The IP Artists
Vivi Vassileva
Vibraphone Artist Series
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.
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.
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.
Fabian Ziegler
Vibraphone Artist Series
In his young career, Fabian Ziegler has already achieved a goal in commissioning stunning new repertoire for percussion. He is committed to giving life to innovative compositions by renowned composers, such as John Psathas, Avner Dorman, Serj Tankian, Arash Safaian, Daniel Schnyder and many more. His goal is to elevate percussion repertoire to another level, working on original and meaningful projects with leading composers in the international music world.
Born in Switzerland, he completed his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Music at the Zurich University of the Arts with Prof. Klaus Schwärzler, Prof. Raphael Christen, Prof. Benjamin Forster, Martin Grubinger and Prof. Rainer Seegers. In addition to his regular studies, he also took part in international masterclasses with Katarzyna Mycka, Jean Geoffroy, Svet Stoyanov, Conrado Moya, Beverly Johnston, and many more.
In December 2017, Fabian Ziegler won the Migros Culture Percentage Study Prize for the second time since 2015 for his extraordinary solo performance during the instrumental music competition. Since 2017 he has also been a scholarship holder of the Friedl-Wald-Stiftung and the Rahn Kulturfonds. In 2018 & 2020 he won the Kiefer-Hablitzel / Göhner Music Prize and was a semi-finalist at the International TROMP Percussion Competition in both years.
Sun Yi
Marimba Artist Series
Born in Xiamen China, Sun Yi started his music training on piano when he was 4 years old and percussion at the age of 7. In 2001.
Sun Yi is a marimbist, percussionist, composer and concepter. His performance brings him to many major cities in Europe and Asia and perform in well-known concert hall such as Wiener Musikverein, Wiener Konzerthaus and Esplande in Singapore. On stage, he shows his professionalism, personality and emotion while off stage he present as a composer and concepter who frequently challenged audience. He use music differently as a language to express his thought. Thus, public often find his performances are surprising, unique and bizarre along with his excellent musicality. Beside working as individual, he is also the founder of Y? Percussion Group Singapore and Director of SUN YI Youth Percussion group Xiamen.
Sun Yi was the competition winner several times. He was the Absolute first prize winner of the 6th edition of the International Festival and Competition "Days of Percussion" held in Fermo, Italy 2008. In 2009, he joined the International Marimba Competition in Salzburg, Austria and won the Special Talent award. Two week later, he won the first prize in the first edition of International Marimba Competition in China. In 2012, he was the second prize winner in 3rd Edition of International marimba competition in Salzburg.
Rainer Furthner
Rudimental Artist Series
Rainer Furthner started his first percussion lessons at the age of 10 at the OÖ-Musikschulwerk. Then studied at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg with Martin Grubinger senior. He visited various masterclasses and workshops in the classical field: Peter Sadlo, Katarzyna Mycka, Momoko Kamiya, Nancy Zeltsman, Ludwig Albert, as well as drumset among others with - Dave Weckl, Thomas Lang, Virgil Donati and Jojo Mayer.
Rainer is a first price winner of several editions of the state and national competition “Prima la Musica” between 1994-2000, as well as first Price winner at “Gradus ad Parnassum” 2002 in Linz.
Rainer Furthner is a member of the ensemble “The Percussive Planet Ensemble” founded by Martin Grubinger with concerts in the Milan Scala, Eurovisions Songcontest 2015 Halftime Show, Klassik am Dom – Linz with live TV Broadcast, Shanghai, Beijing, Tongyong, Philharmonie Berlin, Philharmonie Köln, Munich Philharmonic, Luxembourg and many others.
