Hye-Yun Chung Bennett

We’re pleased to welcome back Hye-Yun Chung Bennett, who served on our jury in 2008. Ms. Bennett made her Carnegie Recital Hall debut in 1979 and was an award winner at the Fifth International Harp Contest in Jerusalem, Israel in 1973. Ms. Bennett has received degrees from Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul, Korea, California State University at Los Angeles, and the Juilliard School. She has given recitals in Europe, Japan, US, and Korea and was on the Young Artists' roster under the auspices of the American Harp Society Young Artist program which enabled her to performed solo recitals in major cities throughout the U.S. Ms. Bennett was Assistant Professor of harp and piano at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and was also a faculty member at the Brevard Music Center. She has taught at the International Summer Music Camp in Seoul, Korea, and at Blue Lake Find Arts Camp in Michigan. She served as a judge for the National Harp Competitions in Los Angeles, St. Paul, and Pittsburgh, and has also been an adjudicator for piano competitions. She performed a recital as a guest artist at the sixth World Harp Congress in Seattle in 1996. Currently, Ms. Bennett is an adjunct  professor teaching  harp and paino at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. 

Hye-Yun Chung Bennett will adjucticate the final round of the competition.

Heaven Fan

Described by critics as having "captivating optimism and charm" and "virtuoso harp playing," Heaven Fan’s performances have been broadcast on TV and radio programs worldwide. She has been invited internationally as a featured soloist in recitals and orchestral concerts and has appeared in music festivals such as the Festival of Chinese Performing
Arts in Boston, the Fukui Harp Festival in Japan, the MasterWorks Festival in Winona Lake, Ind., and the World Harp Congress in Prague, Czech Republic. Dr. Fan has won competitions in Taiwan and the U.S., including the Indiana University Travel Grant Competition, the Anne Adams Award Competition of the American Harp Society, and the Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship Award of the Arts Council of Indianapolis and Lilly Endowment. As a founding member of the Pacific Harp Ensemble, a quartet comprised
of prize-winning harpists from Asia and the U.S., she made the premiere recording of Ami Maayani's Arabesque No. 3 for the Fons label. Dr. Fan has received her Artist Diploma and Doctor of Music from Indiana University, where she completed her studies with Distinguished Professor Susann McDonald. She is currently on the harp faculties of Anderson University and the MasterWorks Festival.

Heaven Fan will adjucticate the preliminary DVD round of the competition.

Judy Loman

Recognized as one of the world's foremost harp virtuosos, Judy Loman graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with the celebrated harpist Carlos Salzedo. She became Principal Harpist with the Toronto Symphony in 1960. As a soloist, she has won the admiration of audiences and critics alike across Canada, the United States, Europe, and Japan. She is a recipient of Canada's Juno Award for best classical recording and the Canada Council's Grand Prix du disque Canadien. Judy Loman has been a featured recitalist at several American Harp Society Conferences and for the World Harp Congress, where she performed the opening recital at the most recent event last summer in Vancouver. A dedicated teacher, Judy Loman is a Visiting Artist at The Curtis Institute of Music, she is Adjunct Professor of harp at the University of Toronto, and instructor of harp at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. She gives masterclasses worldwide and has adjudicated at both the International Harp Contest in Israel and the USA International Harp Contest. In June of 2002 Ms. Loman retired from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra to devote her time to teaching, concertizing, recording, and publishing her arrangements and transcriptions.

Judy Loman will adjucticate the final round of the competition.

