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HARP FACULTY AT PRISMA
An essential part of the orchestra PRISMA is excited to have brought back to the comprehensive program is the harp. Two world class harpists, Elizabeth Volp� Blight and Valerie Muzzolini Gordon, will join the PRISMA team to inspire students and audiences with their experience, knowledge and passion for music.
Elizabeth Volp� Bligh
"One of the best harpists in the world" (Nigel Barbour)
"achingly lovely playing" (Michael Scott)
Elizabeth Volp� Bligh became the Vancouver Symphony's Principal Harpist in 1982, after six years with the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra. She studied harp with Judy Loman, Alice Chalifoux and Edna Phillips. Her career includes concerti, chamber music concerts, movie soundtracks and recordings, namely, The Greater Vancouver Album. Michael Conway Baker wrote a Harp Concerto for her, which she performed with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO).
Elizabeth's students have won awards such as the VYSO Concerto Competition, the Edith Lando Gifted Youth Scholarship and the RCM Gold Medal, as well as opportunities in the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. Many have become professional harpists. She has taught privately and at the University of British Columbia, Trinity Western University, VSO School of Music, Vancouver Academy of Music and the Island Mountain Arts Festival. In 2012, she taught and performed at the 6th International Harp Workshop in Italy and co-founded the Canadian International Summer Harp Institute with Gianetta Baril, Judy Loman and Cristina Braga.
In 2014, she will be premiering a newly-commissioned piece by Scott Good at the World Harp Congress in Sydney, Australia. She has been invited to give master classes in Belgium and England. She has given master classes in China, New Zealand, the USA, Italy and Canada. Her compositions for solo harp, six of which are in the 2009 Royal Conservatory of Music Syllabus, are being taught and performed internationally. She is President of the BC Chapter of the American Harp Society and was Artistic Chair of the 11th World Harp Congress Host Committee. She has performed and spoken at harp conferences and festivals and was a judge at the OSM Standard Life Competition in 2010.
Elizabeth will be working with harp students for the first week of PRISMA 2014.
Valerie Muzzolini Gordon 
"rewarding musical start" (Gramophone)
Valerie Muzzolini Gordon is Principal Harp of the Seattle Symphony, a position she has held since the age of 23. In high demand both nationally and internationally, she has performed as Guest Principal Harp of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Oregon Symphony, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Nice Philharmonic, as well as an appearance with The Philadelphia Orchestra.
As a soloist, she has performed with the Seattle Symphony, Nice Philharmonic, and the Vancouver Symphony. An active chamber musician and proponent of new music, she performs regularly with the Seattle Chamber Players, Music of Remembrance, and she also premiered a double concerto for violin and harp at the New Hampshire Music Festival in 2012.
Muzzolini Gordon began her musical education in Nice, France, and continued her studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, followed by graduate work at Yale University.
Valerie will be working with harp students for the second week of PRISMA 2014.
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