Biography

Tatiana Sarbinska is known as the Voice of Pirin in her native country, Bulgaria. For more than forty years she has worked as a musician, director, teacher, and composer in both the United States and in her native country of Bulgaria. Ms. Sarbinska grew up learning traditional Bulgarian music in the Macedonian village of Rila, near the Pirin Mountains in southwestern Bulgaria. As a student at Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, she received degrees in traditional folk music (singing, conducting, composition) and classical and applied musical pedagogy. For many years she was the featured soloist of the internationally-acclaimed Pirin Ensemble, as well as a conductor, and toured extensively in Bulgaria, Austria, Switzerland, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, China, Vietnam, Iraq, Tunis, Morocco, Syria, Egypt, Soviet Union, United States, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Great Britain, Romania, Australia and Iran. Since emigrating to the United States, she has performed throughout the country, including at the Kennedy Center and the Library of Congress.

Ms. Sarbinska has taught traditional Balkan musical curriculum for schools, universities, and musical ensembles in Bulgaria and the United States for almost thirty years. In Bulgaria, she was Assistant Professor of Music at the Conservatory for the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. She conducted classes in traditional music, culture and voice as Professor of Music for Western University in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. Ms. Sarbinska was also the Director of Education for the Art School of Blagoevgrad, where she developed and directed the curriculum for 2500 students. In the United States, she was an instructor for the Boston Public Schools as Artist in Residence for Mayor’s Office of Arts and Humanities, Boston, Massachusetts. She has taught classes and master classes at, among others, the Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Northeastern University-Boston, the New England Conservatory of Music, the Mendecino Balkan Music and Dance Camp, and the Augusta Heritage Center, and she has been a consultant for Revels, the renowned international music company.

She performed in the American Conservatory Theatre(San Francisco) production of Hecuba with Olympia Dukakis. In 2004, Ms. Sarbinska was the music director for the University of Maryland production of Euripides’ The Trojan Women. In 2004, she received a Wammy (Washington Area Music Award) for best world vocalist. In addition to the recognition she has received from, among others, the President of Bulgaria and the Minister of Culture of Bulgaria, Ms. Sarbinska was awarded the Ivan Vasov Medal in 2006 by the government of Bulgaria for her contributions to Bulgarian culture. In 2007, Ms. Sarbinska was recognized as a master artist and received a Maryland State Arts Council Maryland Traditions Master-Apprentice grant (with Elin Zurbrigg). In 2009, she was awarded a Maryland State Arts Councilindividual artist grant (music composition). In 2009, Tatiana toured the United States in performance with Bulgarian kaval player Theodosii Spassov. Her most recent CDs are Makedonsko Devojče and Katerino Mome.

For many years, Ms Sarbinska has organized and conducted individual and group lessons and workshops in Eastern European vocal technique, classical and traditional vocal technique, and vocal jazz improvisation using Balkan musical themes. She has taught Bulgarian and Eastern European music, vocal production, rhythm, pronunciation, styling, cultural meaning and context to world and classical music ensembles. Ms. Sarbinska has worked with Libana (Boston, MA), Kitka (Berkeley, CA), West Wind, (San Francisco, CA), Village Harmony (Montpelier, VT), Boston Secession (Boston, MA), Women in Harmony (Portland, ME), Planina (Denver, CO), Zdravec (Boston, MA), Born to Drone (San Jose, CA), Slaveya (Washington, DC) as well as groups in Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Connecticut and New York, among many others. She is the founder and director of the vocal groups Divi Zheni (Boston), Zornitsa (Boston), and Orfeia (Maryland/Washington, D.C.). Under her direction and tutelage, these groups have performed at concerts, folk festivals and workshops throughout the country as well as abroad.

Ms. Sarbinska is a composer of original songs and music based on Bulgarian traditional themes. One of her compositions, Katerino Mome, continues to be one of the most popular and recognized songs in Bulgaria. She has also created countless arrangements of Bulgarian and Eastern European traditional and neo-traditional music.

– Diane Weinroth
Member, Orfeia
Washington, DC