Florence Sitruk, artistic director of the Elias Parish Alvars Festival For the first time in 1999, Florence Sitruk gave a concert in Teignmouth/Devon at the occasion of the 150th year since the death of Elias Parish Alvars. What started small, is today a flourishing initiation in honour of this grand romantic virtuoso, "One of the finest artists in her field", according to late pianist György Sebök, Franco-German Florence Sitruk has done pioneering work to the harp as a soloist, a teacher and festival director. Born in 1974, she studied at the Paris Conservatory, and gained the Artist Diploma from Indiana University/USA with Susann McDonald and legendary pianist György Sebök whom she calls both decisive for her musical development. In addition, she holds degrees in musicology and philosophy from Freiburg University, and studied historical performance practice with Robert Hill, harpsichordist. Since her debut at the age of 15 with the Camerata Academica Salzburg under Sandor Végh, she concertizes regularly as a soloist with orchestras such as the Lucerne Festival Strings, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Freiburg Baroque Soloists, the Lithuanian Philharmonic and Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, the Neusser Kammerakademie, the Festival Orquestra da Paz/Brazil, the Stuttgart Radio Orchestra or the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin with which she gave her live broadcasted debut at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, and has since been returning every year. Solo recitals have taken her to the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Rudolfinum Prague, Opéra Bastille Paris, the Tower 101 Taipei or the Teatro da Paz/Belem, the Musikhalle Hamburg, to name a few; as well as in the season 2009/10 to the Glinka Hall/St. Petersburg, to Hongkong, Shanghai, the Muséiques Festival Basel/CH on invitation of Gidon Kremer, to Hobart/Tasmania, to the Niedersächsische Musiktage, with partners such as Albrecht Mayer, oboe or Hartmut Rohde, viola, and as a soloist to the Gewandhaus Leipzig, to mark the musical friendship between Mendelssohn Bartholdy and harpist Elias Parish Alvars. Florence Sitruk won more than seven national and international top prizes (Paris, Brussels, Indiana University), among which the 1^st prize in the Rome International Competition Valentino Bucchi for Music of the 20th century put her immediately on the international platform. She went then on to win the selection of the "Debut at the DeutschlandRadio" at the Berlin Philharmonic as first German harpist ever. She was also the first harpist to be nominated for the Eurovision Contest of Classical Music in Brussels by the European Broadcasting Union. It is especially the music of the 20th and 21st century which is strongly supported in her repertoire and to which she is a dedicated and intelligent advocate through exquisite programming. At the same time she is at the head of the revival of virtuoso Elias Parish Alvars (1808-1849), the so-called Liszt of the harp, and consequently founded a festival in the composer's native town in Devon/England. She is also a festival director of the long-established St. Christopher Festival in Vilnius/Lithuania. Florence Sitruk is professor of harp at the Haute Ecole de Musique of Geneva, and since her appointment in 2005 the youngest professor in her field. It is a position she also holds at the Lithuanian Music Academy Vilnius/Lithuania since the age of 26, where she has established in pioneering work a succesful harp department. Her talent class set up one third of the international young top players at the Xth World Harp Congress 2008 in Amsterdam.

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