Music is the most elusive art... Music for me occupies all the senses and from all the arts it is the one that is the hardest to define.
Ivana Bilic
Ivana Bilić is an internationally recognized marimba and percussion artist.
A pupil of Igor Lešnik, she is professor of percussion at the Zagreb Academy of Music and Head of Department for conducting, harp and percussion.
Ivana regularly appears as soloist with European orchestras (Danish Radio Symphony, W. Lutoslawski Philharmonic, Pannon Philharmonic, Slovenian Philharmonic, Dohnany Symphony, Presidential Symphony orchestra (CSO) Ankara, Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra…) and on international music festivals (Music Biennale Zagreb, Musicora Paris, Tempus Fugit Tel Aviv, Melos Ethos Bratislava, Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Julian Rachlin and Friends…) Her concert activities include recitals, crossover projects, stage productions, cd recording sessions, appearances at live tv shows and cooperations with artists and ensembles in Europe, USA, China and South America, in halls such as the Merkin Hall in New York, Palacio de las Bellas Artes in Mexico City and Franz Liszt Hall in Budapest.
She regularly gives marimba clinics and masterclasses (Boston Conservatory; Manhattan school of Music; Conservatorium van Amsterdam; Stuttgart Hochschule fur Musik; Linz Anton Bruckner Universität; CRR de Paris; Wuhan, Dalian, Shenyang and Beijing Universities; Royal Birmingham and Leeds Conservatoires; Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester etc.) and serves as jury member at international competitions (Linz, Salzburg, Stuttgart and Paris Marimba Competitions, August Everding Competition Munich, etc). and participates in percussion and marimba festivals in USA, China, South America and Europe (Zeltsman Marimba Festival; PASIC; Tomarimbando, Portugal; Tenerife Percussion Festival; Shenyang Percussion Festival; KALIMA; Amsterdam Marimba Weekend; Santa Fe Marimba Festival; Marimba International Festival and Conference in Minneapolis; Festival de marimbistas, Chiapas, Mexico).
She is a regular guest peformer at the Opatija Music Panel holding workshops on contemporary music interpretation and member of contemporary music ensemble Synchronos.
Ivana has co-founded the Percussion Club project which was featured at the opening of Dubrovnik Summer Festival 2021.
Since 2014 Ivana is regularly performing with Nikola Krbanyevitch in I.N.K. Experiment Duo. The duo has appeared at festivals in Europe, USA and Asia and won the discographic award Porin for best instrumental in cooperation with jazz rock group Chui in 2020.
In 2008, in cooperation with the Samobor Autumn Music Festival she has founded an annual international percussion festival called Ivana Bilic Marimba Week (IBMW). Since 2019 the festival becomes independent and changes its name to ISPF (Ivana Summer Percussion Festival). In the last decade, the event has hosted some of the most influential figures in percussion music and gathered many international students.
Ms Bilić has received all the major Croatian performers`awards and two discographic awards for best performance.
For many years she has been the solo timpanist of the Symphony Orchestra of the Croatian Radiotelevision.
Ivana performs, arranges and co-edits new works for percussion and she is the author of several pieces published by Edition Svitzer, Malletworks, Cantus and Inkoplastika Edition.
Ivana is a Marimba One artist with her own signature line of mallets.