The Toronto Worldwide Harp Pageant — iHarp — makes its debut this summer season, with per week’s value of concert events and occasions celebrating the instrument and its wealthy historical past. It takes place from July 12 on the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, and on the All Nations Banquet Corridor in Markham on July 13. The summer season institute portion of the pageant (July 7-11) will welcome harp college students worldwide for per week of intensive research.
Performers, educators, and music lovers will benefit from the collection of concert events, workshops, and masterclasses. The purpose to encourage a brand new era of harpists, shock audiences, and to bolster the presence of the 5,000 yr previous instrument within the twenty first century.
The music showcased will embrace each historic and up to date kinds, underscoring the versatile nature of the instrument.
The organizing workforce 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’ll have a good time the harp’s artistry, its 5,000 years of historical past, and its extraordinary potential to unite audiences throughout cultures and generations,” mentioned Catherine Michel in a press release. “This pageant will supply each inspiration and instruments to assist younger and skilled harpists excel of their careers, discover new musical horizons, and combine their historic instrument into up to date contexts.”
Pageant Organizers
Catherine Michel
Catherine Michel studied harp, piano and music principle as a toddler together 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 might 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 gained the French Victoires de la Musique Award.
Immediately, 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 the US, together with as a soloist on a European tour Juilliard Ensemble of Up to date Music and composer Luciano Berio. She has recorded albums of up to date chamber music.
She an organist Jon Gillock toured the US as duo-recitalists, and Bride additionally carried out frequently with British flutist Judith Pearce.
Earlier than taking over the place at The Eastman Faculty in 1989, Kathleen was chairman of the harp division at Manhattan Faculty of Music. Immediately, alongside together with her longstanding appointment at Eastman, she is a member of the visiting school of the Royal Northern Faculty of Music in Manchester, England.
Being a direct scholar of the nice grasp of the harp Marcel Grandjany, Kathleen will current a tribute presentation of her instructor throughout iHarp Pageant on July 13 (1 p.m.) at All Nations Banquet
Corridor, displaying uncommon private objects of Grandjany from her assortment. She will even give a masterclass on July 12 (11:30 a.m.) on the Aga Khan Museum.
Andrew Chan
Canadian harpist Andrew Chan is the pageant’s Inventive Director. 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 examine of the harp in Vancouver with Elizabeth Volpѐ Bligh, Principal Harp of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
Alongside together 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. He’s based mostly on Toronto and the founding father of Harps on the Hill, which advocates the training and efficiency of the harp.
Toronto Worldwide Harp Pageant: Q&A
We requested Inventive Director Andrew Chan a number of questions concerning the instrument and the pageant.
I believe individuals make a number of assumptions concerning the harp and its sound, however it has a lot extra potential. Is there a number of curiosity within the harp and what it has to supply twenty first century musicians in Toronto?
On the Harps on the Hill Faculty positioned within the Larger Toronto space, now we have the most important quantity of harp college students in Canada, and probably of North America. We have now a global inhabitants
of over 90 college students from all backgrounds, age teams, and all walks of life. Presently, now we have two college students who have been accepted and are pursuing the harp on the famed Juilliard Faculty in New
York, and three others learning at famend Eastman Faculty of Music and Yale College, doing their Masters and Doctorate levels in harp efficiency. After which we even have many
others who’re studying to play the harp only for the love of it as a soothing, elegant and rewarding interest.
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 global harp pageant in Toronto, to proceed to develop Toronto as a global hub for essentially 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 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 essentially 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 is going to the pageant supply to individuals?
The Toronto Worldwide Harp Pageant, a premier gathering for skilled harpists and fans, might be a celebration of those traditions. The occasion will function concert events, masterclasses, and an exhibition of harps, all designed to spotlight the technical mastery and creative great thing about this timeless instrument. In bringing collectively top-tier expertise from all over the world, the pageant will elevate the standing of the harp as an instrument that bridges historical past with up to date magnificence.
iHarp At A Look
Among the iHarp 2025 Program highlights embrace:
- 25 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 up to date 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 on orchestral efficiency
- 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 supplies 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 (Up to date Electrical Harp, Zurich, Switzerland)
- Suzanne Shulman (famend Flute Soloist, Toronto, 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 concerning the iHarp pageant [HERE].
Are you seeking to promote an event? Have a news tip? Must know one of the best events occurring this weekend? Ship us a note.
#LUDWIGVAN
Get the every day arts information straight to your inbox.
Join the Ludwig Van Toronto e-Blast! — native classical music and opera information straight to your inbox
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.
