A few places are still available for HarpMasters Summer Academy PRO. This summer enjoy the precious opportunities and unique philosophy that HarpMasters offers and experience by learning and sharing and get inspired!
The key activities are:
Masterclasses with celebrated professors Milda Agazarian and Skaila Kanga
You will also enjoy harp recitals, backstage talks with the celebrities in a cosy and friendly atmosphere and develop lifetime friendships with harpists from all around the world. – All this and more you can experience in Switzerland, at HarpMasters.
Places are limited so apply NOW!
Write us about financial assistance:
HarpMasters on the Road
Following the First Harp Week Porto held in Portugal last month, the HarpMasters on the Road programme will travel to the Serbian capital Belgrade and present Vasilisa Lushchevskaya in a solo recital at the XII Belgrade International Harp Festival. This recital is part of the HARPVISION Prize and will include the World Premiere of the new composition for harp solo “Charisma” by Carrol MacLaughlin.
The XVIII International Petar Konjovic Competition will also take place in Belgrade on May 10th-12th 2013, where HarpMasters Academy proudly sponsors the Special Prize in harp category. We wish all young harpists success, good luck and inspiration and we’re looking forward to discovering young harp talents. http://www.konjovic-competition.rs/english/harp.html
Before the VIII International “HarpMasters” Harp Festival which will open its doors in July 2013, on May 2nd we will welcome our supportive public to another HarpMasters on the Road concert. Diane Pauvert (Switzerland) and Carolina Coimbra (Portugal), both completing their Bachelor degrees respectively at Lausanne Hochschule der Kunste and Zurich Hochschule der Kunste, studying in parallel at the HarpMasters Exellence Academy, will present some harp music of different styles. Book HarpMasters on the Road activities for your harp community:
Baroque days with Mara Galassi "Harp Music in Handel's Time"
"Joining "HarpMasters" Academy and Festival was one of the best musical and human experiences I had last year: I had the opportunity to meet and talk to fantastic musicians teachers and students in a generous spirit of collaboration, musical and spiritual growth. So I am delighted to have been invited to run the Baroque Department of HarpMasters Academy and I highly recommend this musical experience to all "harp lovers"
Mara Galassi
Orchestra Parts Masterclass with Karen Vaughan
Karen Vaughan, HarpMasters Professor-in-Residence, will offer an informative and detailed class on orchestra harp parts following last year’s success. The sessions will cover pedalling and fingering, the musical and dramatic context of the excerpts, and, of course, the “tips & tricks” of Karen’s own 40 years’ orchestral experience.
“Following the success of the new FUTURE programme in 2012 we invite younger or less experienced students to apply for this intensive course in 2013. Come to Switzerland to improve your technique and musical interpretation with Irina Zingg and Karen Vaughan in a beautiful and supportive environment, culminating in a public concert. Hear an inspiring Young Celebrity Master recital and stay on for the PRO course, which includes orchestral and Baroque workshops and further recitals of Naoko Yoshino, Isabelle Perrin and Park Stickney to expand your knowledge and love of the harp. We look forward to welcoming you to HarpMasters!”
Karen Vaughan
Sightreading Workshop with Skaila Kanga
"At HarpMasters Academy we try to cover every facet of harp performance. With that in mind, we are now introducing a Sightreading Workshop to help our participants in this more difficult area. We will explain the basics, how to practise and demonstrate with different types of music. Yes, sightreading is challenging on the harp, but it can also be fun to make music with our friends on other instruments, so why not give it a go!"
Skaila Kanga
French Harp Repertoire with Isabelle Perrin
Isabelle Perrin is back to HarpMasters Academy this year. Beside listening to the solo recital, participants of the FUTURE and PRO groups will have an unique possibilty to work with Isabelle on the french pieces which they have in their repertoire. The "French Harp Repertoire" days will cover sound production, french harp technique, interpretation, performance traditions and other topics. Don’t miss this special chance to work with one of the leading French harpist of today and apply now: www.harpmasters.com
“Today is my great pleasure to announce my return to HarpMasters and invite all of you to join us to celebrate the harp! After my first wonderful experience a few years ago, I am much looking forward to discovering a new location and seeing many of you there again. HarpMasters has much grown since its first years but the enthusiasm of all of us remains the same!”
