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Renée Qin is a Canadian harpist, composer, and multimedia artist whose work explores the intersection of classical performance, audiovisual design, and interactive technology. Named one of CBC’s “30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30” in 2024, she received Artist Diploma with distinction from the OAcademy Music Conservatory, and is currently completing a master's degree in computer science at Stanford University, where she previously earned her B.A. with distinction and with honors both in Music and Economics. In June 2025, Renée served as the sole harpist with the Orchestra of the Americas during its artist residency in Monterey, Mexico.
Renée began her musical training with piano at age four, and later expanded to the harp, an instrument that captivated her for its expressive power. She studied under Elizabeth Volpé Bligh, former principal harpist of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and briefly with Douglas Rioth of the San Francisco Symphony. At Stanford, she continued her harp studies with Dan Levitan and studied composition with Dr. François Rose. She received mentorship at the Curtis Institute of Music Summer Harp Colony, working with Elizabeth Hainen and Judy Loman, and participated in the Vancouver Symphony Orchestral Institute under Maestro Otto Tausk. Renée previously served as principal harpist of the Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra and held principal roles with both the Stanford Symphony Orchestra and Stanford Philharmonia throughout her undergraduate years. As a soloist, Renée has appeared with orchestras including the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra, Harmonia Chamber Music Orchestra, Stanford Philharmonia, A Little Night Music Orchestra, and Stanford Symphonic Chorus. She has performed at major venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Field Concert Hall at the Curtis Institute, the Orpheum Theatre (Vancouver), Stanford Bing Concert Hall, and Stanford Memorial Church. Notable recent performances include Handel’s Harp Concerto and Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp. Renée has received multiple national and international honors, including First Prizes at the Canadian Music Competition and the American Protégé International Romantic Music Competition. She won the 2019 Canadian International Music Competition Concerto Competition and was awarded the Chappell Lougee Scholarship in 2022 for her original composition The Ternaround. Renée’s compositional practice is deeply tied to ecological and human narratives. Her works often blend acoustic instrumentation with visual and interactive elements to create immersive environments that reflect themes of memory, climate, and care. The Ternaround, a solo harp work highlighting the endangered California least tern, was recognized for its blend of music and ecological storytelling. In 2023, her audiovisual composition Voice of the Planet was premiered by Ensemble Kujoyama, offering a multimedia meditation on Earth’s ecological fragility. Other works include Spring Tide for orchestra, Fragment of Life for electronics, and Piper, a re-score for film exploring growth and resilience. Her piece Introduce Myself to Mom Today, I’ll Do It Again Tomorrow engages with the emotional terrain of Alzheimer’s care, inviting reflection on memory and compassion. In addition to her own compositional work, Renée is the dedicatee and premiere performer of two upcoming harp works by internationally acclaimed composers. Michael Conway Baker, one of Canada’s most distinguished composers of orchestral, ballet, and film music, has written a new work for Renée to premiere. In 2025, Qin was selected for the OAcademy Contemporary Collaboration Certificate, where Latin Grammy–winning composer Nacho González Nappa wrote El zaguán specifically for her as part of the Gabriela Ortiz Fellowship. These commissions reflect Renée’s commitment to expanding the harp repertoire and serving as an active voice in the creation and performance of contemporary music. In 2025, Renée premiered "Beneath the Waves, Beyond the Stars", the debut production of her interdisciplinary initiative Sound Palette. This multimedia concert featured original compositions for harp, strings, piano, and percussion alongside immersive visuals and sound design. Built using custom audiovisual tools in ChucK and ChuGL, the program included a live-reactive visualizer that responds instantly to the live performance. The program traced a journey from childhood memory to deep ocean and outer space, exploring how sound, light, and collective attention can create a sense of connectedness across distance. A real-time computer vision system for tracking audience flashlight gestures is currently in development for future iterations. Her artistic practice continues to evolve at the intersection of tradition and experimentation—using the harp not only as an instrument of sound, but as a medium for storytelling, collaboration, and immersive experience. Through participatory design, live music, and technological fluency, she is building a practice that bridges the concert hall and the interactive arts space—inviting audiences not just to listen, but to co-create. |
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