The American Harp Society (AHS) crowned Elizabeth Yeoh-Wang as its new Concert Artist for the next two years after she won the Young Professional division of the 24th AHS National Competition. Yeoh-Wang studied with Jessica Zhou through a dual-degree program at Harvard and the New England Conservatory. As the AHS Concert Artist until 2023, Yeoh-Wang will give recitals for AHS Chapters across the U.S. with the financial support of the AHS. Yeoh-Wang looks forward to meeting people throughout the U.S. and sharing her love of the harp.
Leading up to the competition, Yeoh-Wang shared some of her competition music with children as one of New England Conservatory’s Musical Storytelling Fellows. Yeoh-Wang explains, “I used excerpts from Godefroid’s Carnival of Venice and Houdy’s Sonate to help tell the story of Stone Soup, and play a game where kids guessed which character matched the music. Thinking about how to present excerpts from my pieces with little kids helped me understand the characters of the pieces, since I was thinking a lot about how to best match music to emotions in the story and characters in the game.” Yeoh-Wang describes her competition performance as a special opportunity. “I was just really grateful to have the chance to share the pieces I’ve been working on in such a nice hall!”
The biennial competition was held June 25–28, 2021, at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, California. The competition included 41 finalists competing in five divisions for scholarship awards totaling over $23,000. Only the Young Professional and Advanced divisions participated in person from the Colburn School. The remaining divisions competed virtually, livestreaming their performances.
Young Professional Division (max. age 30)
1st prize: Elizabeth Yeoh-Wang
2nd prize: Alyssa Katahara
3rd prize: Adam Phan
4th prize: Hannah Cope Johnson
5th prize (tie): Juan Riveros and Seika Dong
6th prize (tie): Haley Rhodeside and Grace Roepke
Advanced Division (max. age 21)
1st prize: Renée Murphy
2nd prize: Annette Lee
3rd prize: Julia Johnson
4th prize: Daniel Benedict
Intermediate II Division (max. age 18)
1st prize: Eunice Park
2nd prize: Janice Hur
3rd prize: Naomi Sun
4th prize: Marina Tiffany
5th prize: Judy Liu
6th prize (tie): Shaylen Joos and Emily Howard
Intermediate I Division (max. age 15)
1st prize: Lydia Kessler
2nd prize: Ava Yeh
3rd prize: Sophia Jho
4th prize: Nathan Zhou
5th prize: Hannah Chen
6th prize (tie): Sophia Love and Ella Brown
Junior Division (max. age 12)
1st prize: Grace Hong
2nd prize: Emma Valdez
3rd prize: Colin Hong
4th prize: Charlotte Ngo
5th prize: Mira Vamos
6th prize: Eliana Anderson
For more information, visit the AHS website.
