Dean Emeritus of the Indiana University School of Music, Dr. Webb was recently named a Living Legend of the State of Indiana, and was also appointed by Colin Powell to the Committee to Advise the Secretary of State on Cultural Diplomacy. Dr. Webb received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Southern Methodist University and his doctoral degree in music from Indiana University. He currently chairs the board of trustees of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. He maintains an active performance schedule as a conductor and pianist and serves as a judge for international music competitions throughout the world.

Professor of Harp at the Prague Conservatory since 1993 and a member of the Artistic Council of Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts. Ms. Boušková graduated from the Prague Conservatory and also Ostrava University, and was the 1992 First Prize winner of the USA International Harp Competition. She served as artistic director of the Seventh World Harp Congress in 1999. She has established a career as an internationally renowned harpist, performing with such artists as Mstislav Rostropovich, Yuri Bashmet, Patrick Gallois, and Janne Thomson, and has made more than twenty compact disc recordings.

Jean-Michel Damase, composer, won the coveted Prix de Rome at the age of nineteen. He has composed pieces for nearly every possible genre, including works for the stage, for orchestra, and instrumental and vocal pieces. Recognized as one of the foremost composers for the harp today, his works have become part of the standard harp repertoire. He is equally renowned as a pianist and has recorded the works of Fauré and Ravel. He has received numerous awards including the Grand Prix du Disque. Mr. Damase is a member of various international societies and organizations and has taught masterclasses in Europe, the United States and Japan. He was recently commissioned by Ransom Wilson and the Oklahoma Mozart Festival to compose the opera Ochelata’s Wedding, which premiered in 2000.

Alice Giles is a soloist and recording artist, as well as the harp teacher at the Canberra School of Music in Australia. Ms. Giles made her New York debut at Merkin Hall in 1983, and participated for three summers in the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. She won First Prize in Israel’s International Harp Contest at the age of 21. She taught harp at the Hochschule fur Musik in Frankfurt, Germany, from 1990 to 1998 and was also a member of the jury for the 1998 International Harp Contest in Israel. Ms. Giles has an international reputation as a teacher, and has instructed numerous masterclasses around the world.

Kumiko Inoue has been the Vice-President of the World Harp Congress and is teacher at Musashino Academy of Music in Tokyo and the Nagoya College of Music. Ms. Inoue made her debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and won fourth prize at the 1970 International Harp Contest in Israel. In 1980, the American Harp Society chose her to be an Exchange Recitalist. She has served as a jury member at various international harp contests in Israel, Italy, France and Russia and has been a lecturer at the Music Summers School in Karuizawa for more than 20 years and of the Fukui Harp Festival since 1988.

Awarded the Premier Prix in both harp and chamber music from the Conservatorie National Superieur de Musique in Paris, Marie-Clarie Jamet was appointed Solo Harpist with L’Orchestra National de Radio-France, and then soloist with the renowned L’Ensemble Intercontemporain. She was Professor of Harp at the Conservatoire National in Paris, and also at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris. Mme. Jamet maintains an active career as a soloist, and has given more than 2000 concerts throughout the world.

Principal Harpist of the Minnesota Orchestra, Ms. Kienzel is currently on the faculties of the University of Minnesota, MacPhail Center for the Arts, Augsburg College and St. Catherine in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota and is also Chair of the New Music Committee of the World Harp Congress. Ms. Kienzle was third prize winner at the Sixth International Harp Contest in Israel in 1976 and was awarded a top prize in the 1975 American Harp Society National Competition. A graduate of Juilliard with a Bachelor of Music, Ms. Kienzle also holds a Master of Music from the University of Arizona.

Anna Levina is Co-Principal Harpist of the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra in Moscow, and Professor of Harp at the State Classical Academy. Ms. Levina was born in Moscow and started studying the harp at the age of eight. From 1967 to 1972, she studied with Professor Vera Dulova at the Moscow Conservatory, and she continued her post-graduate studies there from 1982 to 1985. Ms. Levina took part in the 1969 and 1972 International Harpweeks in the Netherlands, and in 1971 she was awarded Second Prize in the Marcel Tournier International Harp Competition in Paris.