Please note that because of the Covid−19 pandemic, we are currently unable to provide reliable information about forthcoming live performances.
Conventions have never prevented German harpist Magdalena Hoffmann from following her creative instincts. She inspires audiences of all ages as recitalist, chamber musician, orchestral player, educator and animateur, her virtuosity on the modern concert harp supported by her understanding of the instrument’s long history. Whether performing as principal harp of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, exploring a rich recital repertoire, devising projects involving theatre and the visual arts, or creatingbsurd sketches, she is above all a supremely gifted communicator. “The harp has always been the poet’s and the storyteller’s instrument,” she notes. “It’s a wonderful vessel for adventures of the imagination.”
In March 2021 Hoffmann signed an exclusive agreement with Deutsche Grammophon. The deal paves the way to innovative future projects, starting with her debut DG album, Nightscapes. Exploring the magical world of night music as well as the theme of dance – appropriately enough for an instrument which requires rapid footwork as well as manual dexterity – the album features music by composers such as Britten, Chopin, Pizzetti and Respighi. Nightscapes is scheduled for release on 11 February 2022.
In the course of her already extensive orchestral career, Magdalena Hoffmann has been able to work with the world’s greatest conductors, including Sir Simon Rattle, Kirill Petrenko, Daniel Harding, Zubin Mehta, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Mariss Jansons, among many others.
Her approach to programme building often involves interdisciplinary projects that breach traditional genre boundaries or feature inventive combinations of pieces. In 2014 Hoffmann first performed her theatre concert for children, Odyssey on 47 strings, at the HarpMasters Festival in Switzerland. She has also premiered several works for her instrument written by contemporary composers, collaborating with other artists being one of her greatest sources of inspiration.
Magdalena Hoffmann was born in 1990 in Basel, Switzerland, and started playing the harp there at the age of six. She began studying with Fabiana Trani in Düsseldorf in 2007 and remained with her until she graduated from the Robert Schumann Musikhochschule six years later, having spent one year at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she had lessons with Skaila Kanga and was introduced to jazz harp by Park Stickney.
She continued her training with a master’s degree at Munich’s Hochschule für Musik und Theater, where she studied with Cristina Bianchi. Masterclasses and private lessons with such harp luminaries as Fabrice Pierre, Isabelle Moretti, Alice Giles, Isabelle Perrin, Mara Galassi and Milda Agazarian helped Hoffmann refine her considerable skills and widen her creative outlook.
In 2014 Magdalena Hoffmann took up a position as principal harp of the Tiroler Symphonieorchester Innsbruck and, the following year, started teaching concert harp at the Tiroler Landeskonservatorium.
She made her international breakthrough in 2016 as winner of two special prizes at the prestigious ARD Music Competition in Munich and in November 2018 was appointed principal harp of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.
Hoffmann is a cultural ambassador for CASA HOGAR, a charitable initiative offering education and a home for young girls in Colombia’s troubled Chocó region. “I hope to be able to open the ears and hearts of many people to the suffering that still exists in the Chocó – and to fight it,” says the harpist.
12/2021