Vassileva was born in
Hof in 1994 to a family of musicians from Bulgaria. Both parents played with the
Hofer Symphoniker; she grew up with three elder sibling who all played violin, her brother
Vasko Vasilev to become
concert master at the
Royal Opera House. She was first trained in violin by her father. She was one of the children portrayed in the 2010 documentary
7 oder Warum ich auf der Welt bin (7 or Why I am on Earth) by and Hans Helmut Grotjahn. Vassileva became interested in percussion when she heard drummers on a beach in Bulgaria who played in a circle for hours when she was age eight. They invited her to play with them and she was fascinated. Her father gave in to let her learn percussion, and she played in the
Bundesjugendorchester at age 13, then the youngest member. Her teacher Claudio Estay introduced her to both classical and South American music. Vassileva was supported by the
Robert Bosch Stiftung and
Deutscher Musikrat. She received several scholarships and studied percussion at the
Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, with from age 16 until his death in 2016. She achieved a bachelor's degree and continued Master's studies with Raymond Curfs. In 2011 she became solo percussionist (
Solopaukistin) of the , who played a tour in China. She played a concert with the Bruckner-Akademieorchester in Munich. In 2016 she played as a soloist with the on a tour including the Joseph-Keilberth-Saal in
Bamberg and the
Gasteig in Munich. The same year, she was the
marimba player for the film
Geschichte einer Liebe – Freya by Starost and Grotjahn. She founded the Vivi Vassileva Quintett in 2015. The culture magazine of the
ARD, '''', aired a 6-minute portrait of her on 24 July 2016. In 2017 she founded a duo with guitarist Lucas Campara Diniz and another duo with pianist . She made her debut as soloist with orchestra with the Hofer Symphoniker in Lichtenfeld. In 2018 she played at the LvivMozArt Festival in Ukraine,
Tan Dun's
The Tears of Nature conducted by
Oksana Lyniv. She appeared at the
Rheingau Musik Festival, the Hohenloher Kultursommer and the . She first played in the
Berliner Philharmonie in 2019 with her percussion quartet. In May 2019 she played the world premiere of the percussion concerto
Oraculum that dedicated to her with the Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal conducted by
Julia Jones in the . Several composers wrote music for her; and she also composed pieces. She came to drum not only on classical instruments, but also instruments from Africa, South America and Asia, and everyday utensils and recycled garbage. In 2023, she played as the soloist in
Gregor Mayrhofer's
Recycling Concerto, on classical percussion instruments and many instruments derived from garbage. A concert with the
Frankfurt Radio Symphony at the
Alte Oper was conducted by
Krzysztof Urbański. == Awards ==