bulgarian Folk Song ‘Kalino Mome’. In 2017 she was awarded the Bayerische Kunstförderpreis. In 2019 Vassileva signed an exclusive record deal with Outhere Music France for their Alpha Classics label. Her debut album release “Singin’ Rhythm” features works by Guillo Espel, Eric Sammut, Oriol Cruixent and Keiko Abe, most of them premiere recordings, alongside some rarely heard or premiere arrangements and compositions by Vassileva herself. Selected for the Vienna Konzerthaus’ Great Talent scheme from 2019/20-2021/22 and as a Junge Wilde at the Dortmund Konzerthaus from 2021/22 to 2023/24, Vivi Vassileva is poised on the threshold of a major performing career and promises to be an artist that will take audiences with her as she explores and pushes the boundaries of the percussion world. Besides her brilliant technique, athleticism and astonishing virtuosity, she brings an exceptional musicality and poetic expression to her performances.