The American Harp Foundation is proud to announce the Winners of the 2024 Anne Adams Awards Auditions. We congratulate them all on this outstanding accomplishment, along with their marvelous teachers, nurturing schools, and supportive families.
The 2026 Anne Adams Awards winners are: Isabel Cardenes, Kathryn Horton, Jenny Li
Isabel Cardenes
Isabel Cardenes, born and raised in Pittsburgh, is known for her sensitive musicianship and expressive style. She is passionate about using music as a tool for healing and social change, and is a frequent performer in both traditional venues and community-based settings.
Isabel performed with the Charleston Symphony in 2025 and made her solo concerto debut in February 2024, performing the Glière Harp Concerto with the Butler Symphony Orchestra. In summer 2022, she played with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, marking a significant milestone in her orchestral career. During her undergraduate studies, she appeared as a substitute harpist with the Harrisburg Symphony and New Jersey Festival Orchestra.
In June, Isabel won the American Harp Foundation’s 2026 AnneAdams Award held at Rutgers’ Mason Gross School of theArts. The competition awarded a $3,000 cash prize for full-time study of the harp. She won First Prize in Pittsburgh’s Lois Streator/Smith Competition in 2019 and Third Prize at theAmerican Harp Society National Competition in North Carolina that same year.
An avid chamber musician, Isabel joined theAstralis Chamber Ensemble for their “Enchanted Noel” tour through cities in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida in December. She was featured at the 2025 Joseph Gingold Chamber Music Festival, performing alongside distinguished artists including Rafael Figueroa, Cho-Liang Lin, Ian Hobson, Richard Young, and Andrés Cárdenes. Isabel also a founding member of Trio con Brio, a family ensemble that has led a weekly Porch Concert Series since 2020, presenting over 100 regional musicians and raising more than $15,000 for local causes. The trio was commissioned by theAllegheny Regional Council for the Arts to produce the educational video Spark Your Creativity, supporting arts outreach in western Pennsylvania.
Currently pursuing her Master’s degree at the Curtis Institute of Music under the guidance of The Philadelphia Orchestra principal harpist Elizabeth Hainen and Dr. Noel Wan, Isabel previously earned her Bachelor of Music from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Metropolitan Opera harpist Mariko Anraku on a Presidential Scholarship. Her early harp training began at age eleven with Pittsburgh Symphony principal harpist Gretchen Van Hoesen.
Isabel has also been recognized for her dedication to music education and community engagement. She received the Arts Scholarship from the Blackwood Center for theArts in 2021, and from 2016 to 2019, she was awarded merit-based scholarships to attend leading programs including the Interlochen Arts Camp, theAmeropa Festival in Prague, the Olympic Strings Camp, and Musikferienwoche at the Bavarian Music Academy. With a strong commitment to music and wellness, Isabel performed a commemorative program marking the one-year anniversary of the Tree of Life shooting at Pittsburgh’s Center for Victims. She is a regular performer for chemotherapy patients at the Hillman Cancer Center and has shared meditative music at Rancho La Puerta Wellness Resort in Tecate, Mexico. She also performed in Pittsburgh’s largest sound bath at historic Heinz Chapel, an event featured on the front page of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Most recently, she brought her outreach work to the Alzheimer’s Community Care Center in Delray Beach. Outside of music, Isabel enjoys cooking, reading, and traveling.
Kathryn Horton
As the fifth prize winner of theAmerican Harp Society National Competition, Kathryn Horton is a part of the nationally recognized Emerging Artist Program. She was also selected for the 2024 World Harp Congress Focus on Youth Program, and won 1st place at the JS Fest Online Competition. She was a recent winner of the William Gammon Henry Concerto competition and performed the third movement of the Ginastera Concerto with the University of North Texas Concert Orchestra. She has performed at various conferences with the UNT HarpBeats harp ensemble, including the Texas Music Educators Association Convention and the American Harp Society National Conference. Kathryn also enjoys working with composers and performing new works for harp, including a premiere of new compositions as a part of a harpist and composer collaboration at UNT.
Kathryn Horton began studying music at age five with piano lessons. She soon developed an interest in the harp, and began taking harp lessons with Alice Spero Keene, a former harp professor at the University of Illinois. She made the decision to pursue the harp as a profession after attending a harp festival during the summer, and enjoyed hearing many different professional harpists speak about their careers with the harp. Kathryn Horton is currently a senior Harp Performance major studying under Dr. Jaymee Haefner at the University of North Texas. During her time at UNT, she has had the privilege to perform for internally known harpists such as Sylvain Blassel, Caroline Lizotte, and Parker Ramsay. Now that she has performed across the nation, she looks forward to continuing to broaden her performance horizons.
Jenny Li
Jenny Li is a Taiwanese harpist currently pursuingAdvanced Music Studies in Harp Performance at Carnegie Mellon University, where she studies with Gretchen Van Hoesen, Principal Harpist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Before coming to the United States, she earned a Master of Music degree from National Taiwan Normal University, where she studied with Shannon Chieh, Principal Harpist of Taiwan’s National Symphony Orchestra, and a bachelor’s degree from National Taipei University of Education. Jenny’s recent honors include First Prize in the 2025 American Soloist International Music Competition, Gold Prize in the 2019 Camac Prize Taiwan (Open Pedal Division), Silver Prize in the 2018 Hong Kong International Harp Competition (Open Pedal Division), and Winner of the 2021 Excellence Music Open Competition in the Professional Adult Division. She was also a finalist in the 2019 National Taiwan Normal University Concerto Competition.
As an orchestral and chamber musician, Jenny has performed with ensembles including the Asian Youth Orchestra, Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, Taipei Century Symphony Orchestra, Taipei Medical University Orchestra, Ars Nova Chamber Orchestra, and Taipei Youth Symphonic Band. Her recent performance experiences have strengthened her passion for both solo and collaborative playing, and she is especially drawn to the harp’s expressive versatility across orchestral, chamber, and solo repertoire.
In summer 2025, Jenny attended the British Isles Music Festival in the United Kingdom, where she performed and collaborated in an intensive chamber music setting. Her time there further deepened her interest in musical communication, adaptability, and artistic growth through collaboration.
In addition to performing, Jenny is passionate about sharing music through teaching and community engagement. Her musical path has been shaped by determination, curiosity, and a deep commitment to continuing her artistic development.
Three scholarship awards of $3,000 for full-time study of the harp are given to the winners, thanks to the generous support from the Anne Adams Fund, The Sally Maxwell/Doris Calkins Fund, and the Jack/Doris Nebergall Funds.
With gratitude to all who helped make this competition possible,
American Harp Foundation Board of Directors and Competition Committee
Frances Duffy, AHF Competitions Director, Treasurer and Donor Relations
Carrie Kourkoumelis, President
Kathleen Bride, Vice President
Holly Avesian, Secretary
Kristina Finch, Development
Elizabeth Huntley, Communications Director
Paula Page, Donor Relations & Competitions Repertoire