Andrea Mumm

A native of New Jersey, Andrea Mumm was recently appointed Principal Harpist with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra and is in demand as a solo and chamber musician. In addition to solo harp recitals, she has won solo concerto competitions and performances with the Manhattan School of Music Repertory Orchestra, Hartwick College Summer Music Festival Symphony, and the Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra of Eastman. In 2007, Andrea received first place in the American Harp Society (North Jersey Chapter) Solo Competition. Andrea began studying harp with Susan Jolles (Manhattan School of Music) and continued her studies with Kathleen Bride at the Eastman School of Music. In May 2009, she received her Bachelors Degree in Harp Performance with a Performers Certificate and an Arts Leadership Certificate from the Eastman School of Music.  Andrea has performed as an orchestral harpist with the Rochester Oratorio Society, Mercury Opera Company of Rochester, Ridgewood Symphony, New York Youth Symphony, Eastman Philharmonia, and the world-renowned Eastman Wind Ensemble. As harpist in the Eastman Opera Theatre orchestra, Andrea recorded Bon Appetit!,a CD of vocal music from American composer, Lee Hoiby, under the Albany Records label.  Andrea was also a scholarship student at the Brevard Music Center in 2002, 2004, and 2006.

Andrea Mumm will adjucticate the final round of the competition.

Anne Sullivan

A native of the Philadelphia area and a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Anne Sullivan is in demand as a recitalist, chamber musician, and symphonic soloist. Her orchestral appearances have included engagements with the Baltimore Symphony, the Delaware Symphony where she was principal harpist, the Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. Recent accomplishments include the release of her debut solo cd, Romantische and a live concert recording Duo Parisienne with Nancy Bean, former assistant concertmaster with the Philadelphia Orchestra. In 1986 she co-founded the flute and harp duo SPARX with flutist Joan Sparks, which was featured in 2009 at the national convention of the National Flute Association in New York City, performing the Sonata for Flute and Harp that they commissioned from composer Lowell Leibermann. Ms. Sullivan was a member of the music theory faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music from 1982-2002. She is the author and arranger of more than three dozen works for harp and has published a series of ear training books specifically for the harp student. Her online resource for harpists, the website arsmusica.us, has podcasts and downloadable courses and sheet music designed for performers and students of all ages. Currently she is the harp instructor at the University of Delaware and at Swarthmore (PA) College.

Anne Sullivan will adjucticate the final round of the competition.

John Wickey

John Wickey, a native of Detroit, began his harp studies at Cass Technical High School
with Patricia Terry-Ross and is a proud alumnus of its Harp & Vocal and Harp ensembles. He
received a Bachelor of Music degree from Boston University with Lucile Lawrence and the Master of Music degree from the University of Michigan with Lynne Aspnes. John moved to the San Francisco bay area in 1995 and pursued a successful career in software development and information technology management. In 2009 John and Lynne Aspnes revived their collaboration and they currently perform as the TrueNorth harp duo, giving recent performances at the AHS Summer Institute and the World Harp Congress in Vancouver, and releasing their self-titled first CD. A line of published musicwill be launched in 2012. John now lives and works in the Atlanta area, where he is on staff at the Atlanta Harp Center, maintains a teaching studio, composes, arranges, and devotes the many hats that he has worn in his career to promoting the harp.

John Wickey will adjucticate the final round of the competition.

Ann Yeung

Ann Yeung is Associate Professor of Harp and Chair of the String Division at the University of Illinois School of Music at Urbana-Champaign. Currently Editor of the World Harp Congress Review, recent activities include the critically acclaimed CD Voyage: American Works fof Flute and Harp, a world premiere at the Eleventh World Harp Congress in Vancouver BC, and adjudicating the 2011 Lily Laskine International Harp Competition. Upcoming activities include a CD for Albany Records - Song of the Black Swan: Works inspired by Nature for Flute and Harp as part of the Aletheia Duo with flutist Jonathan Keeble, including the Debussy Sonate with violist Masumi Per Rostad of the Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet. Ann is a contributing author to the ASTA book A Harp in the Schools: Guide for School Ensemble Directors and Harpists. Previously a Second Vice-President of the American Harp Society, she is currently a Director-at-large and co-chair of the 2012 American Harp Society 50th anniversary Commission Project committee.

Ann Yeung will adjucticate the preliminary DVD round of the competition.

Seeking Judges

If you are a harpist of high moral and artistic character who is interested in serving on the judging panel now or in the future, please e-mail us.