Faculty Bio: Heaven Fan

Described by critics as "captivating optimism and charm" and "virtuoso harp playing," Heaven Fan’s performances have been broadcast on TV and radio programs worldwide.  She has been invited internationally as a featured soloist in recitals and orchestral concerts and has appeared in music festivals such as the Festival of Chinese Performing Arts in Boston, the Fukui Harp Festival in Japan, the MasterWorks Festival in Winona Lake, Indiana, and the World Harp Congress in Prague, Czech Republic.  As an orchestral harpist she has performed with orchestras in Taiwan, Australia, and the U.S. with many distinguished artists such as Marilyn Horne, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Mark O'Connor, Christopher O'Riley, and Daniel Narducci among others.

In addition to presenting new spectrums from the traditional harp repertoire, Dr. Fan has been fervently seeking new expressions on the harp.  She has been active in the promotion of contemporary music and has premiered works for harp as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral harpist collaborating with emerging and eminent contemporary composers in the Hammer and Nail harp project in Bloomington, Indiana, the Indiana University New Music Ensemble, the Midwest Composers Symposium, the LKGT and Friends Gala Concert and the QCM Contemporary Ensemble in Australia, and the Contemporary Chamber Orchestra Taipei in Taiwan.  As a founding member of the Pacific Harp Ensemble, a quartet comprised of prize-winning harpists from Asia and the U.S., she made the premiere recording of Ami Maayani's Arabesque No. 3 for the Fons label, and commissioned the Harp Quartet by N. Lincoln Hanks and premiered it at the Seventh World Harp Congress in the Czech Republic.

A native of Taiwan, Dr. Fan began her music training at the age of five.  She has won competitions in Taiwan and the U.S., including the Indiana University Travel Grant Competition, the Anne Adams Award Competition of the American Harp Society, and the Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship Award of the Arts Council of Indianapolis and Lilly Endowment.  She has received her Bachelor's degree with highest distinction in both harp and piano performance from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music (Griffith University) in Australia, and her Master's degree, Artist Diploma, and Doctor of Music from Indiana University, where she completed her studies with Distinguished Professor Susann McDonald.  Dr. Fan is currently on the harp faculties of Anderson University and the MasterWorks Festival.  She has also served on the judging panel for harp competitions in Asia and the U.S.