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International Harp Competition begins this week at IU School of Music
July 3, 2001
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Harp music will dominate Auer Hall at the Indiana University School of Music for the next two weeks as 38 of the world's most distinguished young harpists compete in the 2001 USA International Harp Competition.
Those competing from the United States and 13 foreign countries will be involved in preliminary rounds July 5-7, 9-11 and 12. The three finalists will present a concert with the IU Festival Orchestra on July 15 at 7 p.m. in the IU Musical Arts Center. All of the competition events, and several guest performances by internationally known harpists, will be open to the public free of charge.
A Web site with the complete performance schedule and other details of the event is located at http://www.indiana.edu/~harpcomp
This competition is the premier harp event in the United States and the most generous in the world in terms of prizes. The gold medalist will receive a specially designed gold concert harp valued at $55,000, a recording contract, and debut concerts in London, Paris, Tokyo and Fukui, Japan, and at New York's Alice Tully Hall.
Four of the world's most acclaimed harpists will perform during the two-week event:
In addition, a lecture-demonstration of the competition's required American piece "Dilling Fantasy" by composer Michael Leese, performed on the Dilling harp by his wife, Jocelyn Chang, will be presented Sunday (July 8) at 1 p.m. in Auer Hall.
A second special event involves Roslyn Rensch-Erbes, author of the book Harps and Harpists, who will present a lecture on "The Secret Life of Harps and Harpists" on July 12 at 2 p.m. in Room 405 at the IU School of Music Annex.
Those competing include six from the United States: Elizabeth Levin, Jaymee Schmuck, Sara Shute, Julie Smith, Nicole Staker and Sonja Wangensteen. Other competitors are Kazuko Shinozaki, Mariko Takada, Sayo Tanaka, Yukiko Uno, Mutsuko Uematsu, Miyabi Matsuoka and Etsuko Chida from Japan; Polina Baranova and Yana Karguina from Russia; Monica Turoni, Elena Corni and Paola Baron from Italy; Maria Rayan from Argentina; Lillian Lau from Hong Kong; Baltazar Juarez from Mexico; Marianne Bouillot, Elisabeth Chardonnet,Rossitza Milevska and Christelle Uccelli from France; Eliane Zweifel and Celine Gay des Combes from Switzerland; Vanessa Gong, Jing I. Jang, Yui-Wen Kuang, Meng-Lu Chiu, Hui-Ru Chen and Ya-Ting Lee from Taiwan; Sanghyup Oh and Ahrim Kim from Korea; Frederike Wagner from Germany; and Dan Yu and Jessica Zhou from China.
Eight of the competitors are IU School of Music students: Tanaka, Yu, Juarez, Chiu, Levin, Lau, Oh and Rayan.
The USA International Harp Competition, presented every three years, was founded by Susann McDonald, artistic director of the event and Distinguished Professor of Harp at the IU School of Music, where she directs the world's largest harp department. McDonald has enjoyed an extraordinary career as a solo recitalist and guest soloist with the world's great orchestras. Many of her students are among the most prominent harp teachers and concert harpists in the world.
The competition is hosted by the IU School of Music. The event is one of only seven in the United States, including the Van Cliburn Piano Competition, to be accredited by the World Federation of International Music Competitions.
The goals of the event include honoring the achievements of young performers, increasing public awareness of the harp as a solo instrument, promoting international friendship among musicians, and showcasing the work of living American composers who write for the harp.
(Susan Lyon, 812-334-8446, s-lyon@home.com or Richard Doty, 812-855-0084, rgdoty@indiana.edu)