Hrvatski

Kuljerić Bilić, Ivana | percussion

Date created: 02.06.2021.
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IVANA KULJERIĆ BILIĆ is an internationally recognised marimba virtuoso and a versatile percussionist.

She regularly performs as soloist with various European orchestras (Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Witold Lutosławski Philharmonic Orchestra, Pannon Philharmonic Orchestra, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Budafok Dohnányi Orchestra, Presidential Symphony Orchestra (CSO) Ankara…) and participates in chamber, stage and crossover productions in halls such as the Merkin Hall in New York, Palacio de las Bellas Artes in Mexico City and Franz Liszt Concert Hall in Budapest. She often appears at international festivals in Europe, South America, China and the USA.

Ivana regularly holds masterclasses (Manhattan School of Music, Boston Conservatory, Merton College in Oxford, Birmingham Conservatory, Anton Bruckner University in Linz, Mozarteum University in Salzburg, Manchester Royal Northern College of Music) and performs at marimba festivals. She serves as a jury member at marimba and percussion competitions (Salzburg, Stuttgart, Paris, Linz, Timişoara, Munich…).

She has performed as solo timpanist with the Croatian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra for years. In 2008 she founded the Ivana Bilic Marimba Week, an annual percussion festival held in collaboration with the Samobor Music Festival. In 2019 the festival was renamed to Ivana Summer Percussion Festival.

She has won all the major Croatian performance and discography awards (two Porin Awards in the category of Best Performance).

Ivana is the author of a number of pieces released by Edition Svitzer, Inkoplastika Edition, Malletworks and Cantus.  

She graduated under Igor Lešnik and currently serves as Associate Professor at the Zagreb Academy of Music. Ivana is a Marimba One artist with her own signature line of mallets.

In 2014 she started the I.N.K. Experiment Duo with Nikola Krbanyevitch as a platform for developing artistic ideas combining instruments, voice, electronics and multimedia. The duo has appeared at international festivals in Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, China, France, Switzerland and Croatia (Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Osor Musical Evenings, Music Biennale Zagreb, Zeltsman Marimba Festival, Amsterdam Marimba Week, Percussive Society International Convention in Minneapolis, IBMW, l`Ateliers, KALIMA, Teng Yu Ning Xin Festival, Halleiner Schlagzeug Festival). In 2020 they won the Porin Award for Best Non-Classical Instrumental Performance in collaboration with Chui.