Biography
"Bulgarian-born piano dynamo" (Time Out NY) Tania Stavreva is international multi-award winning Billboard Top 10 concert pianist, composer, arranger, as well as actress and model.
Described by the music critics as "exceptional, entrancing, fun!" (Harry Rolnick, ConcertoNet.com), "a fully formed and fearsomely talented pianist" (CultureCatch.com) and "bold, dynamic, magnificent" (Harris Goldsmith, New York Concert Review"), Tania Stavreva "has taken solo piano to rare heights" (Classicalite News). She is "a unique pianist, combining genuine quality with a refreshing approach to programming." (Bachtrack.com UK), "extraordinary, intoxicating, superb" (Performing Arts Review), "a sensuous, dramatically aware keyboardist, fascinating to watch, in her finger work, as well as to hear." and "one of a new breed of self-sufficient young classical musicians... hands of great skill and power, electric flair and colorful musicality" (BlogCritics Magazine). "Bursting with energy and with chops to burn, Tania Stavreva just might be able to reignite a bigger interest in classical music - especially with young people. ..dazzling, with jaw-dropping technique, precision, and a palette of brilliant tonal colors." (Mainly Piano Magazine)
She is recognized as one of the most versatile young artists of her generation, renowned internationally for having "some of the most precise fingering of any of the twenty-something generation of pianists, bar none" (SoundWordSight Arts Magazine), for her "fiery pianism" (The Arts Desk), "unique contemporary style" (AXS), "superior technical abilities", "unlimited virtuosity", "personal sensitivity difficult to find elsewhere", and "huge dynamic range" combined with "demanding and diversified programs". Her "masterfully delivered" (San Francisco Chronicle) performance of the "White Lies for Lomax" (Winner of the 3rd Van Cliburn American Composers International Competition) by Mason Bates, released on Innova Recordings "is a stunning display of intricate blues playing and a highlight of the recording" (All About Jazz), where Ms. Stavreva is among artists such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Her "edgy and knockout" (The Huffington Post) solo album Rhythmic Movement reached immediately Billboard Classical Top 10 (at #8) and it is the winner of 19 international music awards: Best Female Instrumentalist at the Best Of 2017 Foundations TV Red Carpet Awards, 4 Indie Music Channel Awards 2018 (for Best Classical Female Artist, Best Classical Recording, Best Classical Duo (with two time Grammy® winning drummer Will Calhoun from Living Colour, & Best Classical Producer (Ron Saint Germain), also 2 awards from The Clouzine International Music Awards in Best Classical Album 2017 and Best Classical Duo Recording 2018 (with Will Calhoun), 3 Global Music Awards for Outstanding Achievement (for emerging artist, album, classical) and 4 Radio Music Awards 2017, Indie Music Channel (for Best Classical Record, Best Classical Female Artist, Best Classical Song and Best Classical Duo again with Will Calhoun), Best Classical Recording at the Radio Music Awards 2018 Indie Music Channel, the Indie Music Hall of Fame Outstanding Achievement Award 2018, Best Classical Duo Recording (with Will Calhoun) in the 2019 Clouzine International Music Awards, Best New Artist in the 2019 Clouzine International Music Awards and Best Female Instrumental Artist Award in the 2019 Indie Music Channel Awards.
Tania Stavreva made her New York recital debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in April 2009. She returned at Carnegie Hall in June 2016, this time on the main stage - Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, where she gave the world premiere of "The Caged Bird Sings" by America's most performed composer of his generation Mason Bates. She has performed also at many other top venues including Lincoln Center, Kaufman Center, Symphony Space, Kosciusko Foundation Auditorium, Steinway Hall, Embassy of Bulgaria in New York, and the CSV Cultural Center where she was featured live on NY1 News by NBC reporter Asa Aarons. She has performed also at the Grammy® Museum Theater, Clive Davis Auditorium in Los Angeles, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Sanders Theater at Harvard University and the French Cultural Center in Boston, The Wheeler Opera House in Aspen, CO, The Koerner Hall at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, ON, Canada, The National Ethnographic Museum in Bulgaria, Radio Plovdiv - Bulgarian National Radio Concert Hall, Cathedral San Lorenzo in Italy, Sala dei Notari (Italy), 1901 Arts Club in London, UK and the Ruinekerk in The Netherlands. In January 2013 her sold out Chicago recital debut was broadcast live on WFMT 98.7. She has been featured also on CBS New York, BBC Music Magazine, Keyboard Magazine, Billboard Magazine, KUSC 91.5, ABC7 and Musical America. On June 12th, 2012 she was invited to perform at the Miles Davis/Edith Piaf Commemorative USPS Stamp Dedication Ceremony at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York where Ms. Stavreva was featured on CNN and shared the stage with the legendary bassist Ron Carter, the Miles Davis Family, Grammy® Award winning songwriter Mike Stoller and legendary music producer George Avakian (Columbia Records).
