Amy Nam wins second prize in uniquely creative World Harp Competition | Luther College

Amy Nam, Luther College adjunct faculty in music for harp and composition, was awarded second prize in the World Harp Competition, held during the 2024 Dutch Harp Festival in Utrecht, Holland, in April 2024.  

“I was very excited,” said Nam about the experience. “I was the last to play in the semi-final round. It was a whirlwind. I was so happy to get to go, because all of the contestants’ programs were unique and interesting.”

Unlike many musical competitions that set the repertoire for participants, the World Harp Competition allows each contestant to create their own 45-minute program. “It’s whatever you want to play, anything involving you playing the harp,” said Nam. “There are all kinds of harps, even electric harps, folk harps and classical harps. It encourages creativity and pushing the harp outside the box.”  

Nam’s program is entitled “Cosmic Fragments: Words and Music About Life, the Universe and Everything.” According to harpcolumn.com, “Nam’s program featured works written within the last century, alternating poems and prose with short works for solo harp, and reflecting on themes of the human experience in the context of the cosmos.” 

It included compositions by multiple composers, including Nam’s own work, played on the acoustic concert grand harp, a small electric harp and a large floor pedal harp that was electroacoustic. Between playing, Nam recited selected written works by authors ranging from Italo Calvino to Mary Oliver over a background of electronic interludes composed by Sean William Calhoun. 

Nam described her program as “a sweeping and quirky musical-poetic survey of human experience and the universe we inhabit. … It grapples with the most profound aspects of our existence: impermanence, imagination, suffering, wonder and potential.” Nam premiered the program in April, before the World Harp Competition, at Luther College’s Weston H. Noble Recital Hall.  

“I’m left with three things,” Nam said about the competition and its results. “One was increased weight and credibility with my name. There’s also the program that I’ve developed that’s unique and that I can take places, such as other festivals. It’s something personal to me that has been worked to a high level. Finally, going to that competition and seeing other contestants in a whole festival with other harpists from around the world was very inspiring and energizing, and I will run off that energy for a long time.”