Sivan Magen (born 1980) is an Israeli harpist.
Raised in Jerusalem in a musical family, the child of two cellists, Magen started his musical studies at the piano with Benjamin Oren and Talma Cohen, and first tried the harp when his family moved to France for a sabbatical. He continued his harp studies with Irena Kaganovski-Kessler in the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. Later he moved to France on his own, where his teachers included Germaine Lorenzini. Magen studied at the Conservatoire National Superieure in Paris, under the guidance of Isabelle Moretti, where he was a Premier Prix winner. Magen continued his studies at the Juilliard School with Nancy Allen, and earned a Master's degree. In 2006, he became the first, and to date only, Israeli to win the International Harp Contest in Israel.
In 2012, Magen won the Borletti-Buitoni Trust award. At Juilliard, Magen met fellow Israeli musicians such as pianist Assaff Weisman and clarinetist Tibi Cziger, and the three of them were among the co-founders of the Israeli Chamber Project. Magen also co-founded the chamber ensemble Tre Voci. He has taught at Brooklyn College. With the 2017-2018 season, Sivan became principal harp of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Magen has recorded commercially for Linn Records, and also for such labels as ECM and Avie.
References
- Ivan Hewett (2014-04-09). "Sivan Magen – New Music". Telegraph. Retrieved 2017-09-26.
- ^ Russell Platt (2014-10-20). "String Theory". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2017-09-26.
- Naomi Lewin and Brian Wise (2015-10-20). "Tubas for Girls, Harps for Boys: Shaking Gender Roles Among Instrumentalists". WQXR. Retrieved 2017-09-26.
- The American Harp Journal. American Harp Society. 2005. p. 71.
- Baker, David J (February 2013). "Nicholas Phan: "Still Falls the Rain"". Opera News. 77 (8). Retrieved 2017-09-26.
External links
- Burletti-Buitoni Trust biography of Sivan Magen
- Israeli Chamber Project page on Sivan Magen
- Linn Records page on album 'Fantasien'
- Linn Records page on album 'French Reflections'
- Harp Column.com blog, '9 things you don’t know about Sivan Magen', 3 June 2014
- Carnegie Hall, 21 October 2014 programme
- Kaufman Music Center, New York City, 18 April 2015 programme
- Jason Victor Serinus, 'Nicholas Phan Embraces Britten'. San Francisco Classical Voice blog, 14 November 2012
- Dominy Clements, 'Review, Recording of the Month - Tre Voci'. MusicWeb International, January 2015
- Ilona Oltuski, 'Fresh sounding promise of David’s harp'. ClassicalMusicCity.com blog
- University of Texas - Austin, biography of Sivan Magen