Bio

Praised for her “powerful command and nuanced facility (onemanz blog)”, Violetta Maria Norrie is a harpist and improviser of diverse range and ability. She began playing the harp at the age of 6, after falling in love with the instrument at a Renaissance Faire. Since then she has performed orchestral, solo, and chamber music at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Merkin Recital Hall, the Guggenheim, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Violetta is the newly appointed Principal Harpist of the Cape Symphony and she performs as a member and guest artist of many ensembles including the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, Princeton Symphony, the Experiential Orchestra, the LPR Ensemble, Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, and Opera Theatre of Montclair. Violetta has been featured on NBC, MTV's Silent Library, and the Harmony ad campaign for Emirates Airlines. She is a former faculty member of the Turtle Bay Music School until its closure in 2019 and now maintains a thriving harp studio in Inwood in Manhattan.

In addition to her classical repertoire, Violetta is interested in contemporary music, jazz, poetry, linguistics, performance art, and improvisation. She regularly performs experimental music and improvisations as a solo artist and as a member of DUO for Saxophone and Harp with saxophonist Matt Burkett. She is a passionate advocate for those underrepresented in the arts, and seeks to combat their erasure through inclusive programming, commissions, artist promotion, and transgressive educational practice. In her focus on contemporary music she co-founded Versicolor, Yale School of Music’s only student-run new music ensemble and has performed with Contemporaneous, Blackbox Ensemble, and Ensemble Echappé as well as premiering countless works by composers of the moment. She also loves playing chamber music and does so as a member of viola-harp duo Eleventh Hour with violist and violinist Jay Julio.

Violetta earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music where she studied with Susan Jolles and attended the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris with Isabelle Moretti and Sivan Magen for one year. She has also studied privately with Frances Duffy and Emmanuel Ceysson. She completed her Master of Music degree at Yale School of Music with Dr. June Han. She is the Social Media Manager Officer of the MetroHarp Chapter of the American Harp Society.