Dean Emeritus of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Dr. Webb received his A.B. and M.M. degrees from Southern Methodist University and his D.M. from Indiana University. Dr. Webb is Chairman of the Board of Advisors of International Music Festivals, Inc. and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. In 2004 Dr. Webb was appointed by Colin Powell to a Congressional Committee to Advise the Secretary of State on Cultural Diplomacy. In 2005 he was elected to the Board of Directors of the American Symphony Orchestra League. In June, 2005 he received the Distinguished Alumni Service Award from Indiana University, Bloomington. Dr. Webb maintains an active performance schedule as both conductor and pianist and serve as a judge for international music competitions throughout the world.

Milda Agazarian is Professor of Harp at the Russian Music Academy and the Moscow Special Gnessin School and College. She was a founding member of the Association of Russian Harp Teachers and has been its President since 1992 and has been Artistic Director of the annual Moscow Open Harp Festival since 2000. Professor Agazarian has served on the juries of numerous international harp contests in Russia, France, USA, Bulgaria, Wales and Serbia. She has presented master-classes in Japan, Great Britain, France, Hungary and Switzerland. She has worked with a number of orchestras including the USSR State Symphony Orchestra and the Radiosymphonic Tchaikovsky Orchestra. As a student and successor of legendary Russian harpists and pedagogues, Professor Agazarian preserves, continues and develops traditions of the famous Russian Harp School.

Murray Boren is a prolific composer whose works include nine operas, dozens of songs and choral works and nearly one hundred chamber compositions, in addition to large-scale works for band and orchestra. He also writes for the theatre providing music for recent productions of Nathan the Wise, Wind in the Willows, Antigone and Macbeth. Recent works include “Lexicon: A Concerto for Harp and Chamber Orchestra” commissioned by the American Harp Society and premiered at its national convention, “Dance Trios” for flute, viola and harp for the Southampton Chamber Music Society, and a Barlow Endowment commission for a wind symphony work entitled “Tribute”. Mr. Boren is Associate Professor and Composer in Residence at Brigham Young University’s School of Music, where he teaches music composition and theory.

Since her debut at age 18 with the New York Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, Yolanda Kondonassis has performed around the globe as a harp soloist, appearing with numerous orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic and Orquesta Sinfonica de Puerto Rico. As a Telarc recording artist, she has won universal critical acclaim for her many recordings, which have included much of the standard repertoire, as well as her own transacriptions and compositions for harp. In addition to her active performing and recording schedule, Ms. Kondonassis heads the harp department at The Cleveland Institute of Music and Oberlin College Conservatory.

Isabelle Perrin studied at The Juilliard School in New York before joining the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Since 1990, she has been co-Principal Harpist with the Orchestre National de France. As an international soloist, she has given many concerts and master-classes throughout Europe, Russia, USA, Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Australia, and Africa. Ms. Perrin has recorded a number of CDs, including one highlighting the works of Bernard Andres and original works by Arnold Bax for flute, viola and harp, performed with the Turner Trio, of which she is a founding member. Ms. Perrin teaches at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris and has been appointed Visiting Professor to The Royal Academy of Music of London. The French Government recently knighted her in the French Order of Arts et Lettres in recognition of her involvement in the international music world.

Lieve Robbroeckx graduated in harp from the Koninklijk Conservatorium Antwerpen. She also received a Teaching Diploma from the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussels. From 1979 to 1992 she lived in Bangkok, Thailand, where she was active as a performing harpist and teacher. Ms. Robbroeckx served as the Principal Harpist of the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra and performed as a soloist under the baton of resident and guest conductors. Upon returning to Flanders, she helped create Harpe Diem, which has become an important annual harp event, and has served as the President since 2006. Lieve Robbroeckx teaches harp didactics at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Antwerpen and harp at the Lemmensinstituut Leuven and at the Stedelijke Academie voor Muziek, Woord en Dans Beringen.

Karen Vaughan studied with the great Russian harpist Maria Korchinska after graduating from the Royal Academy of Music. Ms. Vaughan was a founding member of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, often appearing as concerto soloist, and for six years she was Principal Harpist of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. On returning to London in 1984, she was appointed Co-Principal Harpist of the London Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Vaughan performed at the 2002 World Harp Congress in Geneva and has been elected to the WHC Board of Directors. Professor of Harp at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow and at the Royal Academy of Music in London, she also teaches at the Purcell School for musically gifted children and has an expanding studio. She was appointed Visiting Professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama for the year 2006-2007.

Born in London, Ms. Yoshino began to study harp at the age of six in Los Angeles, California, with Susann McDonald. She finished second at the First International Harp Contest at the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome at the age of 13, and she finished first at the Ninth International Harp Contest 1985 in Israel, where she was the youngest participant. In 1988, she won the Arts Festival Prize from the Japan Agency for Cultural Affairs. She has been a soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Phiharmonia Orchestra, and The Philadelphia Orchestra. Renowned conductors with whom she has shared the stage include Menuhin, Ozawa, Sawallisch, Mehta, Sinopoli, Harnoncourt, Blomstedt, and Dutoit. Ms. Yoshino has worked with such renowned musicians as violinist Gidon Kremer, violist Veronika Hagen, horn player Radek Baborak, flutists Aurele Nicolet, Jean-Pierre Rampal and Wolfgang Schulz.