Isabelle Perrin
Anne Denholm: "HarpMasters: Inspiration, Learning, Friendships"
For me, HarpMasters Academy 2012 unlocked three great things: fresh inspiration, intensive learning and wonderful friendships. Being around world-class professors and performers meant
that it was very easy to gain new inspiration and to appreciate new and
valuable perspectives on the harp, and performing in general. I was
also inspired by the other harpists attending the course, and by the challenge of the intensive preparation and performance.
We
learnt so much on HarpMasters 2012 - it was hard not to, with classes
on a wide variety of topics, from Baroque analysis and performance to
modern concert preparation. It has been wonderful to come home with all
this new wisdom and to work it in to my harp studies. The friendships
that we made at HarpMasters 2012 are still going strong, and I am sure
that we will continue to stay in touch. We now have an even wider
networking circle and place for harp discussion and advice. Thank you!
We have been given fantastic memories to hold on to, and a new passion
for the future!
Anne Denholm / UK
Catherine Derrick: "HarpMasters - Unmissable!"
This was my third consecutive year at HarpMasters, and it has become something of an unmissable event for me.
This year I stayed with a host family, who looked after me wonderfully; and in the evenings, all the harpists and tutors ate together at a local restaurant - which was a great time to talk and catch up at the end of each very busy day.
Even in my third year, I am still amazed at how much more I learned about technique, repertoire and performance from the masterclasses. The private lessons I was also able to have were invaluable to me. Milda Agazarian was wonderful. She shared her great insight onto the music I am studying, and she made it possible for me to make real progress - especially as she had edited one of the pieces I was playing. Skaila Kanga was also wonderful - as ever incisive, focused and caring; and constantly striving to bring out the absolute best in each of us.
It was an inspiration to meet Carrol McLaughlin. She is full of energy and enthusiasm, and she shared with us a whole new approach to performing; giving us very valuable advice on how best to convey/project the music, and coaching us all in techniques for overcoming performance nerves and communicating with the audience. She also gave a great jazz-meets-classical recital, followed by a jazz harp workshop - not a common venture for harpists!
Karen Vaughan led two excellent workshops dealing with some of the major orchestral repertoire for harp. We benefited hugely from her experience and expertise - on both a performance and technical level. Later in the week, following a dazzlingly virtuosic recital, Maria Krushevskaya treated us to a wonderful masterclass/workshop on the traditions of the Russian ballet cadenzas in the Moscow Bolshoi theatre. Taking us into yet another time and place in history, Mara Galassi gave us a fascinating ‘tour’ of the world of the baroque harp and its repertoire. Particularly, she enlightened us in many aspects of style, which are commonly overlooked by harpists.
Such a wealth of gifts, in such a short time! HarpMasters is a very intense and concentrated period of study, mixed with great fun and great friendship. It has helped me grow as a harpist and musician, and I would not be the same without it.
Catherine Derrick / UK HarpMasters PRO Magdalena Hoffmann: "Do HarpMasters pay for advertisement?"
When I first heard about HarpMasters, it literally sounded too good to be true.
Everybody - friends, teachers - spoke about it in such exceedingly high
terms that I thought they must get paid to advertise it so much! But
then I went to Münchenbuchsee for this year's course and could see for
myself the wonder that is HarpMasters.
The difficulty of
having a big group of harpists (twenty!) spend nearly two weeks together
without creating a competitive or unfriendly atmosphere was handled
extremely well. Everybody was very open-minded and especially the
football table ensured many great moments to release any potential
tension (in our heads as well as in our harp-trained wrists!).
Classes and lectures with teachers in residence and celebrity guest teachers were very inspiring and instructive, especially Mara Galassi's
outstanding classes on baroque music. Finally a musician who gives
well-grounded and elaborate information on how to play baroque music on
the harp and really knows what she is talking about! Last but not least I
would like to emphasise a personal highlight of mine that most
participants maybe did not even know about: Irina Zingg, whom
most may only see as the wonderful organiser and fairy godmother of
HarpMasters, is also one of the most amazing teacher I have ever met and
gave me a fantastic private lesson. I think HarpMasters would gain even
more from at least one masterclass with Irina Zingg herself!
