2021 Adjudicator: Dr. Kimberly Hoursr Taylor
Kimberly Houser Taylor started her musical studies on her mother’s knee at the piano. When asked what instrument she wanted to play, Kimberly chose the harp. She started her harp studies with beloved Portland, Oregon harp teacher, Marion Fouse. During her high school years, Kimberly started playing background music and joined the Portland Youth Philharmonic as their harpist. Kimberly was awarded Oregon Scholar and an Oregon State Solo Ensemble gold medal her senior year of high school.
A scholarship took Kimberly to the University of Arizona where she studied harp with Dr. Carrol McLaughlin; receiving her B.M., M.M., and D.M.A. under her tutelage. During her university years, Kimberly became a member of the harp ensemble HarpFusion with whom she toured internationally and recorded two CDs. Kimberly’s compositions and arrangements were often featured both on the CDs and in performance. Along with her harp studies, Kimberly pursued compositional study with Dr. Pamela Decker, organist and composer. Kimberly remained active as a freelance artist, worked on her skills with pop and jazz genres, won the President’s concerto contest, performed as soloist with the university’s orchestra, taught harp privately, and won the U of A’ s graduate creative achievement reward.
An appointment with the symphony in Billings, Montana took Kimberly away from the University of Arizona before she had completed her doctoral studies. She then spent three years playing with several orchestras throughout the region as well as teaching and freelancing while finishing her dissertation. Kimberly was featured as a soloist with several organizations throughout the region. Kimberly returned to Oregon in 2003 where she started teaching general music classes at Clark Community College in Vancouver, WA and recorded her first solo CD.
In 2006, Kimberly joined the faculty at Louisiana State University where she taught harp and general music courses for six years. She was featured as a soloist with several groups as well as formed a band called The Odyssey Project. Kimberly served as presenter at the New Orleans Jazz and Pop Harp Weekend and performed Jazz in New Orleans. She also played with several orchestras throughout the region.
Kimberly now lives in Salem, Oregon with her husband. She serves as an Artist Associate on the faculty at Willamette University. Her compositions are published and are available through Happy String Music. She is working on adding more likable, playable pieces to the harp literature at all levels of ability. Kimberly’s website and blog can be found at www.bellheatherraven.com where she writes about her creative life of music and slowing down and enjoying the little things. Her podcast “Harp on that String” is a series of conversations with other musicians about living a life with music.
A scholarship took Kimberly to the University of Arizona where she studied harp with Dr. Carrol McLaughlin; receiving her B.M., M.M., and D.M.A. under her tutelage. During her university years, Kimberly became a member of the harp ensemble HarpFusion with whom she toured internationally and recorded two CDs. Kimberly’s compositions and arrangements were often featured both on the CDs and in performance. Along with her harp studies, Kimberly pursued compositional study with Dr. Pamela Decker, organist and composer. Kimberly remained active as a freelance artist, worked on her skills with pop and jazz genres, won the President’s concerto contest, performed as soloist with the university’s orchestra, taught harp privately, and won the U of A’ s graduate creative achievement reward.
An appointment with the symphony in Billings, Montana took Kimberly away from the University of Arizona before she had completed her doctoral studies. She then spent three years playing with several orchestras throughout the region as well as teaching and freelancing while finishing her dissertation. Kimberly was featured as a soloist with several organizations throughout the region. Kimberly returned to Oregon in 2003 where she started teaching general music classes at Clark Community College in Vancouver, WA and recorded her first solo CD.
In 2006, Kimberly joined the faculty at Louisiana State University where she taught harp and general music courses for six years. She was featured as a soloist with several groups as well as formed a band called The Odyssey Project. Kimberly served as presenter at the New Orleans Jazz and Pop Harp Weekend and performed Jazz in New Orleans. She also played with several orchestras throughout the region.
Kimberly now lives in Salem, Oregon with her husband. She serves as an Artist Associate on the faculty at Willamette University. Her compositions are published and are available through Happy String Music. She is working on adding more likable, playable pieces to the harp literature at all levels of ability. Kimberly’s website and blog can be found at www.bellheatherraven.com where she writes about her creative life of music and slowing down and enjoying the little things. Her podcast “Harp on that String” is a series of conversations with other musicians about living a life with music.
