Lavinia Meijer harp

Fellowship Winner 2007

Lavinia Meijer graduated with distinction with her Bachelors (Utrecht Conservatory) and her Masters (Amsterdam Conservatory) under the guidance of Erika Waardenburg. Her prizes include first prize at the Dutch Harp Competition (1997 and 2004) and at the Prinses Christina Competition (1997), second prize at the International Harp Competition in Lausanne (1998), third prize at the International Harp Competition in Lille (1999), first prize at the International Harp Competition in Brussels (2000), third prize at the 14th International Harp Competition in Israel (2001), second prize at the Reinl-Wettbewerb in Vienna (2002), third prize at the 6th International Harp Competition in the USA (2004) and first prize at the Vriendenkrans contest of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam (2005). Lavinia has been invited to perform as a soloist in cities across Europe, Asia and the United States and has performed harp concertos with renowned orchestras such as The Hague Philharmonic, Dutch Radio Symphony, Dutch Radio Chamber and Israel Philharmonic orchestras. For 2006-2008, she has been invited to perform solo recitals in the international series "Rising Stars", in which she made her debut solo-recital at Carnegie Hall in New York in December 2007. As an ambassador for the harp, Lavinia tries to find composers interested in writing new music for the harp. Several composers, such as Carlos Michans, Garrett Byrnes and Jacob ter Veldhuis have written new music for her.

Photograph taken by Marco Borggreve