In July 2011 Tania Stavreva performed for a first time body painted, connecting the music of Erik Satie to the work by artist Danny Setiawan. The multimedia collaboration was immediately featured on NY1 News TV, New York Daily News and Time Out NY. On May 10th, 2012 Ms. Stavreva collaborated with the internationally-acclaimed body painter and artist Derrick Little (Madonna, Shakira) at Galapagos Art Space in New York on another multimedia project titled Rhythmic Movement Multimedia. This time live music and live body painting were connected through abstract music-color synesthesia.
In 2012 Tania Stavreva made her acting debut on Off-Off Broadway with The Onomatopoeia Theatre Company in William Shakespeare's The Tempest. Ms. Stavreva's orchestral experience includes collaborations with top orchestras and conductors such as with the Grammy®-nominated conductor Vladimir Gorbik (Capital Symphony Orchestra), giving the world premiere of Nicholas Reeves' "Concertino Compane" for Solo Piano and Orchestra, as well as collaborations with the former Boston Pop's principal guest conductor Bruce Hangen, Enrico Marconi (Sinfonia Perugina), Marcin Mirowski (The Film Harmony Orchestra), Mariano Patti (Napolinova Chamber Orchestra), David Grumberg (Spectrum Symphony) and many others. In 1997, the Mayor of Haskovo, Bulgaria, Atanas Vasilev, awarded Tania the Medal "Nedialka Simeonova" for "enriching the musical art and culture in our town Haskovo". She was featured on a live National TV and radio broadcast performing solo piano works by the acclaimed Bulgarian composer Alexander Tanev.
In 2009, invited by Amanda Palmer from the internationally-acclaimed band The Dresden Dolls, Tania Stavreva is one of the first pianists of her generation to perform modern classical music at such rock club venues as Webster Hall (New York) and Paradise Rock Club (Boston), making classical music accessible to younger and non-traditional audiences. She has also collaborated with legendary two times Grammy® Award winning drummers Dave Lombardo (John Zorn, Slayer, Fantomas) and Will Calhoun (Living Colour, B.B. King) . On April 22nd, 2018 Tania performed at the Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood, CA at the Indie Music Channel 2018 Awards Ceremony. Other performances at non-traditional venues include The Bitter End, Feinstein's 54 Below, Roulette, Metropolitan Room in New York and The LilyPad and Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA.
Tania Stavreva is an active participant at many outreach programs and fund-raising campaigns, supporting with her music institutions such as Dana Faber Cancer Institute, MusiCares Foundation, NYU Hospital, Los Angeles Children's Hospital, Centers for Alzheimer Care, American Forests and many others. She is a graduate of the National Music School "Dobrin Petkov" in Bulgaria, where she studied with renown pedagogue Rositsa Ivancheva and also a graduate of the Boston Conservatory, where she was a full scholarship recipient and the winner of many competitions. She was awarded a membership in the Pi Kappa Lambda, National Music Honor Society for her achievements as a musician and scholar. She has been on the piano faculty of the Boston International Summer Music Festival "Youth & Muse", Piano School of NYC, and the Page Music Lesson Center where she was also the director and founder of the Page Music Piano Performance Program. Tania Stavreva is a voting member of the Grammy®, The Recording Academy (NARAS) as well as a member of ASCAP, Latin Grammys (LARAS), Women in Music, the American Federation of Musicians and Carnegie Hall's Notables. During her time in Bulgaria, Tania had three years of private instruction in acting by the "The Stanislavsky Method" with Prof. Nikolay Nikolov from Theatre "A'Part" in Plovdiv. She has also collaborated with top artists and photographers and appeared as an art, fashion and fine art model in many print editions, gallery exhibits and editorial media.
To read most updated bio, please visit www.TaniaStavreva.com
