Praised for her “technical wizardry and artistic intuition” (Herald Times), harpist Emily Levin has forged a multifaceted career as a soloist, artistic creator, educator, and advocate for new music.
Levin is the only American to receive top prizes at the most prestigious harp competitions: Bronze Medal at the 9th USA International Harp Competition, and at just 18 years old, Finalist and Renié Prizewinner at the 2009 International Harp Contest in Israel.
Levin joined the Dallas Symphony Orchestra as principal harp in 2016, where she holds the Elsa von Seggern Chair. She has also served as guest principal harp with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Houston Symphony. As a soloist and chamber musician, she has performed at leading venues throughout North America and Europe — including Carnegie Hall, National Sawdust, Bravo! Vail, the Kimmel Center, the Ojai Festival, and the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In 2021, Levin 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.
This season, Levin tours her revolutionary solo project Experiments in Play. An immersive, interactive narrative recital, Experiments in Play invites the audience to solve puzzles, interact with the plot, and influence the path of the music itself. Spring 2025 also brings the release of a new album for Azica Records with violinist Julia Choi and cellist Christine Lamprea, and a return to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as guest principal harp on their European tour.
Harp faculty at the Aspen Music Festival and School and Southern Methodist University, Levin received her Master of Music from The Juilliard School and undergraduate degrees in music and history from Indiana University. Her honors history thesis discussed the impact of war songs on the French Revolution.