Biography

Described by the NY Times as a “harpist of extraordinary range” whose “brilliant sound and remarkable technical acumen shatter any stereotype of his instrument”, Sivan Magen is the only Israeli to have ever won the International Harp Contest in Israel, and is a winner of the Pro Musicis International Award as well as of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. In fall 2017 he was appointed principal harpist of the Finnish Radio Orchestra, and since Summer 2023 he is the professor for harp at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin.

Sivan Magen appeared as a recitalist and as a soloist with orchestras across the US, South America, East Asia, Europe and Israel, in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Sydney Opera House and the Vienna Konzerthaus, and with orchestras such as the Israel, Tampere and Strasbourg Philharmonics, the Finnish Radio Orchestra, the Tapiola Sinfonietta, the Jerusalem Camerata, the Saint-Paul, Vienna and Scottish Chamber Orchestras, and the Sydney, Jerusalem and Israel Symphony Orchestras.

Aside from his activity as a soloist, Mr. Magen is an avid chamber musician and has appeared at the Marlboro, Aspen, Rosendal, Kuhmo, Delft, and Jerusalem International Chamber Music festivals, the Celeveland and Ottawa Chamberfests, with Musicians from Marlboro, and collaborated with artists such as Tabea Zimmermann, Nobuko Imai, Shmuel Ashkenazi, Gary Hoffman, Emmanuel Pahud, Susanna Phillips, the Danel, Pacifica, Ariel, Calder, New Helsinki and Dover quartets and members of the Guarneri and Juilliard Quartets.

He is a founding member of trio Tre Voci with flutist Marina Piccinini and violist Kim Kashkashian, with whom he has toured extensively in Europe and the US, and has released to great critical acclaim a CD for ECM of music by Debussy, Gubaidulina and Takemitsu. They are constantly working to expand the flute-viola- harp repertoire by commissioning arrangements and original pieces – their 2018 program included a new commission of a trio by Toshio Hosokawa which had its European premiere at London’s Wigmore Hall.

Since January 2008 Mr. Magen is also a founding member of the Israeli Chamber Project, a group which performs in both outreach venues and major concert halls in Israel and the US, including the Israeli Conservatory in Tel Aviv, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and Carnegie’s Weill Hall, Town Hall, Merkin Hall, Symphony Space, the Morgan Library and Bargemusic in New York City. The ICP is the winner of the 2011 Israeli Ministry of Culture Outstanding Ensemble Award. This current season, which is their 18th season, includes extended tours across the US, Canada, Japan and Israel.

In addition to two solo albums for Linn records, Magen has released acclaimed recordings for Avie, Azica, Koch International, ECM, and with Musicians for Marlboro. His most recent recording for Ondine is of the harp concerto “Sigla” by Lotta Wennäkoski, commissioned for him by the Finnish Radio Symphony. The album was the winner of the 2023 Gramophone Award in the “contemporary” category.

In addition to his position in Berlin, Mr. Magen teaches at the Academy for Music and Theater in Tallinn, Estonia, as well as at the Musica Mundi School in Belgium. He regularly presents masterclasses in schools such as The Juilliard School, The Curtis Institute, The Peabody Institute, The New England Conservatory, the Paris Conservatory, London’s Royal Academy, Royal College, Guildhall School and Trinity College, as well as the summer Academy in Nice, the Kuhmo Festival Academy in Finland, and the Aspen Music Festival. In addition, he has been invited to serve as member of the jury of the International Harp Contest in Israel, the first Netherlands International Harp Competition, the Lyon & Healy Awards and the 2011 Vera Dulova International Harp Competition in Moscow, and served as Head of the Jury of the 2007 National Harp Contest in Taiwan. Between 2013-2017 he was a faculty member of the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, and in spring 2017 he was an invited professor at the Paris Conservatory.

Born in Jerusalem, Sivan Magen studied the piano with Benjamin Oren and Talma Cohen and the harp with Irena Kaganovsky-Kessler at the Jerusalem Academy for Music and Dance. After completing his military service as an “Outstanding Musician” in 2001, he continued his studies with Germaine Lorenzini in France and then joined Isabelle Moretti’s harp class at the Paris Conservatory (CNSMDP) from which he graduated with a “Premier Prix”. He has then completed a Master of Music degree as a student of Nancy Allen at the Juilliard School in New York.