WHO: Harpist Varvara Ivanova
WHAT: Kansas City metropolitan-area premiere performance
WHEN: Wednesday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel, Park University
8700 NW River Park, Parkville, MO

Seventeen-year-old harp virtuoso Varvara Ivanova will grace the stage of Park University's Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel with her first Kansas City performance on Wednesday, Apr. 20 at 7:30 p.m.

Ivanova, a Russian harpist and the youngest winner in the history of Israel's prestigious International Harp Competition, will perform for Missouri audiences. She is currently touring Western Europe and nine select concerts in the United States in support of her upcoming debut Egan Records CD.

Ivanova was born into a family of musicians in Moscow, studying harp at the age of five at the Preparatory of Moscow Conservatory. Considered a prodigy, she had her first major performance of the Handel's "Concerto for harp and Orchestra B-dur" at the age of seven at the Big Concert Hall of the Moscow Conservatory with Kremlin Chamber Orchestra.

In November 2001, Ivanova replaced Xavier de Maistre, principal harpist of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, on one week notice, on a tour in Germany as a soloist with the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra and performed to critical acclaim in Dusseldorf Tonhalle, Hamburg Musikhalle, Munchen Prinzeregentertheater and Frankfurt Alte Oper. A year later, she was a featured soloist at the World Harp Congress in Geneva, Switzerland.

"Ivanova demonstrate(s) that she is a born virtuoso," said English critic Edward Johnson in a review of her 2003 London debut. "Her sensitivity, beauty of sound and musicality captured a near-capacity audience…one of the very few harpists who can simultaneously awe and charm."

Varvara Ivanova's performance is sponsored by the Lyra Chapter of the American Harp Society and the Victor Salvi Foundation.

Admission is $10 for the general public and $7 for seniors or students. Special group rates for the concert are available. Tickets for this Musication, Inc. event are available Online by visiting www.musication.com or by phone at (816) 931-9042. Proceeds will benefit community education programs of the Lyra Chapter of the American Harp Society.

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