2020 & 2019 Adjudicator: Dr. Beverly Wesner-Hoehn
Dr. Beverly Wesner-Hoehn played harp for the Sacramento Youth Symphony during her high school years; in college, she won a Rotary Fellowship to study harp and French at the Music Conservatory in Brussels, Belgium, where she received the Jean Risler Award for Outstanding Musicianship and the Prix in Performance.
Beverly earned the Master of Music degree from University of Southern California with Susann McDonald; followed by the Doctor of Music degree in Harp, with High Distinction, from Indiana University. In 1990, she was appointed Assistant Professor of Harp at the School of Music in Bloomington where she taught harp, ensemble, and chamber music for many years. Dr. Bev was the Administrative Director of the USA Int’l Harp Competition for a decade; Treasurer of the World Harp Congress, and also served as a jury member and guest of honor for the prestigious International Harp Contest in Israel.
Currently Dr. Bev teaches at CSUS and enjoys playing for a wide variety of ensembles: Sacramento Choral Society, UC Davis/Mondavi, Chanteuses, Broadway Sacramento and Theatre and Sierra Repertory Theatre, Folsom Lake Symphony, Schola Cantorum, and the Northern California Children’s Chorus. Beverly has played for Michael W. Smith, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Johnny Mathis, and young singing star, Jackie Evancho.
Dr. Wesner-Hoehn has 12 professional-recorded CD’s with various artists. George Crumb Volume 9 was nominated for a Grammy award.
Bev has played more than 300 performances of the Nutcracker Ballet in the last 30 years. For more information, visit drbevharp.com.
Dr. Beverly Wesner-Hoehn played harp for the Sacramento Youth Symphony during her high school years; in college, she won a Rotary Fellowship to study harp and French at the Music Conservatory in Brussels, Belgium, where she received the Jean Risler Award for Outstanding Musicianship and the Prix in Performance.
Beverly earned the Master of Music degree from University of Southern California with Susann McDonald; followed by the Doctor of Music degree in Harp, with High Distinction, from Indiana University. In 1990, she was appointed Assistant Professor of Harp at the School of Music in Bloomington where she taught harp, ensemble, and chamber music for many years. Dr. Bev was the Administrative Director of the USA Int’l Harp Competition for a decade; Treasurer of the World Harp Congress, and also served as a jury member and guest of honor for the prestigious International Harp Contest in Israel.
Currently Dr. Bev teaches at CSUS and enjoys playing for a wide variety of ensembles: Sacramento Choral Society, UC Davis/Mondavi, Chanteuses, Broadway Sacramento and Theatre and Sierra Repertory Theatre, Folsom Lake Symphony, Schola Cantorum, and the Northern California Children’s Chorus. Beverly has played for Michael W. Smith, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Johnny Mathis, and young singing star, Jackie Evancho.
Dr. Wesner-Hoehn has 12 professional-recorded CD’s with various artists. George Crumb Volume 9 was nominated for a Grammy award.
Bev has played more than 300 performances of the Nutcracker Ballet in the last 30 years. For more information, visit drbevharp.com.
2018 Adjudicator: Lynn Taffin
Lynn Taffin Lynn graduated Summa cum Laude from Boston University with Lucile Lawrence and earned her master's degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Marcella DeCray. Her studies in Paris with Marie-Claire Jamet were granted by a prestigious Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship. She studied at the Salzedo School under Alice Chalifoux and began studies with a protégé of Marcel Grandjany. She maintains an active free-lance career in the Bay Area while continuing international concert work through her network of colleagues around the world.
Lynn Taffin Lynn graduated Summa cum Laude from Boston University with Lucile Lawrence and earned her master's degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Marcella DeCray. Her studies in Paris with Marie-Claire Jamet were granted by a prestigious Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship. She studied at the Salzedo School under Alice Chalifoux and began studies with a protégé of Marcel Grandjany. She maintains an active free-lance career in the Bay Area while continuing international concert work through her network of colleagues around the world.
2017 Adjudicator: Karen Gottlieb
Karen Gottlieb has performed with the San Francisco Symphony as second harpist for more than 25 years. She toured extensively with them on their USA, European and Asian tours as well as performed on their many Grammy Award-winning recordings and DVD’s. For 20 years she served as principal harpist with the California Symphony and also as a member of the SF Symphony ‘AIM’ ensembles, including 4 Sounds, Strings & Things, THAT! Group, and Silver and Gold Plus.
She is the harpist for the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players & Opera Parallele and appears
regularly with other new music groups, Earplay, Empyrean and Left Coast Ensembles. She has recorded multiple major film, TV and video game sound tracks with the Skywalker Recording Symphony orchestra and has subbed with both San Francisco Opera & Ballet orchestras.
