The Korea International Harp Competition (KIHC) has announced the jury for its 2024 contest, which will take place in Seoul, South Korea, April 24–28. Karen Vaughan (U.K.) will serve as chairman of the jury. Harpists Yolanda Kondonassis (USA), Sivan Magen (Israel), and Julia Rovinsky (Israel), along with flutist Soyoung Lee (South Korea), will also serve on the jury.
Karen Vaughan was appointed co-principal harp of the London Symphony Orchestra in 1984—a position she held for over thirty years. From 1999 to 2008 she was Professor of Pedal Harp at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) and she also teaches at The Purcell School for musically gifted children. She was Head of Harp 2010–2022 at the Royal Academy of Music, where she continues as a professor. Vaughan studied piano, flute and harp at the Royal Academy of Music in London and continued her studies with the renowned Russian harpist Maria Korchinska.
Yolanda Kondonassis is an active harp soloist, GRAMMY-nominated recording artist, author, and professor of harp at The Cleveland Institute of Music. Kondonassis has sold hundreds of thousands of albums and downloads worldwide and her extensive discography, released on the Telarc, Azica, New World, and Channel Classics labels, includes over twenty-five titles. Kondonassis attended high school at Interlochen Arts Academy. She continued her education at The Cleveland Institute of Music, where she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees as a student of Alice Chalifoux.
Soyoung Lee has won many competitions and auditions in America such as the Flute Talk Magazine Competition and the New York Flute Club competition. Upon returning to her home country, she played as principal flute of the Bucheon Philharmonic from 1992–2011, one of the leading orchestras in Korea. She is a professor at L’academie international d’été de Nice in France. She teaches at Konkuk University and Seoul Arts High School. After graduating from Seoul Arts High School, Lee studied at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music with Michel Debost and at Yale University with Ransom Wilson.
Sivan Magen is a soloist, chamber musician, teacher, and Principal Harpist of the Finnish Radio Symphony (since fall 2017). Magen became the first and only Israeli to have ever won the International Harp Contest in Israel in 2006. He is also a winner of the Pro Musicis International Award. Magen also founded the ensemble called the Israeli Chamber Project in 2008, which won the 2011 Israeli Ministry of Culture Outstanding Ensemble Award. Magen’s harp teachers include Irena Kaganovsky-Kessler, Germaine Lorenzini, Isabelle Moretti, and Nancy Allen. He holds a Premier Prix from the Paris Conservatory and a Master of Music from the Juilliard School.
Julia Rovinsky, Principal Harpist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and a faculty member at the Buchman-Mehta School of Music, Tel-Aviv University, serves as the Music Director of the International Harp Contest in Israel. She frequently appears as a soloist and in various chamber music ensembles, participating in festivals around the world. Born in St. Petersburg, Rovinsky graduated from the Rimsky-Korsakov Academy of Music. In 1988, she won a prize at the National Harp Competition in Moscow. In 2002, she was honored with the Prime Minister Award for the best performance of Israeli music. Her recorded works include several solo harp and chamber music albums.
For more information, including full biographies of the jury members, visit the KIHC website.
