THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Music presents
Faculty Recital of Noël Wan, Harp
Friday, March 21, 2025
7:30 p.m. | Dohnányi Recital Hall
To Ensure An Enjoyable Concert Experience For All…
Please refrain from talking, entering, or exiting during performances. Food and drink are prohibited in all concert halls. Recording or broadcasting of the concert by any means, including the use of digital cameras, cell phones, or other devices is expressly forbidden. Please deactivate all portable electronic devices including watches, cell phones, pagers, hand-held gaming devices or other electronic equipment that may distract the audience or performers.
Recording Notice: This performance may be recorded. Please note that members of the audience may at times be included in this process. By attending this performance you consent to have your image or likeness appear in any live or recorded video or other transmission or reproduction made in conjunction to the performance.
Florida State University provides accommodations for persons with disabilities. Please notify the College of Music at (850) 644-3424 at least five working days prior to a musical event to request accommodation for disability or alternative program format.
Fall (1991) Kaija Saariaho (1952–2023)
La cathédrale engloutie
Fantasia No. 17 “Wind Harp” (2010)
Stellar Sonata, Op. 51 (2019)
Claude Debussy (1862–1918) arr. Wan
Larry Sitsky (b. 1934)
Caroline Lizotte
I. Andare moderate (b. 1969)
II. Ricercare
III. Radioso sono
Vincent (Starry Starry Night)
river of heaven (2024)
Don McLean (b. 1945) arr. Wan/Murray
Noël Wan/Patrick Murray (b. 1994)/(b. 1990)
Lauded as “a huge talent with hidden power and amazing maturity” (Bart van Oort) and “not [a harpist] to be slept on” (The Globe and Mail), Taiwanese-Canadian-American Noël Wan 萬依慈 (b. 1994) is an international prize-winning harpist and an interdisciplinary scholar. Acclaimed as a soloist, she has performed throughout Europe, Asia, and North America, including as a Debut Atlantic Touring Artist and at Carnegie Hall, Taiwan Performing Arts Center, het Muziekgebouw aan t’IJ, Yellow Barn Summer Music Festival, and Bard Music Festival. Also highly sought as a teacher, she is the Assistant Professor of Harp and Entrepreneurship at Florida State University and gives masterclasses around the world.
Recognized for her charismatic artistry and genre-crossing virtuosity, Noël has been a top prizewinner in numerous international competitions. Notably, she is a laureate of the 2023 Astral Artists National Competition, and she is the 2022 Gold Medalist of the prestigious USA International Harp Competition and the youngest First Prize winner in the history of the World Harp Competition, garnering special interpretation prizes for contemporary works in both competitions. As a solo performer, she is unparalleled in her versatility, playing everything from classical harp masterworks to avant-garde repertoire to transcriptions of music by J.S. Bach, Charles Ives, Alice Coltrane, Brad Mehldau, and Polyphia. Currently, she is working on several projects for the electroacoustic harp: commissions of three works written by Paolo Griffin, Caroline Lizotte, and Liliya Ugay, and electronic sound design under her new moniker, The Mother’s Teeth.
Committed to both experimental thought and practice, Noël situates the harp within, around, and against multiple fields, from futures studies to performance studies. She examines expressions of gender and racial identities in avantgarde music performance practices, drawing from new materialist, posthuman feminist, and affect theories. Presently, her research/creation explores queer embodiment and digital sound creation through concepts of the monstrous feminine and cyborg aesthetics. She is grateful to the Chimei Arts Foundation, Ontario Arts Council, and Florida State University for funding her research and professional development.
Noël is an alumna of the University of Illinois (BM ’14, DMA ’20), where she was an Illinois Distinguished Fellow, and the Yale School of Music (MM ’16). Her past mentors and teachers include Ann Yeung, Michael B. Silvers, June Han, Erika Waardenburg, Chimei Hung, Douglas Rioth, Dan Yu, and Linda Wood Rollo. She currently divides her time between Florida and Ontario with her husband, Canadian choral conductor and composer Patrick Murray, and their two tuxedo cats Simone and Georgina.
Noël performs on a Salvi Diva, Lyon & Healy Style 23, and Camac Big Blue 47.