Biography

At the tender age of six, Florence Sitruk – a South Baden-native – started taking harp lessons. When she was 15, this daughter of German-French parents debuted with the Camerata Academica Salzburg under Sándor Végh and has been performing ever since as a soloist with renowned orchestras such as the Festival Strings Lucerne, the German Symphony-Orchestra Berlin, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Neuss Chamber Academy, the Lithuanian Philharmonic and the Freiburg Baroque Soloists – under such conductors as Gary Bertini, Dennis Russel Davies and Sir Neville Marriner.

Florence Sitruk, whose studies included philosophy and musicology, received soloist diplomas at music academies in Stuttgart, Paris and Indiana University/USA. Among her role models are the American-born harpist Susann McDonald and Hungarian pianist György Sebök.

This young soloist, internationally acclaimed for her versatility, has won numerous music competitions, including the International Harp Competition for 20^th century music, Valentino Bucchi in Rome. In 2005 she became the youngest professor in her field, at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève. When she was only 25, she was appointed as a visiting professor at the Lithuanian Academy of Music; her harp instruction has already generated top international talent. In 2007 she was appointed adjunct professor at Tokyo Tech, Japan. In 2008 she founded the Elias Parish Alvars Festival in Devon, England, dedicated to romantic music in the birth-city of the virtuoso harpist. In 2010 she was appointed as successor to Gidon Kremer and Peter Sadlo in the renowned Swiss chamber music festival, les museiques, dedicated primarily to new music.

In addition to her international career as a soloist and her passionate work as an educator, Florence Sitruk was unanimously elected in 2013 as the new artistic director of the International Harp Contest in Israel.

The Berlin-based artist has premiered and recorded the Concerto Symphonique for Harp and Orchestra by contemporary Israeli composer Ami Maayani.