Prepared harp is a method of harp performance, similar in concept to prepared piano, in which foreign objects such as pieces of paper are interwoven into the strings to change the tone of the instrument. [1] Among the pioneers of this technique was harpist Anne LeBaron. [2]
Three sketches for harp solo (1972) by Polish composer Witold Szalonek and harpist Urszula Mazurek are also worth mention. [3] [4]
Heinz Robert Holliger is a Swiss composer, virtuoso oboist, and conductor. Celebrated for his versatility and technique, Holliger is among the most prominent oboists of his generation. His repertoire includes Baroque and Classical pieces, but he has regularly engaged in lesser known pieces of Romantic music, as well as his own compositions. He often performed contemporary works with his wife, the harpist Ursula Holliger. Many composers have written works for him, including Berio, Carter, Henze, Krenek, Lutosławski, Martin, Penderecki, Stockhausen and Yun. A noted composer himself, Hollinger has written works such as the opera Schneewittchen (1998).
The Silesian String Quartet is a string quartet founded in 1978 by the graduates of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland. Its current members are:
Robert Maxwell was an American harpist, songwriter, and teacher who wrote the music for two well-known songs: "Ebb Tide" and "Shangri-La". He also wrote "Solfeggio", used in a repeated skit by entertainment television innovator Ernie Kovacs.
FKS Stal Mielec, commonly known as Stal Mielec, is a Polish professional football club based in Mielec. The team competes in the Ekstraklasa, the top level of the Polish football league system.
The pedal harp is a large and technologically modern harp, designed primarily for use in art music. It may be played solo, as part of a chamber ensemble, or in an orchestra. It typically has 47 strings with seven strings per octave, giving a range of six and a half octaves.
Lavinia Meijer is a South Korean-born Dutch harpist. Her concerts have included a solo harp evening at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Anna-Maria Yordanova Ravnopolska-Dean, born 3 August 1960, Sofia, Bulgaria, is a Bulgarian and American harpist, composer, pedagogue, musicologist and TV host.
Agnieszka Chylińska is a Polish singer.
Erin Kathleen Hill is an American harpist, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and actress. Her Celtic album hit #1 on the Billboard World Music Chart and she has played and sung with Kanye West, Cyndi Lauper, Moby, Sinéad O'Connor, Enya, a-ha, Randy Newman, Jewel, Josh Groban, and many other celebrities, as well as Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, and for royalty.
The 1st season of Taniec z gwiazdami, the Polish edition of Dancing with the Stars, started on 16 April 2005 and ended on 4 June 2005. It was broadcast by TVN. Magda Mołek and Hubert Urbański were the hosts, and the judges were: Iwona Szymańska-Pavlović, Zbigniew Wodecki, Beata Tyszkiewicz and Piotr Galiński.
Witold Szalonek was a Polish composer.
Franziska Huhn is a German harpist. Currently, she lives in the United States.
Konstancja Kochaniec is a Polish classical and film music composer. She has pursued independent creative activities, such as film music, television, theater music, solo music, chamber music, electronic music, as well as in the field of synthesis of the arts.
Heidi Lehwalder is an American classical harpist. She is internationally renowned as one of the world's greatest harp prodigies, and as the final student of master Carlos Salzedo. Leonard Bernstein said of her, "...The main thing to tell you about Heidi is that she is simply a genius," in his notes for the Young People's Concerts. She was the first recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, later to be renamed the Avery Fisher Career Grant. Heidi was given a harp at the age of seven by her mother, who was a cellist with the Seattle Symphony, and Heidi made her debut performing with the Seattle Symphony at nine. She studied with Carlos Salzedo at his music colony in Camden, Maine for two summers beginning in 1960, and it was Salzedo who prepared her to play in The International Harp Contest in Israel in 1962. The Philharmonic Hall commentary on the contest said that "Heidi was the one and only sensation of the entire affair."
Zdzisław Piernik is a Polish virtuoso tuba player.
The Concerto for Cello and Orchestra is a cello concerto by the Polish composer Witold Lutosławski. The work was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society with support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. It received its world premiere at the Royal Festival Hall on October 14, 1970 by the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Edward Downes.
Tara McNeill is an Irish violinist, harpist, and soprano singer from Antrim, Northern Ireland.
The Double Concerto for Oboe, Harp and Chamber Orchestra is a musical composition by the Polish composer Witold Lutosławski. It was commissioned by the conductor Paul Sacher for the oboist Heinz Holliger and harpist Ursula Holliger, Heinz's wife. The work was composed between 1979 and 1980 and was first performed by Heinz and Ursula Holliger and the Collegium Musicum Zürich under the direction of Sacher in Lucerne on August 24, 1980. The piece is dedicated to Sacher.
Ursula Holliger, née Hänggi, was a Swiss harpist, known for her commitment to contemporary music.
Les Espaces du sommeil is a work for baritone and orchestra set to a poem of Robert Desnos by the Polish composer Witold Lutosławski. It is in one movement, with a three-section scheme but lacking clearly marked caesuras, about which Lutosławski stated: "Les Espaces is neither a song nor a set of songs, but a symphonic poem with a baritone solo."