We’re talking with featured performers leading up to this summer’s One Harp World (OHW), a joint conference organized by the American Harp Society (AHS) and World Harp Congress (WHC). It takes place July 28–Aug 3, 2026, in Toronto.
This month, we’re featuring five performers who are incorporating multimedia into their evening concert performances. We asked each performer to tell us about the pieces they will perform at OHW and how they are integrating one or more multimedia components.
Sanya Eng: Retelling a Legend
First up is Toronto-based harpist Sanya Eng, the co-founder and co-artistic director of PhoeNX Ensemble, a cross-cultural mixed chamber ensemble which blends traditional East Asian and Western instruments. Eng will perform as part of Cirque des Harpes on Aug. 2 with fellow PhoeNX Ensemble musicians Patty Chan (erhu), Lina Cao (guzheng), and Ryan Scott (percussion/vibraphone), integrating dance and spoken word as multimedia elements.
The PhoeNX Ensemble’s production draws on traditions from an Asian harvest festival. “I am thrilled to be sharing our retelling of the tale that is celebrated during each annual Mid-Autumn Moon Festival: The Legend of Chang’e, Immortal Goddess of the Moon,” Eng says. “Our production involves a cross-cultural mixed ensemble of erhu, guzheng, harp, and percussion, as well as dancers from the studio of The Little Pear Garden Dance Company, and a narrator. Composers for this project include Grace Lizan (Canada), Andrew Gosse (Canada), and Jérôme Langlois (Canada), with choreography by Emile Cheung (Canada). Through music, dance, and spoken word you will be transported to a world of power, passion, greed, sacrifice, and eternal love.”
Lori Gemmell: The Music of Language
Our next featured multimedia performer is Lori Gemmell, who is principal harp of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony near Toronto. Gemmell also teaches at Wilfrid Laurier University and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. Gemmell is one of the Canadian musicians featured at the opening gala concert on July 28, where she will perform The Raven for narrator, harp, and string quartet by Canadian composer Alexina Louie.
Gemmell says the music builds on the power of the poem it’s based on. “When Edgar Allan Poe sold The Raven to The Evening Mirror in 1845, it earned him a total of $9 and earned its publishers a fortune as it very quickly became one of the best-known poems in the English language. It is a masterpiece of omission, with grief, loss, and a pervasive, unnamed darkness conjured as much by what Poe doesn’t tell us as by what he does. Alexina Louie’s 2009 setting builds on this economy. The poem is full of visual references, but by amplifying that imagery with craft and wit, there is no need for screens. The poetry is given the space it needs. The writing is innovative and layered and never gimmicky, and the pacing, punctuation, and rhythm of speech creates inexorable momentum toward a spectacular arrival.”
Caroline Lizotte: From Electronics to Acrobatics
OHW composer-in-residence Caroline Lizotte plays a part in several multimedia performances at the conference, including her Concerto Techno for harp and live electronics with orchestra. She is the recipient of numerous awards for her contribution to the harp repertoire, including the 2025 Jan V. Matejcek Prize for New Classical Music from the Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), the 2023 Prix Opus Composer of the Year award recognizing composers from Quebec, and the Ann Stockton Memorial Award for New Music which she will receive at OHW.
Lizotte’s first performance with multimedia is scheduled for July 31. “I will perform my Concerto Techno, op. 40, for harp, techno live, and orchestra (written in 2003) at the Concerto Night, with the OHW full orchestra,” she says. “The techno parts, composed by co-creators Guy Pelletier and Étienne Ratthé, are processed through Ableton Live software. Indeed, since the creation of this avant-garde double-concerto, the old sequencers have been replaced by today’s technological tools.”
A second performance on Aug. 2 features a contrasting form of multimedia. “My epic Suite Galactique, op. 39, for harp solo (written in 2000) will take place at Cirque des Harpes,” Lizotte says. “I will give a live performance with circus artist-harpist Anja Habegger, with a beautiful aerial-musical choreography and visual projections.”
Finally, Lizotte comes back to electronics in one of her newest compositions. “For the OHW Opening Gala concert, harpist Noël Wan and flutist Danielle Nutting will give the world premiere of my recent work Jovian & Telluric, op. 54. It is a grand unifying canon for flute and electroacoustic harp, that shows how a simple theme can travel through the infinite possibilities of Ableton Live!”
Renée Qin: Interacting Through Imagery
Canadian harpist and composer Renée Qin will also give multiple performances with multimedia at OHW. Qin says she is a harpist, composer, and multimedia artist whose work blends classical performance with sound design and interactive technology. Named one of CBC’s “30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30” in 2024, she is pursuing an Artist Diploma at OAcademy and a coterminal Master’s in Computer Science at Stanford University.
The opening gala concert will feature one of Qin’s own works. “At One Harp World, I’ll be performing Blue Hour, my original composition for harp, soundtrack, and visuals,” she says. “I wrote this after seeing the northern lights while studying in California. It felt surreal because I connect auroras with my life in Canada, so seeing them in the Bay Area felt unexpected and like a brief reminder of home. I wanted to capture that fleeting beauty so the audience can experience it through both sound and image.”
Qin’s other multimedia performance at One Harp World is a 30-minute interactive program titled Beneath the Waves, Beyond the Stars. Describing the program, Qin says, “I combine original music with water-triggered electronic sound, computer vision that detects audience flashlights to influence both visuals and soundscape, and AI-assisted audience input that generates imagery and sound, which I respond to live on the harp. In this way, the audience does more than listen; they actively shape how the performance is experienced. What excites me most is creating performances that feel alive and unrepeatable: moments where music becomes something we discover together.”
Katryna Tan: A Fairy and a Pixie Take the Stage
Our final featured performer of this Q&A is Katryna Tan, a harpist based in Singapore and Malaysia. Tan is on the harp faculty at School of the Arts Singapore and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. She is also the founder and artistic director of Rave Harpers Singapore. Tan produces and directs a series of “Pluck” musicals with Rave Harpers, which follow the story of a harp-playing fairy named Pluck. The latest show in the series, Pluck & Pizz, is coming to OHW this summer during Cirque des Harpes on Aug. 2.
“Pluck & Pizz: The Musical is a vibrant collaborative production that brings together harpists and string players in a celebration of string sound worlds,” Tan says. “Performed by members of Rave Harpers Ensemble and RAMP Violin Academy from Singapore, the project blends famous classical repertoire (from the violin and harp repertoire) with creative arrangements and original music written for this show, all of which highlight the expressive possibilities and versatility of the instruments.”
Tan describes multimedia as a key component of the musical, which tells the story of the harp fairy Pluck and the violinist pixie Pizz. “Video animations will be projected to create different visual scenes that correspond with the music, helping to transport the audience into a series of imaginative worlds,” Tan explains. “In addition, we incorporate recorded soundscapes between sections of live performance to create subtle transitions and atmospheric effects. By combining live music, visual storytelling, and sound design, the production offers audiences an immersive and theatrical experience that enhances the expressive journey of the performance.”
To learn more about One Harp World, visit the event website.