Magdalena Hoffmann / Germany HarpMasters PRO Victoria Konzett: "HarpMasters: whatever you expect, you will get more"
After
spending one week in HarpMasters, I all of a sudden found myself face
to face with the most challenging exercise of the whole program: getting
inside the car and going home!
There is one thing that you can be
absolutely sure about when you go to HarpMasters: Whatever you expect of
the course, and whatever you want to accomplish there, you will get and
learn more. Going to HarpMasters means seeing awesome recitals,
learning from really good teachers,getting to know famous harpists and
masters and, probably the most important things of all, meeting new
friends and finding the inspiration and energy that you need during the
whole year. There is no better place to spend your summer than in
Münchenbuchsee, back home you just want to take your harp and not to
stop practicing for a very very long time.
Thank you HarpMasters for everything!!
Victoria Konzett / Austria HarpMasters FUTURE
Congratulations to our participants on their achievments (autumn - winter 2012)
Competitions
Carolina Coimbra – First Prize , IV Concorso Internazionale di arpa "Marcel Tournier", Category B
Yuko Tomonaga – First Prize, Osaka International Competition
Maria Zimina – Third Prize “Bronze Nutcracker 2012”, XIII International Television Competition for young musicians “Nutcracker”
Maria
was the scholarship participant (and the youngest harpist attendet
HarpMasters Academy ever) at the HarpMasters FUTURE in 2012
Positions
Magdalena Hoffmann has won the position Praktikumsstelle with the Sinfonieorchester Münster
Veronika Lemishenko appointed as Principal Harpist with the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra Vasilisa Lushchevskaya is the Camac Voice in December 2012:
Vasilisa is HARPVISION Prize winner, her solo recital will be presented by HarpMasters at the Belgrade Harp Festival in May 2013
Opening of the position Young Celebrity Master 2014. read more Chiara PedrazzettI: "HARP MASTERS 2012: PURE GREATNESS!"
I was a bit worried about going to HarpMasters Academy for my fourth year in a row: what if it didn’t live up to previous years?
I needn’t have worried, because I can say that this was the best HarpMasters ever. The great organizer and harp teacher Irina Zingg always works really hard to make HarpMasters more and more complete, but this year she really excelled herself!
The program was absolutely excellent: we had a fantastic baroque workshop and concert by the astonishing Mara Galassi, a very useful and interesting orchestra workshop with Karen Vaughan and another one with the Russian harpist Maria Krushevskaya about Russian Ballett cadenzas. Very successful was the lecture by the energetic and charismatic Dr. Carrol McLaughlin, who gave us incredible tips relating to practice and concentration. She gave us great insight into how we develop our skills. In addition to this already rich program, Skaila Kanga and the amazing Milda Agazarian gave masterclasses, and at the Gala concert it was so good to hear everyone having improved so much during the week!
Throughout the week we had some friendly and very useful backstage talks with the guest artists. It was fantastic to have the opportunity to talk to these wonderful and successful harpists and to ask them everything we were always curious about. Some nice desserts added flavours to these very special nights! The kindness of the host families was amazing and for the whole week the atmosphere was so friendly and full of laughs! The table football was perfect for some moments of relaxation and the dinners in company were an occasion for general chit-chat and games… except when we were too tired!
I can say that HarpMasters Academy was already a top masterclass, but now it just seems so important to the development of our instrumental and musical abilities that I can’t afford to miss it next year! Every year I learn so much in these ten days, and I meet nice harpists from around the world: some of whom have become my best friends nowadays!
See you at HarpMasters 2013: it is definitely worth it.
Karen Vaughan: "My first time at HarpMasters Academy "
Imagine a picturesque Swiss village with a beautiful church suitable for concerts and an excellent restaurant called 'Bären Buchsi' (The Bears) which also has a performance space upstairs. Imagine a superb administrator who organizes more than two weeks of masterclasses, workshops and concerts with the co-operation of the local community. This is HarpMasters Academy, which takes place every summer in Muenchenbuchsee, Switzerland.
