Israeli Sivan Magen is truly a member of the contemporary harpist elite. The New York Times described him as “a harpist of astonishing range” whose “brilliant sound and remarkable technical acumen shatter any stereotype of his instrument”. Magen has been Principal Harpist in the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra since autumn 2017.
Born into a musical family, Magen studied the harp in his native Jerusalem, at the Paris Conservatory and the Juilliard School of Music in New York. In 2006, he was the first and so far only Israeli to win the International Harp Contest in Israel. He was the recipient of the Pro Musicis International Award in 2009 and of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2012. He teaches masterclasses across the world and in spring 2017 was an invited professor at the Paris Conservatory.
His solo engagements have taken Magen across the United States, South America and Europe, and to Israel. An avid chamber musician, he has appeared at the Marlboro, Aspen, Rosendal, Kuhmo, Delft and Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festivals. He is a founding member of the Tre Voci trio with flautist Marina Piccinini and violist Kim Kashkashian, and with them has commissioned arrangements and original pieces. He is also a founding member of the Israeli Chamber Project.
Sivan Magen has released two solo albums. One of them, Fantasien, includes mostly his own transcriptions of fantasies ranging from Bach to Brahms, and the other, French Reflections, explores connections between the French repertoire of the early 20th and early 21st centuries. Sivan Magen has also contributed to many other discs.
www.sivanmagen.com