Emily Levin
Harp
Praised for her “communicative, emotionally intense expression” (Jerusalem Post) and “technical wizardry and artistic intuition” (Herald Times), harpist Emily Levin has forged a multifaceted career as a soloist, orchestral musician, chamber collaborator, and advocate for new music.
Levin joined the Dallas Symphony Orchestra as Principal Harp in 2016. She has also served as guest principal harp with the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Houston Symphony, and appears regularly with the New York Philharmonic. As a soloist and chamber musician, she has performed at leading venues throughout North America and Europe, and her concerto engagements include performances with the Jerusalem, Dallas, Colorado, and West Virginia Symphonies, the Ojai Festival and Lakes Area Music Festival, and the Louisiana Philharmonic.
In 2021, she founded GroundWork(s), an initiative commissioning 52 American composers—one from each state, plus Washington, DC and Puerto Rico—to write new works centered on the harp. Recent and upcoming commissions have included works by Angélica Negrón, Reena Esmail, Michael Ippolito, Aaron Holloway Nahum, and Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate.
Levin is the only American to receive top prizes at two of the most prestigious international harp competitions: the USA International Harp Competition and the International Harp
Contest in Israel. She was also a winner of the 2016 Astral Artists National Auditions and was named the Classical Recording Foundation’s 2017 Young Musician of the Year for her debut album, Something Borrowed.
A committed educator, Levin is currently an adjunct associate professor of harp at Southern Methodist University, and a faculty member at the Aspen Music Festival and the Young Artist’s Harp Seminar. She received a Master of Music from the Juilliard School and holds undergraduate degrees in music and history from Indiana University. Her honors history thesis focused on the war songs of the French Revolution.