From an early age, Georgi Varbanov sought to express himself musically and began playing his mother’s piano. During a concert, he discovered percussion… This was a revelation. Thus, began his passion.
At only seven years old, Georgi won the most important national competition of Bulgaria. During his studies in preparatory music school in Pleven, then at the National Academy of Music in Sofia, at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich with Adel Shalaby and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with Peter Sadlo, he won more than twenty prizes in numerous national and international competitions (First Prize at Pendim International Competition for Percussion Instruments, a Yamaha scholarship, a prize from the Kulturkreis Galstag in Munich).
He has also received First Prize, as well as the André Jolivet Prize for best interpretation and the audience prize, at the International Competition for Percussion in Luxembourg (2005) with the Via Nova Percussion Group. In 2009, Georgi Varbanov was named first solo percussionist with the Orchestre national d’Île-de- France. He has since performed ceaselessly with the group, in chamber music or as an orchestral soloist. He has also devoted himself to developing and refining percussion instruments and mallets in collaboration with Yamaha, Adams Percussion, Erho Sticks and Pendim percussion.