Theodore Milkov | 19.10.2024

The Russian-Greek percussionist Theodor Milkov is one of the most innovative marimba players. Well known for his "pianistic" approach, revolutionary ideas and technical abilities, bringing the marimba to a new level of performance. Milkov's repertoire includes music written for harpsichord and piano, from baroque to romantic epoch as well as contemporary music written especially for his unique approach.

Working closely with iconic Greek/Canadian composer Christos Hatzis, gave Theodor the opportunity of creating new repertoire for marimba. At first , a marimba concerto “ Vernal Equinox” which was premiered with Athens State Orchestra in 2022 and National Orchestra of Costa Rica the following year. Later on , a multiyear project , the “ Theodor Milkov - Domenico Scarlatti Project”, a series of musical palimpsest ( music created on top of existing music) created by composition faculty and graduate composition students and selected alumni of the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, under the editorship of Christos Hatzis in 2023.

This particular project includes four volumes written by Christos Hatzis - Quantum Superpositions 1 and 2 for solo Marimba, Quantum Entanglements 1 for Marimba Duo, Quantum Entanglements 2 for Marimba Trio.

Through this creative collaboration a new artistic idea was born. A Trio “Spectrum Entheogen” featuring Anders Kann Elten and Arjan Jongsma

in 2021 Theodor released his marimba method “4 Mallet Technique - My Pianistic Approach “ in collaboration with Edition Svitzer. In 2022, following his passion for J. S. Bach’s music, Theodor released his transcriptions of complete Cello suites “Discovering the Hidden Polyphony behind Bach´s Complete Cello Suites”

Milkov’s ability to perform classical repertoire on Marimba as well as creating a unique modern repertoire for his instruemnt , have opened him doors to prestigious festivals such as , Oranjewoud Festival - The Netherlands , Bach Academy Brugge - Belgium, Pulse Percussion - Denmark, TIPC -Taiwan

Theodor has been giving masterclasses in musical institutions all over the world such as Royal Academy of Music - London, CNSMD Lyon , MUK Vienna, HfM Muenster , Colburn School of Music Los Angeles , Northwestern University, Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Conservatoire Saint-Maur-des-Fossés (France), Salerno Conservatory (Italy) and Taiwan, to name a few.

Milkov began his percussion studies at the age of 7, in Municipal Conservatory of Patras (Greece), under his stepfather Maxim Mankovski. Later on, over the period 2002-2009, he continued his studies in Musikhochschule Detmold (Germany), Royal Conservatoire Den Haag and Conservatorium Van Amsterdam ( The Netherlands) under Profs. Peter Prommel, Hans Zanderoep, Fedor Teunisse, Luuk Nagdegaal, Nick Woud and Gustavo Gimmeno.

Milkov holds a Bachelor of Music from Detmold Musikhochschule (Germany) and Conservatorium Amsterdam ( The Netherlands). Masters of Music from Royal Conservatoire Den Haag (The Netherlands)and Konzertexamen from Detmold Musikhochschule (Germany).

In 2017, Theodor Milkov held his first International Marimba Summer Camp, a training course based on his method "4 Mallet Method- My Pianistic Approach” .

MIMSC became quickly one of the most interesting and successful annual events, attracting participants from all over the world – USA, Japan, Taiwan,Zimbabwe, Poland, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Finland, China, Latvia and Hungary.

Since 2017 Theodor Milkov a Yamaha Artist, and Vic Firth/Zildjian Signature Artist