harpcolumn

College Harp Program Directory

University of Notre Dame

Overview

Region

South Bend,

Indiana,

United States

Faculty

Dr. Heaven Fan

Program summary

The Department of Music at Notre Dame not only provides an intensive course of study for music majors within Notre Dame’s rich liberal arts tradition, but it also provides its majors a strong foundation to prepare for graduate school and careers in music of the 21st-century.

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program details

Type of school

University

Music and arts degrees offered

  • Bachelor of Music

Lessons available for non-majors?

Yes

Harp minor offered?

Yes

Number of school harps

2

Space provided for personal harps?

Yes

University of Notre Dame

This program is best suited for students who:

"wants to study in an elite university which offers solid harp training."

What sets this program apart from others is:

"its highest standards in academics and world-class faculty & facilities"

Students who graduate from this program go on to:

"become first-class musicians/scholars"

The three words that best describe this school's environment are:

"Inspiring, Innovative, & Excellence."

[About Dr. Heaven Fan]
Currently serving on the faculties of the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College, Valparaiso University, Indiana University South Bend, and Anderson University, Dr. Heaven Fan is also a member of the artistic faculty of the MasterWorks Festival. Fan’s performances have been featured on National Public Radio (NPR), TV and radio stations in the US, Canada, Central and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. She has been featured on recordings including A Ceremony of Carols with the Notre Dame Children’s Choir; Ami Maayani’s The Harp Concerti (Fons) as a member of the Pacific Harp Quartet; The Best of Festival of Carols, Volume 1, and Festival of Carols (Naxos) with Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, Soprano Maria Jette, and the Grammy Award-winning soprano Sylvia McNair.

A prizewinner in the national Anne Adams Competition of the American Harp Society, the Indiana University Travel Grant Competition, and the Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship Award of the Arts Council of Indianapolis and Lilly Endowment, Fan was invited internationally as a featured soloist in the MasterWorks Festival, the Festival of Chinese Performing Arts in Boston, the Boston Harp Festival, the World Harp Congresses, the International Harp Festival of Mexico, and the New Year Concerts of the Qingdao Municipal Opera and Dance Drama Theater Orchestra in China. 

Fan is an avid advocate of contemporary and chamber music and has worked with composers in numerous projects and given world premieres in the US, Taiwan, and Australia. She has collaborated in new music and chamber recitals with the members of the Boston, Atlanta, St. Louis, and National symphonies, as well as faculty members of the Eastman School of Music among others. As an orchestral musician, Fan has performed with the Indianapolis Symphony, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, the National Taiwan Symphony, Contemporary Chamber Orchestra Taipei, Yellow River Symphony of China, and many other leading orchestras.

A sought-after teacher, Fan was selected by the Arpas sin Fronteras (“Harps Without Frontiers”) to be featured in a series of interviews, compiled by the National University of the Arts in Argentina, as one of the world-renowned harp professors of the most recognized and prestigious conservatories and universities of the world. She has also been featured as one of the speakers in the 2023 Buenos Aires Harp Week sponsored by Nueva Escuela Argentina de Arpa. In 2017 Fan was invited by the Central Illinois Roslyn Rensch Chapter as the advisor for the first Auditions and Evaluations program sponsored by the American Harp Society. In addition, she was the first harp scholar to publish an in-depth analysis on the New Method for the Harp by the early 19th-century English harp virtuoso Elias Parish Alvars. Fan has been elected as a member to Pi Kappa Lambda, the National Music Honor Society, and classified by the US Government as an Alien of Extraordinary Abilities in the Arts. 

Fan has served on the judging panels for the 2007 National Harp Competition in Taiwan, the 2008 and 2012 Young Artist’s Harp Competitions, the FY2012 Individual Artist Program of the Indiana Arts Commission, the 2013 Indianapolis Matinee Musicale Collegiate Scholarship Competition, the 2016 International Harp Competition of Mexico, the 2019 Indiana University Harp Concerto Competition, the 2021 Kansas City Lyra Chapter Harp Competition, the 2021 Ruth Inglefield Composition Contest of the USA International Harp Competition, and the 2023 Marker and Pioneer International Music Competition. She has also moderated the Competition Forum at the 2017 International Harp Competition of Mexico. Fan currently serves on the Board of Directors of the prestigious USA International Harp Competition.

Born in Taiwan, Fan has received her bachelor’s degree with highest distinction in both harp and piano from Queensland Conservatorium of Griffith University in Australia, and her master’s, Artist Diploma, and doctorate in harp performance from Indiana University under the tutelage of Distinguished Professor Susann McDonald. 

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