N
ationally noted harpist
Carrie Kourkoumelis is a native of Seattle. A winner of the coveted Battelle
Prize at the age seventeen, which included a debut recital for the Seattle critic’s
circle, she studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and the University of Washington.
She was a student of Lynne Wainwright Palmer, Pamela Vokolek, Marilyn Costello,
and Suzanne Balderston, and studied chamber music with Leonard Altman, Rafael
Druian, Eugene Lehner, and others. After being awarded a Leonard
Bernstein Fellowship for study at Tanglewood with Bernard Zighera, she moved
to Boston from Los Angeles where she had been a free-lance harpist. As a solo
recitalist and chamber musician, she has performed extensively throughout the
United States and in Greece, touring with musicians such as Joel Smirnoff, Fredric
Cohen, Jane Bryden, The Rafael Trio, Sue-Ellen Hershman-Tcherepnin, and Carol
Baum. She has performed at the Kennedy Center, Sanders Theater, the Gardner
Museum, and countless other venues. She has played as a soloist for Supreme
Court Justices, given lecture demonstrations in inner-city housing projects,
and watched her harp airlifted into an open-air Venetian fort for a concert
on the isle of Crete. In addition to having won numerous awards and prizes,
she has held principal harp positions with orchestras in Washington, Montana,
California, and Alaska. In New England, she has been a soloist with such diverse
groups as the Boston Cecilia Society, Master Singers and Alea III, in addition
to free-lance orchestral duties with the Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Ballet Orchestra,
New Hampshire Symphony, Monadnock Music Festival, and the Springfield Symphony,
and in the theater district for such productions as Beauty and the Beast, Phantom
of the Opera and Carousel. She has premiered many new works and worked for conductors
such as Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Maurice Abravanel, Don York, and Gunther
Schuller, and alongside soloists ranging from Jane Bryden, Joel Smirnoff, the
late Leonard Rose, Eileen Farrell to Chet Atkins, Liza Minnelli, Ray Charles,
and Dudley Moore. She has been an adjunct faculty member of the music departments
of Mt. Holyoke and Smith Colleges and teaches now in her Boston studio. Recent
performances include a solo performance at Carnegie Hall in honor of the late
Leonard Altman, a solo recital at Harvard University; a Los Angeles solo recital
for the Maestro Foundation which was recorded for National Public Radio, and
as harpist for Beauty and the Beast in Boston and Florida. She is called upon
to judge national harp competitions and present workshops. Most recently she
judged the American Harp Society National Competition at USC (1999) and the
Anne Adams Auditions (1998 and 1999), in addition to presenting a national workshop
on playing the harp for Broadway theater productions. Ms. Kourkoumelis was a
member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for the American
Harp Society and the chairperson for the 1994 National Conference at Brandeis
University. She also served as the Publication Manager of the American Harp
Journal, and she was Chairman of the City of Malden Cultural Council and its
350th Celebration Music Committee as a mayoral appointee. She works tirelessly
now, both independently and in conjunction with various arts and civic foundations
to restore arts and music programs to the public schools and to bring music
to those who cannot make it to the concert hall. She and her husband have the
privilege of being the parents of four children.
Leonard
Bernstein Fellowship for study at Tanglewood with Bernard Zighera, she moved
to Boston from Los Angeles where she had been a free-lance harpist. As a solo
recitalist and chamber musician, she has performed extensively throughout the
United States and in Greece, touring with musicians such as Joel Smirnoff, Fredric
Cohen, Jane Bryden, The Rafael Trio, Sue-Ellen Hershman-Tcherepnin, and Carol
Baum. She has performed at the Kennedy Center, Sanders Theater, the Gardner
Museum, and countless other venues. She has played as a soloist for Supreme
Court Justices, given lecture demonstrations in inner-city housing projects,
and watched her harp airlifted into an open-air Venetian fort for a concert
on the isle of Crete. In addition to having won numerous awards and prizes,
she has held principal harp positions with orchestras in Washington, Montana,
California, and Alaska. In New England, she has been a soloist with such diverse
groups as the Boston Cecilia Society, Master Singers and Alea III, in addition
to free-lance orchestral duties with the Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Ballet Orchestra,
New Hampshire Symphony, Monadnock Music Festival, and the Springfield Symphony,
and in the theater district for such productions as Beauty and the Beast, Phantom
of the Opera and Carousel. She has premiered many new works and worked for conductors
such as Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Maurice Abravanel, Don York, and Gunther
Schuller, and alongside soloists ranging from Jane Bryden, Joel Smirnoff, the
late Leonard Rose, Eileen Farrell to Chet Atkins, Liza Minnelli, Ray Charles,
and Dudley Moore. She has been an adjunct faculty member of the music departments
of Mt. Holyoke and Smith Colleges and teaches now in her Boston studio. Recent
performances include a solo performance at Carnegie Hall in honor of the late
Leonard Altman, a solo recital at Harvard University; a Los Angeles solo recital
for the Maestro Foundation which was recorded for National Public Radio, and
as harpist for Beauty and the Beast in Boston and Florida. She is called upon
to judge national harp competitions and present workshops. Most recently she
judged the American Harp Society National Competition at USC (1999) and the
Anne Adams Auditions (1998 and 1999), in addition to presenting a national workshop
on playing the harp for Broadway theater productions. Ms. Kourkoumelis was a
member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for the American
Harp Society and the chairperson for the 1994 National Conference at Brandeis
University. She also served as the Publication Manager of the American Harp
Journal, and she was Chairman of the City of Malden Cultural Council and its
350th Celebration Music Committee as a mayoral appointee. She works tirelessly
now, both independently and in conjunction with various arts and civic foundations
to restore arts and music programs to the public schools and to bring music
to those who cannot make it to the concert hall. She and her husband have the
privilege of being the parents of four children.