Arts Global

After completing her studies with honours at the Conservatoire de Nice, Isabelle Perrin gave her first solo recital at the age of seventeen at the Festival Méditerranéen des Jeunes Solistes. She then studied at the Juilliard School of Music in New York for three years, after which she became a member of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

On her return to France, she was chosen for three consecutive years by the Jeunesses Musicales de France to tour France giving recitals, thus introducing the harp to a wider public.

Named co-principal of the Orchestre National de France and honoured to be chosen as a participating soloist by the Menuhin Foundation, Isabelle Perrin was also a winner of the Torneo Internazionale de Musica in Rome.

An international soloist, Ms Perrin is regularly invited to appear with such orchestras as the Northwest Sinfonietta (Seattle), the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre National de France. She has also performed with the Oshawa-Durham Symphony (Canada), the Orchestre National d'Ile de France, the Orchestre National de Lille, the Orchestre National du Capitol de Toulouse and the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire. She was recently invited to perform the Ginastera Harp Concerto in a regional tour of eight concerts with the Orchestre National de Lorraine.

She tours regularly in Europe, USA, Africa (Tunisia and South Africa) and Asia (China, Japan and Korea). This year she will be playing in the USA, Australia, China, France, Italy, Portugal and the UK.

As a leading harpist and with her magnetic personality, Isabelle Perrin has inspired composers to write for her. Pierick Houdy--a winner of the Prix de Rome--wrote his Concerto Français for harp and orchestra especially for her. She performed the world premiere of the work with the Orchestre de Bretagne and played it for the first time in America with the Baton Rouge Symphony (Louisiana). She has also performed this concerto at the Rudolfinum Hall in Prague with the Radio Prague Symphony Orchestra. Bernard Andres, a leading composer for the harp, dedicated his Danses d'Erzulie for harp, string orchestra and percussion to her. She performed the world premiere of this piece in Cincinnati in June 2000 and played it in Amsterdam in 2001.

Ms Perrin has recorded several compact discs. These include a recital of the works of Bernard Andres. She has also recorded with the Turner Trio, of which she is the founding member, original works of Arnold Bax for flute, viola and harp. She has recently released the world's first recording on a period instrument of the works of F.A. Boieldieu for harp, which includes the famous C major Concerto. Ms Perrin released two CDs at the end of 2003: one of music by Pierick Houdy for harp (including the Sonata and the Concerto he wrote for her) and an album of famous harp solos along with the Debussy Dances.

The youngest French musician ever to obtain the C.A. (French degree to teach in the Conservatoires Nationaux de Région), Isabelle Perrin is now teaching at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris. She gives master classes all over the world, and was invited for two months as a guest faculty member at Indiana University in Bloomington, USA. She has been recently appointed Visiting Professor to the Royal Academy of Music of London. She was Chairman and Artistic Director of the 6th European Harp Symposium held in Lyon, France, in August 2004.