New York Harp Ensemble

This is a classical harp ensemble founded in 1969 by the harpist and composer Aristid von Wurtzler.

In 1956 Aristid von Wurtzler emigrated to the United States from his native Hungary and performed with several orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic.

He ventured out on a career as a soloist in the 1960s and put together his own harp ensemble. While performing at a harp contest in Geneva, Switzerland he met his wife Barbara Pniewska and offered her a scholarship at the University of Hartford, where he was a professor and from 1969 until 1997 they performed together in their New York Harp Ensemble.

The ensemble comprised four professional harpists, which performed for 28 years and gained a great popularity. It appeared on many radio and television broadcasts as well as making numerous recordings and giving literally thousands of concerts nationally and internationally in more than 60 countries with a repertoire that contained around 200 works that ranged from baroque to modern. They performed for Pope John Paul II at the Vatican City and for four US Presidents, playing at the White House five times and at Bogota’s presidential palace in Colombia.

Many of their works were commissions and their own compositions and transcriptions. Some of the composers who wrote pieces for the ensemble include Leonard Bernstein, Paul Creston, Norman Dello Joio, Nicolas Flagello, Alan Hohvaness and Gyorgy Ligeti along with many others.

Aristid von Wurtzler died in 1997, which is when the ensemble was disbanded.

Sources:

New York Harp Ensemble

Navigation