Vassilena Serafimova is one of the most acclaimed Bulgarian percussionists and marimba players of her generation.
Trained in Bulgaria by her father, Simeon Serafimov, and later at the Versailles Conservatory (Sylvio Gualda), the Paris Conservatory (CNSMDP) (Michel Cerutti, Florent Jodelet), and the Juilliard School in New York, Vassilena Serafimova moves from international competitions to electronic installations, from a solo marimba performance at Carnegie Hall to an immersive set at Xavier Veilhan’s Studio Venezia. A winner of several competitions, she transforms awards into stepping stones and stages into sound laboratories. A soloist, improviser, chamber musician, and occasionally a composer and educator, she navigates between genres and formats and performs worldwide.
In 2015, she brought the marimba to the Victoires de la Musique Classique for the first time, performing in a duo with Thomas Enhco, her long-time artistic partner (notably on Funambules for Deutsche Grammophon and Bach Mirror for Sony Music).
Deeply committed to promoting the percussion repertoire, she served as artistic director of the International Marimba and Percussion Festival in Bulgaria and co-artistic director of the Paris Percussion Group, which she co-founded. In 2026, she was appointed artistic director of Les Percussions de Strasbourg.
In 2017, she formed a duo with electronic music producer Chloé Thévenin. Since then, the duo has been performing on the international stage with their show Sequenza LIVE. The self-titled album was released in 2021 on Lumière Noire. In October 2026, the duo was invited to the 6th edition of Classic & Mix, a unique concept where classical music meets electronic music at the Maison de la Radio et de la Musique for a performance that reimagines Jean Sibelius’s 5th Symphony.
A passionate educator, Vassilena Serafimova teaches at the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne as well as at the CRR in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés. Since 2009, she has regularly given masterclasses and lectures around the world, sharing her open and sensitive vision and championing a vibrant and free approach to percussion.
She plays an Adams Alpha Series marimba and uses Vibrawell Mallets, which has created a series of mallets named after her.