Bridget Kibbey, harp

Winner, 2007 CAG Competition

www.bridgetkibbey.com

Visit our YouTube page for video on Bridget!

Harpist Bridget Kibbey is a winner of the 2007 Concert Artists Guild International Competition and recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant.  The New York Times recently declared she “brought blazing power and finesse to the intricate part, which swept and lunged through open spaces and glittering wind and string figures.” 

2009-10 season highlights include the Works & Process series at New York’s Guggenheim Museum, featuring Stockhausen’s Freude with Harpist June Han, and a performance of Sebastian Currier's Broken Minuets with the Princeton Symphony.  As a featured chamber musician she performs Osvaldo Golijov's Ayre with Dawn Upshaw in Chicago, and she collaborates frequently in duo recitals with flutist Claire Chase.  In addition, she appears regularly at Alice Tully Hall as a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's CMS Two program.

Among her featured 2008-09 engagements are: New York debut concerts at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and at Le Poisson Rouge; concerto appearances with the Tallahassee Symphony as well as the Symphony in C at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center, featuring the American premier of Sebastian Currier's Broken Minuets for Harp and Strings;  the New York premier of Elliott Carter's Mosaic in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall; performances of Osvaldo Golijov's Ayre with Dawn Upshaw in England and solo recitals in Chicago, Philadelphia and New York.

Ms. Kibbey has been featured as soloist with the Juilliard Symphony, Israel Youth Philharmonic, Haddonfield Symphony, Eastern Philharmonic Orchestra, America’s Dream Chamber Artists and the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra. She has performed in recital at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center and New York's Merkin Concert Hall. As an orchestral harpist she has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.  She was also one of a hand-selected group of emerging artists to perform in the Zankel Band for the inaugural concert in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, under the direction of John Adams.

Bridget Kibbey recently self-released a solo album entitled Love is Come Again, named one of 2007's Top Ten Albums by Time Out New York. She also joined soprano Dawn Upshaw in recording Luciano Berio’s Folk Songs and Osvaldo Golijov’s “Ayre” for Deutsche Grammophon. Ms. Kibbey’s solo performances have been broadcast on NPR’s Performance Today, A & E’s Breakfast with the Arts and WQXR. She has also been profiled in SYMPHONY, MUSO and Harp Column magazines.

A leader among harpists active in contemporary music, Ms. Kibbey has premiered works by both emerging and prominent living composers including Kati Agocs, Harrison Birtwistle, Pierre Boulez, Kaija Saariaho, Augusta Read Thomas, Charles Wuorinen and Benjamin Yusopov. Ms. Kibbey performed Britten’s Canticles in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall with tenor Ian Bostridge, and she was a soloist in both Weill Recital Hall’s Elliot Carter/Oliver Knussen workshop and MOMA's 2006 Elliot Carter Portrait. She is the founding harpist of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and has been a featured soloist in New York’s Music at the Anthology, Sonic Boom and Juilliard FOCUS Festivals.

Additional festival appearances include the Tanglewood Music Center and the Aspen, Spoleto, Ojai, St. Denis (Paris) and Pacific Music Festivals. Along with her CAG victory in October 2007, Ms. Kibbey is a winner of Astral Artists 2003 Auditions, The Juilliard School Peter Mennin Prize, the Premier Prix at the International Chamber Music Competition of Arles, France (in collaboration with flutist Julietta Curenton) and second prize in the Valentino Bucchi International Competition of Rome.  

Bridget Kibbey presents educational forums for composition students which focus on writing for the harp and the performance of student works and 20th century masterpieces in leading conservatories including the Curtis Institute, The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music.  She recently joined the harp faculties of New York University, Vassar College and The Juilliard School Pre-College program. Ms. Kibbey holds both Bachelor and Master of Music of Music degrees from The Juilliard School where she completed studies with Nancy Allen.