The American Harp Foundation
Awards and Scholarships for 2024
2024 Competitions
The American Harp Foundation is pleased to announce winners of the 2024 Anne Adams Awards and Marcel Grandjany Memorial Competition, which took place virtually in early April.
The 2024 Anne Adams Awards winner is Chaela Franck, student of Gretchen Van Hoesen at Carnegie Melon University.
The 2024 Grandjany Memorial Competition winners are Hallie Bentschneider, student of Carol McClure at The Harp School, Inc. UK Conservatory Program and Can Yang Zi Quan (known as Sunshine), student of Kathleen Bride at the Eastman School of Music.
History and General Information
Founded in 1993, the American Harp Foundation has an extraordinary portfolio of scholarships and awards it has generated for the benefit of multiple generations of harpists. The two largest and oldest of these are the Anne Adams Awards and the Grandjany Memorial, which entail separate but connected major competitions held biennially.
It is awe-inspiring to look at the lists of previous winners of both the Adams Competitions and the Grandjany Memorial Competitions to grasp the full significance of these two American Harp Foundation-sponsored competitions.
The harpists who’ve won these awards are among the most prominent and accomplished harpists in the world, holding principal harp positions in the major orchestras, traveling the globe as soloists and chamber musicians, winning Grammy nominations and awards for their star-studded recordings, and teaching the next generations of harpists from the finest conservatories and colleges all over the country.
To fully appreciate the artistry of these former American Harp Foundation competition winners and the rich legacy they are carrying forward, one can explore some of the many links to their dazzling performances on our Facebook and Instagram social media links.
We urge all who have won either the Adams or Grandjany Memorial competitions to contact us directly to tell us how these awards and scholarships have influenced your lives, both professionally and personally. We would love to post your testimonials so that our many contributors can more fully appreciate how their generous donations have helped shaped your lives!
Carrie Kourkoumelis, President