When one thinks of a harpist, presumably images of delicately strumming nymphs with long blonde hair come to mind. But now there is Remy van Kesteren. He has won the 2013 US International Harp Competition, the largest harp competition in the world, has reached 500,000 visitors during the Night of the Proms and has taken on numerous ambitious projects, including a collaboration with the famous ballet choreographer, Hans van Manen, in 2014. At the age of five, Remy was lured off the swing by a mysterious sound from an open window – the sound of the harp. Aged ten, he entered the Conservatory of Utrecht and before he had finished his studies with the highest distinction, he could already look back on two successful editions of his own Dutch Harp Festival. Remy attributes his rapidly developing career to his former teacher, Erika Waardenburg, the purveyor of the Dutch harp scene. He does not feel bound to ‘prevailing ideas’ about the harp.
Remy van Kesteren (1989) is regarded a world-class harp
talent and one of the most adventurous harpists of the moment. At the
age of ten, he was admitted to the Conservatory of Utrecht in the class
of Erika Waardenburg where he graduated with the highest distinction in
2010. He further pursued his studies at the Conservatoire Natoinal
Supérieur de Musique de Paris, where he worked with the famous harpist
Isabelle Moretti. In 2012, Remy received his master diploma ‘summa cum
laude’ at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. At age twenty, Remy founded the
Dutch Harp Festival, of which three successful editions have taken place in Utrecht. The Festival will be held for the fourth time in 2016.