In 2015, Ms. Gottlieb released an acclaimed CD of harp music written by Bay Area composers, with harp, cello, flute and percussion. https://www.innova.mu/albums/karen-gottlieb/music-harp.
Ms. Gottlieb received her Bachelors of Music degree at University of Washington, Seattle and her Masters in Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music. She teaches harp at SF State University, Mills College and privately.
Karen Gottlieb has performed with the San Francisco Symphony as second harpist for more than 25 years. She toured extensively with them on their USA, European and Asian tours as well as performed on their many Grammy Award-winning recordings and DVD’s. For 20 years she served as principal harpist with the California Symphony and also as a member of the SF Symphony ‘AIM’ ensembles, including 4 Sounds, Strings & Things, THAT! Group, and Silver and Gold Plus.
She is the harpist for the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players & Opera Parallele and appears
regularly with other new music groups, Earplay, Empyrean and Left Coast Ensembles. She has recorded multiple major film, TV and video game sound tracks with the Skywalker Recording Symphony orchestra and has subbed with both San Francisco Opera & Ballet orchestras.
In 2015, Ms. Gottlieb released an acclaimed CD of harp music written by Bay Area composers, with harp, cello, flute and percussion. https://www.innova.mu/albums/karen-gottlieb/music-harp.
Ms. Gottlieb received her Bachelors of Music degree at University of Washington, Seattle and her Masters in Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music. She teaches harp at SF State University, Mills College and privately.
2016 Adjudicator: Laura Porter
Laura Porter is Principal Harp with the Fresno Philharmonic, a position she has held for twenty-eight years. She is equally versatile as a soloist, a free-lancer, an orchestral harpist, a choral accompanist, and a chamber musician, appearing not only in Fresno, but in communities across the state, most notably in Bakersfield, Modesto, and frequently in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Sacramento and many points in between.
Laura is also the harpist of the Figarden Trio, a recently formed group which will explore and perform the repertoire for flute, bassoon and harp. The Trio performed their inaugural program on music series around Central California during 2015, and now 2016.
Laura teaches extensively, privately and as Harp Instructor for Fresno Pacific University. Her students may be seen performing in the Youth Orchestras of Fresno groups, the Modesto Symphony Youth Orchestra, or with their school orchestras and concert bands. Her students have won national and regional competitions, including the AHS National Competitions, ASTA (local and state), Young Artist’s Harp Competition, and been awarded honors such as the Jack Kent Cooke Award, the Presidential Scholar Award, and All-State Band and Orchestra positions. Her students have gone on to attend schools such as the Juilliard School, Carnegie Mellon University, the Thornton School of Music at USC, as well as UC Berkeley, and UC Davis.
She is also the Founder and Leader of the Fresno Harp Circle, a group for adults who all play the harp; in addition to this group, she also runs one for adult beginners.
Raised in Tucson, Arizona, Laura attended Mills College in Oakland for her Bachelors, then the University of Southern California for her Masters and other post-graduate work in music performance. She was a fellow for three years at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, and spent one summer at the Aspen Music Festival. During the course of her studies, she was the recipient of many prizes and awards as well as placing highly in national competitions. Included among her major teachers are Nancy Allen, Catherine Michel, Anne Adams and JoAnn Turovsky.
Laura performs on a Camac Atlantide Prestige, made in France in 2007. She will appear as a recitalist in Fall 2016 at the Pacific Harps Camac California Festival.
Laura Porter is Principal Harp with the Fresno Philharmonic, a position she has held for twenty-eight years. She is equally versatile as a soloist, a free-lancer, an orchestral harpist, a choral accompanist, and a chamber musician, appearing not only in Fresno, but in communities across the state, most notably in Bakersfield, Modesto, and frequently in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Sacramento and many points in between.
Laura is also the harpist of the Figarden Trio, a recently formed group which will explore and perform the repertoire for flute, bassoon and harp. The Trio performed their inaugural program on music series around Central California during 2015, and now 2016.
Laura teaches extensively, privately and as Harp Instructor for Fresno Pacific University. Her students may be seen performing in the Youth Orchestras of Fresno groups, the Modesto Symphony Youth Orchestra, or with their school orchestras and concert bands. Her students have won national and regional competitions, including the AHS National Competitions, ASTA (local and state), Young Artist’s Harp Competition, and been awarded honors such as the Jack Kent Cooke Award, the Presidential Scholar Award, and All-State Band and Orchestra positions. Her students have gone on to attend schools such as the Juilliard School, Carnegie Mellon University, the Thornton School of Music at USC, as well as UC Berkeley, and UC Davis.
