Ariana Kosta
Ariana Kosta
Current City: Chicago / Mount Prospect, IL
College: Cleveland State Univ.
College Associate Management Position
Family is from Zagreb and Preko, Croatia
Ariana was born in Cleveland to Croatian immigrant parents. From a young age, they showed her how important her Croatian culture was to her family. Croatian was her first language and as a result, she often struggled in school to interact with other students. She was always the girl kicking the soccer ball around with the guys until one day her parents decided to put her in the American Zagreb Jr. Tamburitzans. After that day, she fell in love with music and dancing. She picked up her tambura for the first time and didn’t want to put it down. At the age of sixteen, she was accepted into the adult group, Zelena Polja and at the age of twenty, joined Zumbercani Orchestra and Nova Nada from Detroit. Touring Croatia with her folklore group was one of the most amazing experiences for her. Over the years, Ariana helped her mother on the New Years Eve committee to get ideas of which bands should play and pricing.