The Toronto Worldwide Harp Pageant — iHarp — makes its debut this summer season, with every week’s value of concert events and occasions celebrating the instrument and its wealthy historical past. It takes place from July 7 to 13 on the Aga Khan Museum.
Performers, educators, and music lovers will benefit from the collection of concert events, workshops, and masterclasses. The aim to encourage a brand new technology of harpists, shock audiences, and to strengthen the presence of the 5,000 yr previous instrument within the twenty first century.
The music showcased will embody each historic and modern types, underscoring the versatile nature of the instrument.
The organizing group consists of French harpist Catherine Michel, Kathleen Bride, Professor of harp at Eastman Faculty of Music, and Canadian harpist Andrew Chan of Harps on the Hill Faculty.
“We are going to have fun the harp’s artistry, its 5000 years of historical past, and its extraordinary potential to unite
audiences throughout cultures and generations,” stated Catherine Michel in a press release. “This pageant will provide each inspiration and instruments to assist younger and skilled harpists excel of their careers, discover new musical horizons, and combine their historic instrument into modern contexts.”
Pageant Organizers
Catherine Michel
Catherine Michel studied harp, piano and music idea as a toddler along with her mom in her native metropolis of Amiens, France. She later entered the Nationwide Conservatoire for Dance and Music in Paris. At age 15, she was was awarded a First Prize diploma on the Conservatoire. It will be the primary of many awards and competitions. She carried out with the Radio France Nationwide Orchestra, after which the Paris Opera, and several other different orchestras.
Catherine has an in depth catalogue as a recording artist, together with beloved and lesser recognized repertoire, and an album of movie music in collaboration with Michel Legrand, which received the French Victoires de la Musique Award.
In the present day, she works primarily as a soloist and instructor.
Kathleen Bride
Kathleen Bride is a graduate of Marywood Faculty (PA), and The Juilliard Faculty. She has carried out as a recitalist in Europe and all through america, together with as a soloist on a European tour Juilliard Ensemble of Modern Music and composer Luciano Berio. She has recorded albums of up to date chamber music.
Since 1978, she an organist Jon Gillock have toured the US as duo-recitalists. Bride additionally performs commonly with British flutist Judith Pearce.
Earlier than taking on the place at The Eastman Faculty in 1989, Kathleen was chairman of the harp division at Manhattan Faculty of Music. In the present day, alongside along with her longstanding appointment at Eastman, she is a member of the visiting college of the Royal Northern Faculty of Music in Manchester, England.
Andrew Chan
Pageant Inventive Director Andrew Chan Toronto-based Andrew Chan is an alumnus of the Nationwide Youth Orchestra of Canada, Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific, and the Nationwide Academy Orchestra of Canada. He started his research of the harp in Vancouver with Elizabeth Volpѐ Bligh, Principal Harp of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
He has since established a busy profession as each performer and educator. As a performer, he’s performed on levels throughout North America and Asia, and held the Principal Harp seat for a decade with the Orchestra Toronto underneath the late Kerry Stratton. He was just lately an Artist-In-Residence on the Eastman Faculty of Music.
Alongside along with his live performance calendar dates, Chan is a devoted educator whose college students have gone on to win awards, scholarships, and auditions, and have entered prestigious music colleges, such because the Juilliard Faculty, McGill, Cleveland Institute of Music, and plenty of others.
Toronto Worldwide Harp Pageant: Q&A
We requested Inventive Director Andrew Chan a couple of questions in regards to the instrument and the pageant.
I believe folks make quite a lot of assumptions in regards to the harp and its sound, nevertheless it has a lot extra potential. Is there quite a lot of curiosity within the harp and what it has to supply twenty first century musicians in Toronto?
With Harps on the Hill Faculty positioned within the Higher Toronto space, we’ve the biggest quantity of harp college students in Canada, and probably of North America, with a world inhabitants of over 90 college students from all backgrounds and all walks of life. Presently, we’ve two college students pursuing skilled harp research on the famed Juilliard Faculty in New York, and three others finding out at famend Eastman Faculty of Music and Yale College doing their Masters and Doctorate in harp efficiency. One in every of them has been chosen to compete within the prestigious USA Worldwide Harp Competitors in Indiana this Could representing Canada.
There are harp festivals in varied components of the world — why provoke such a pageant in Toronto?
Given all of those in thoughts, it makes good sense to us to develop a world harp pageant in Toronto, to proceed to develop Toronto as a world hub for probably the most magical music recognized to mankind.
Most individuals in North America affiliate harps with the massive live performance instrument we generally see on stage in a live performance, however the instrument has an extended historical past. Are you able to inform us a little bit bit about the way it got here to be a part of European historical past?
The harp, famend for its celestial sound, is a quintessential image of excessive artwork, class, and refinement. All through historical past, the harp has been a favoured instrument amongst royalty and aristocracy. For instance, King Charles III and the late Queen Elizabeth II commissioned a royal harp and appointed a royal harpist, highlighting the harp’s cultural significance and connection to probably the most elite of society. Equally, Marie Antoinette, the well-known Queen of France, was recognized to have been an achieved harpist, additional cementing the harp’s affiliation with regal style and luxurious.
There’s a rising curiosity within the harp within the classical music world. What’s going to the pageant provide to individuals?
The Toronto Worldwide Harp Pageant, a premier gathering for skilled harpists and fans, will probably be a celebration of those traditions. The occasion will characteristic concert events, masterclasses, and an exhibition of harps, all designed to spotlight the technical mastery and creative fantastic thing about this timeless instrument. In bringing collectively top-tier expertise from around the globe, the pageant will elevate the standing of the harp as an instrument that bridges historical past with modern class, with music from Versailles to Hollywood, and extra.
iHarp At A Look
A few of the iHarp 2025 Program highlights embody:
- 50 Harps, One Sound — A International Celebration of Music that includes a serious harp ensemble
- Harp Concerto Night time with Nationwide Broadcasting Orchestra (Canada)
- Alexander Boldachev’s modern Electrical Harp paired with guitarist Alexandr Misko
- Rediscovering Nicolas-Charles Bochsa: A Presentation by Parisian historian Michel Faul
- Masterclasses by Catherine Michel and Kathleen Bride
- Panel discussions for harp professionals
- Exhibition of “Audible Sculpture” and “Totem Pole Harp” by Korean Canadian sculptor Hoi Choi, and an exhibition showcase of Lyon & Healy and Salvi Harps
- A Nationwide Harp Competitors of Canadian harp college students competing in Toronto in the course of the pageant
The Summer season Harp Institute offers an intensive coaching expertise (functions accepted till June 16).
Together with the organizers the listing of featured performers and presenters consists of:
- Joel von Lerber (Concerto Soloist, Berlin, Germany)
- Alexander Boldachev (Modern Electrical Harp, Zurich, Switzerland)
- Suzanne Shulman (famend Flute Soloist, Toronto, Canada)
- Pleasure Yeh (Professor of Harp, Vancouver Academy of Music, Canada)
- Deborah Nyack (Resident Harpist, Fairmont Banff Springs Resort, Alberta, Canada)
- Elizabeth Volpé-Bligh (Retired Principal Harp, Vancouver Symphony, Canada)
- Paul Knoke (Historic Vintage Harp Collector, Rochester, New York)
- Michel Faul (Historian, Paris, France)
- Manuel Gamalinda (Harp Care, Canada’s main harp technician)
Discover extra particulars in regards to the iHarp pageant [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is the Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. Beforehand, she was a contract author with a specialty in tradition and journey for 3 many years, and a artistic writing teacher for Ontariolearn.