In July 2012 there was a separate course for the younger or less experienced harpists called 'HarpMasters FUTURE'. It was also my first year coaching this group with Irina Zingg. We had ten participants ranging in age from 11-21, representing Austria, Hungary, Portugal, Russia, the UK and the USA. In five days of intensive masterclasses and private lessons they were ready topresent their own concert in the village church. It was attended by parents, friends and an enthusiastic local audience, many of whom had generously opened their homes to the FUTURES ... bed-and-breakfast and the loan of a bicycle to ride between venues!
The Musikschule hosted the lessons, classes and fine practice facilities. Elisaveta Kozina gave the Young Celebrity Guest recital at Saal Bären Buchsi, presenting a programme drawn from repertoire for the upcoming 2013 USA International Harp Competition in Bloomington. She gave a Backstage Talk afterwards and the following day she demonstrated the principles of Russian harp technique in an impromptu session with Irina ZIngg at which all the participants were given the warm-up exercises.
Dr.Carrol McLaughlin arrived at just the right point to inspire us for the final concert, with her tips on presentation and strategies for developing confidence on the platform. She also gave excellent jazz classes and a sell-out recital in the church after the PRO group joined us.
Another unplanned session which became necessary was the Blister workshop, in which all the course leaders suggested ways to cope with the effects of practising such unfamiliar long hours!
Several of the FUTURE group stayed on to listen to Maria Kruschevskaya's wonderful recital in the church, followed by another Backstage Talk. I was also involved in the crossover period, coaching the twenty students in the PRO group on orchestral repertoire of their choice.
HarpMasters FUTURE was an enriching experience for both students and teachers and I was very much reminded of the spirit of the old 'International Harpweeks' led by Phia Berghout and Maria Korchinska in Holland.We learned so much and forged international friendships to last a lifetime. Many thanks to Irina for organizing such a fantastic course, and to her husband Stefan Zingg and the people of Muenchenbuchsee for their cheerful support. I look forward to the next one!
Karen Vaughan Head of Harp, Royal Academy of Music, London
Irina Zingg: "Exciting Season for HarpMasters"
The Season 2011-12 was the busiest and most exciting ever for HarpMasters. The Seventh HarpMasters Academy is just over and you will learn about it in upcoming reports of the teachers and participants. I would like to highlight now a few moments from the last year, which are important for HarpMasters.
For the first time the Academy offered two, different level programs: the newly founded FUTUREGroup for harpists up to intermediate level and the PRO group offering an intensive detailed training for young professionals. Twenty PROs from all over the world, with more than half returning participants (for the 3rd, 4th or 7th time!!), came to Switzerland once again to gain unique knowledge from our resident professors Milda Agazarian and Skaila Kanga. It was an honour to welcome to our HarpMasters family a new resident professor, Karen Vaughan, with whom I was privileged to coach our dedicated, talented, hard-working FUTURE Group of ten participants.
For the first time the concert program took the form of International Harp Festival “HarpMasters”, as ever given a warm welcome not only by an enthusiastic local audience but also by “house-guests” from all over the Europe.
The Celebrity Guests gave remarkable recitals and coached both groups, with dedication and love, to the highest professional standard possible. Carrol McLaughlin tirelessly coached both groups in performance excellence and jazz. The highlight in the PRO group was long-awaited, detailed and highly professional training with Mara Galassi in baroque harp repertoire. Karen Vaughan and Maria Krushevskaya shared their precious experience of orchestra parts and the traditions of Russian Ballet Cadenzas in Moscow Bolshoi Theatre, respectively.
While the program was extensive and intensive, the friendships and inspiration – key qualities to HarpMasters – reigned between us during three weeks.
Another new project was launched by HarpMasters this season. The new prize for young harpists, HARPVISION Prize, was established with the aim of supporting young professionals at the beginning of their career. The Prize, a CD recording and solo debut recital at HarpMasters Festival was given at the Ksenia Erdeli International Harp Competition 2012 to Vasilisa Lushchevskaya.
Time is independent and moves always forward. Since the launch of the first Academy seven years ago HarpMasters has grown continually. It is a great honour, (but also responsibility!) to have an extended HarpMasters community all over the world. The key values of HarpMasters: highest professional standards, inspiration and true friendships – unite the HarpMasters family and ensure its growth.
