Megan van Uffelen (2005) was born in Zwolle, the Netherlands. After seeing and hearing the harp for the first time on television, she completely fell in love with the harp. At the age of seven, she began playing harp on the lever harp. When she was 12, Megan switched to the pedal harp. Megan enjoys being able to play pieces from different eras, with a slight preference for the Romantic period.

Course

n Steenwijk, Megan enjoyed her first three years of lessons with Klarissa Zantinge, who reinforced her love for the harp. After moving back to Zwolle, Megan had three years of lessons with Liedewij Spruit.
Switching to playing the pedal harp, Megan started taking harp lessons from Manja Smits.

In September 2019, Megan was admitted to the Jong Talent class of the ArtEZ conservatory in Zwolle. In September 2022, Megan started the Preparatory course of the ArtEZ conservatory where she continued her lessons with Manja Smits.

After a successful audition, Megan was admitted as of September 2023 to the Bachelor Classical Music - Main subject Harp program at the ArtEZ conservatory, where she has now obtained her propaedeutic year.

Masterclasses

In recent years Megan has attended several masterclasses with Masumi Nagasawa, Lavinia Meijer, Remy van Kesteren, Sylvain Blassel and Gesine Dreyer. In 2022, Megan was one of the selected harpists invited to attend an "International Celebrity Masterclass" of the World Harp Congress which took place in Cardiff, Wales. Here she attended a masterclass with Jana Bouskova.

Furthermore, Megan has participated in a couple of summer classes with Manja Smits and Masumi Nagasawa in 2018 to 2021 (Harp Summer Masterclass La Roche sur Foron). This summer (2024) she will participate in a summer course with Imogen Barford and Charlotte Seale (IBACUS course).

Orchestras

Megan has been playing in the Youth Symphony Orchestra “De Vuurvogel” (Zwolle) under the direction of Albert Dam since 2018, having played in the “Jonge Vuurvogel” (for children up to 14 years old) since she was eight years old. She has been allowed to solo with this orchestra and will have the opportunity to play beautiful harp solos.

In addition, in 2022 - 2024 Megan participated in a number of concerts of the Groningen Student Music Company Bragi under the direction of Alexander de Blaeij. With this orchestra she played several fun and challenging pieces.

In recent years Megan has also played in the Oost-Nederlands Symfonie Orkest, Oost-Gelders Symfonieorkest and is first harpist in the JeugdOrkest Nederland.

Competitions

Since 2019, Megan has participated in a number of national and international competitions. Among others, she has participated in the Princess Christina competition. The first international competition Megan participated in was the harp competition “Rencontres Internationales de la Harpe en Ile-de-France” (France). In the C2N4 category, she won the first prize. Her performance was rated “'Mention Très Bien avec Felicitations”. In October 2019, Megan participated in the 'International Harp Competition Velenje' (Slovenia). In category C she was awarded a bronze medal as well as the special jury award for: 'Best performance of a classical piece'.

In 2020 she participated in the national Rosa Spier Harp Competition in Tilburg where she received the incentive prize. In September 2020, she was a finalist in the Royal Concertgebouw Competition.

Because of COVID-19, Megan participated in a number of international online competitions, where she was awarded several prizes.

At the Vienna Classical Music Academy international competition in 2021, she was invited to the finals based on her online application. The final took place in Vienna. Her performance was awarded first prize in the under-18 category.

In 2022, Megan won first prize in Category 2: 15-17 years (pedal harp) of the national Rosa Spier Harp Competition, and best performance of the compulsory work.

Concerts

In addition to participating in competitions and playing with others, Megan also enjoys giving performances. She gives concerts ranging from house concerts and concerts at nursing homes to lunch concerts in the small hall of the concert hall and everything in between.

She is also active with her harp-flute duo.

If you're curious about my upcomming concerts, please check out my concertagenda. 

If you want to contact me regarding a possible concert (solo or orchestra), please contact me via "contact" on this website.