Anne Denholm
Anne Denholm is one of Britain’s leading young harpists and served as Official Harpist to HRH The Prince of Wales from 2015-2019.
Anne underwent a British musical upbringing, studying at the Junior Department of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, the Purcell School, Newnham College Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London. She received her Master’s from the RAM with distinction, studying under Karen Vaughan and graduating with the Renata Scheffel-Stein Harp Prize and a Regency Award for notable achievement. Whilst at the RAM she was the first ever harpist to win the historic RAM Club Prize. Anne enjoys giving regular solo recitals across the U.K. and further afield, from music clubs and societies to international harp festivals. Recent highlights include a trip to Bangkok for the Third Thailand International Harp Festival, two performances at the Wales International Harp Festival, a solo recital for the RNCM Strings Festival and travelling to Bogotá, Colombia to give two recitals and a workshop.
Anne is increasingly in demand as an interpreter and performer of new music; she has been recording and premiering new works for solo harp since 2006, and in 2013-14 worked with Sally Beamish on a video project of her work, ‘Awuya’.
She is a founding member of award-winning contemporary experimental quartet, The Hermes Experiment,and has enjoyedworking with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Spitalfields Music and MahoganyOpera Group.Anne has worked with composers from secondary school age to professionals;for three years she worked as an instrumental tutor on the annual Sound and MusicSummer School at the Purcell School, and has regularly worked with composition studentsat Birmingham University and at other institutions via her work with The HermesExperiment.Anne freelances with orchestras and choirs across England, most recently working with theCity of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Northern Ballet Sinfoniaand Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. She has recorded forCDs with The Choir of St John’s College Cambridge, The Temple Church Choir and The CariceSingers.
Anne is also Principal Harpist with Ensemble Cymru, a group championing chambermusic throughout Wales.Anne is also a dedicated teacher, giving private lessons in addition to holding the position ofHarp Teacher at Eton College and the Dragon School, Oxford. Recently, Anne has thoroughlyenjoyed working as a Harp Tutor on the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain.
Katherine Ventura
Harpist Katherine Ventura has performed throughout the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, and Asia as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestra member. She has performed in some of the most prestigious halls in the world including Carnegie Hall in New York, Royal Albert Hall in London, UK, Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, Spain, Musikverein in Vienna, Austria, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Japan.
An experienced orchestral musician, Ms. Ventura has performed as guest principal harp with the Chicago, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Houston Symphony Orchestras, and the Philharmonia Orchestra (London). She has performed with the Chicago Lyric Opera, Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Sun Valley Summer Symphony (ID), and the Charlotte (NC), Colombus (OH), Fort Wayne (IN), and New World Symphony Orchestras.
Ms. Ventura has worked with such conductors as Sir Andrew Davis, Charles Dutoit, Iván Fischer, James Gaffigan, Valery Gergiev, Marvin Hamlisch, Riccardo Muti, Andris Nelsons, Gianandrea Noseda, Yuri Temirkanov, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Japp van Zweden. She has performed with soloists such as Joshua Bell, Stéphane Degout, Julia Fischer, Thomas Hampson, Leonidas Kavakos, Anna Netrebko and Bernadette Peters.
She has been Principal Harp of the Verbier Festival and Verbier Chamber Orchestras (Switzerland), and has also performed at the Spoleto Music Festival in Charleston, SC, the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, and the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, as well as Principal Harp with the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado.
Ms. Ventura received her bachelor’s degree with honors in Music Performance from Carnegie Mellon University in 2008, where she studied harp pedagogy and performance under Gretchen Van Hoesen, Principal Harp, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. She received her Masters Degree in Music Performance from Roosevelt University, Chicago College of Performing Arts in 2010 as a student of Sarah Bullen, Principal Harp, Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
She has performed as soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra, Carnegie Mellon and Roosevelt University Orchestras, and the Lake Forest Symphony.
Ms. Ventura is on faculty at the Music Institute of Chicago and at The People’s Music School in Chicago. She also maintains a full private studio.
Chamber music endeavors have included frequent appearances with Russian flautist, Alena Lugovkina. The duo has performed in Switzerland and the United Kingdom, most recently finishing a month long tour of concerts and masterclasses in the United States during Spring of 2016.