She is also the Founder and Leader of the Fresno Harp Circle, a group for adults who all play the harp; in addition to this group, she also runs one for adult beginners.
Raised in Tucson, Arizona, Laura attended Mills College in Oakland for her Bachelors, then the University of Southern California for her Masters and other post-graduate work in music performance. She was a fellow for three years at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, and spent one summer at the Aspen Music Festival. During the course of her studies, she was the recipient of many prizes and awards as well as placing highly in national competitions. Included among her major teachers are Nancy Allen, Catherine Michel, Anne Adams and JoAnn Turovsky.
Laura performs on a Camac Atlantide Prestige, made in France in 2007. She will appear as a recitalist in Fall 2016 at the Pacific Harps Camac California Festival.
2015 Adjudicator: Dominique Piana
Dominique Piana began the study of the harp at the Brussels Conservatory and moved to California to study with Susann McDonald in 1980. She earned a Master’s at Claremont Graduate University and was Professor of Harp at the University of Redlands and La Sierra University in Riverside until 2001. She is now on the faculty of Holy Names University in Oakland and teaches privately in Livermore.
As a performer, Ms. Piana specializes in reviving historical repertoire: she has toured nationally and internationally with her recital program The Romantic Spirit and locally with The Magic of the Harp. She explores the chamber music repertoire with the Pleasanton Chamber Players, in performances that have included several premieres. She presently performs as a duo with tenor Greg Allen Friedman. She has released three CD’s: Lulling the Soul, The Harp of King David and Beyond Dreams.
Ms. Piana has authored numerous articles on harp literature, among which Liszt and the Harp (American Harp Journal), and on classical music in general. She has lectured recently on subjects as varied as “The 19th Century Harpists As Composers“ (for the AHS) or Chamber Music for Harp and Strings, or Strings with Harp” (for ASTA). Besides her extensive transcription work, she has unearthed and republished numerous original harp compositions, from the 18th to the early 20th century, through her company Harpiana Publications.
Ms. Piana is listed in the International Who’s Who in Music since 1990. Career highlights include programming the 1992 National Harp Conference of the American Harp Society in San Diego, premiering the Jongen Concerto in five Southern California performances with orchestra (1991-92), curating the classical series at the Firehouse Arts Center in Pleasanton (2010-2013), serving as President of the Bay Area Chapter of the American Harp Society (2011-13) and organizing the Yvonne La Mother Schwager Harp Competition for the Western Region of the AHS.
Dominique Piana began the study of the harp at the Brussels Conservatory and moved to California to study with Susann McDonald in 1980. She earned a Master’s at Claremont Graduate University and was Professor of Harp at the University of Redlands and La Sierra University in Riverside until 2001. She is now on the faculty of Holy Names University in Oakland and teaches privately in Livermore.
As a performer, Ms. Piana specializes in reviving historical repertoire: she has toured nationally and internationally with her recital program The Romantic Spirit and locally with The Magic of the Harp. She explores the chamber music repertoire with the Pleasanton Chamber Players, in performances that have included several premieres. She presently performs as a duo with tenor Greg Allen Friedman. She has released three CD’s: Lulling the Soul, The Harp of King David and Beyond Dreams.
Ms. Piana has authored numerous articles on harp literature, among which Liszt and the Harp (American Harp Journal), and on classical music in general. She has lectured recently on subjects as varied as “The 19th Century Harpists As Composers“ (for the AHS) or Chamber Music for Harp and Strings, or Strings with Harp” (for ASTA). Besides her extensive transcription work, she has unearthed and republished numerous original harp compositions, from the 18th to the early 20th century, through her company Harpiana Publications.
Ms. Piana is listed in the International Who’s Who in Music since 1990. Career highlights include programming the 1992 National Harp Conference of the American Harp Society in San Diego, premiering the Jongen Concerto in five Southern California performances with orchestra (1991-92), curating the classical series at the Firehouse Arts Center in Pleasanton (2010-2013), serving as President of the Bay Area Chapter of the American Harp Society (2011-13) and organizing the Yvonne La Mother Schwager Harp Competition for the Western Region of the AHS.