Isabelle MARIE was born in Paris. She begin the harp with Odette Le Dentu and Lily Laskine. She received first prizes for harp in 1981 in the class of Jacqueline Borot and for chamber music in 1982 in the class of Maurice Bourgue in the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris.

She also took lessons with Germaine Lorenzini and Catherine Michel. She realized a career as concert artist and teacher in France and Switzerland. She was the first solo harpist during 8 years at the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland and played with the Tonhalle Orchestra from Zürich, she joined the harp quartet “Harpège” also Michel Corboz’s Ensemble and Contrechamps in Genève.

After twenty years of teaching, she is retired from the municipal conservatories of Paris, and from the Schola Cantorum in Paris. She wrote arrangements for harp quartets who are edited ( Durand, Leduc, Harposphère)and a Methode for harp published in 2017. She also performed with numerous ensembles and orchestras and recorded CDs with Laurent Hacquard (oboe),JocelyneLucas(sopranist) and with the Harps Quartet : “Harpège”.

She wishes to develop the instrument's repertoire by arousing the interest of composers such as Emmanuel Bellanger with “Entrelacs” for violin and harp, a work created in Dublin in 2005, or in 2020 the trio “Méditation pastorale” by Nicolas Bacri, which is dedicated to her. She was President of the Focus on Youth Concerts of the World Harp Congress 2002 and performed in the WHC Genève, Dublin and Vancouver.

We were able to listen to her at the Festivals : Megève Savoy Truffle, Ninon Vallin, Arts et Vignes, Musiques au cœur des Musées en Isère, Le Mois Molière de Versailles, Musique au Château d’Anjou, à l’Hôtel de la Marine à Paris, au festival Crezanswing. Isabelle is also producer. Her recordings are distributed digitally by Absilone Technologies on the platforms like Spotify, Applemusic.

Her research led her to publish numerous harp adaptations of works in various styles, for harpsichord, piano, and other instrumental ensembles. For ten years, she served as secretary general, and later editor, of the InternationalAssociation of Harpistsand Friends of the Harp (AIHAH), founded in 1962 by Pierre Jamet.

In 2020 she created the “ÉditionsIsabelleMarie” dedicated more specifically to harpists with the publications of pieces for harp alone or with harp not yet published, or already published in the past but which deserve to be rediscovered, particularly concerning the periods of 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, A collaboration with composer also envisaged, such as with Marc Tallet whose the piece "En semant des étoiles" is now edited.

First Prize from the Paris National Superior Conservatory of Music and Master of Music from the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, swiss/french harpist Sophie Clavel was principal harp with the Taipei City Symphony and the Taipei Sinfonietta and Philharmonic Orchestras in Taiwan where she lived for 21 years.

At the same time she taught the harp in the major universities in the island and the Taipei National University of Performing Arts where she also taught chamber music and orchestra repertoire.

She has performed in recitals, concertos, and chamber music ensemble all over Taiwan and has been invited to give master classes in Korea and Japan and joined the staff of the local music summer workshops.

Her main teachers were Lily Laskine, Odette Le Dentu, Jacqueline Borot at the CNSMP and Susann McDonald at The Juilliard School of Music. She received advises from Marielle Nordman and Susanna Mildonian during master classes and took harp lessons for one year with Germaine Lorenzini.

Back to France in 2006, Sophie Clavel started her own harp school, “Harpe en Périgord” which has been part of the Bergerac Conservatory of Music until the end of 2015. She has performed intensively as a soloist and with her various chamber music groups and was a member of the Ensemble Instrumental de la Dordogne. Sophie Clavel moved to Varna, Bulgaria, for a year, to promote the harp, build a collaboration with bulgarian musicians and establish cultural exchanges between both countries She has formed the Trio Slavchev, Flute, Bassoon and Harp and the Duo Nedeva, Flute and Harp.

She now resides in Dordogne, France, teaching and performing and has been working intensively on various projects, her enterprise « Clavel Music » specializing in handcrafted wooden music stands, accessories and publishing her harp arrangements and re-editions, result of 40 years of playing harp with various musicians, accordion or horn and of course, violin, cello, flute and voice. All these arrangements have been taken from piano parts, or orchestra reduction. All have been performed intensively until the perfect fingering and pedal changes will not be an obstacle to the harpist. With these arrangements, well known composers can be added to harp concert programs. Many of her students hold positions in prominent orchestras worldwide.

At the present Sophie Clavel performs intensively with her harp duet: The Alhéna Duo, she founded with her student Lucile Gallet-Delgrange.

Sophie Clavel has 3 CDs: Itineraire, harp recital, Black Sea, Duo flute and harp and Horizon, Alhéna harp duet.

At present Harp Professor at the Antibes Conservatory of Music and Dramatic Art, Magali Pyka de Coster is very active on the musical scene in her native Southern France.

Artistic director of “Harpside”, a harp sextet blending classical repertoire with variety and electro sounds, in charge of the PACA region for the Prodig'art competition,she is solo harpist with the Orchestre Symphonique Azuréen. Magali performs in various chamber music groups at festivals and is regularly called upon as harpist by the Nice, Cannes and Monaco Philharmonic Orchestras. She is often called upon to serve on juries at conservatories all over France.

Holder of several conservatory prizes: First Harp Prize from the city of Nice, followed by her D.E.M. from the CNR de Nice ; Premier Prix de Musique de Chambre de Boulogne Billancourt; entrance to the C.N.S.M. de Paris, Diplôme de concertiste from the Hochschule fûr musik Detmold (Germany). She also holds A Licence en Musicologie from the University of letters from Nice Sophia Antipolis.

Magali trained as a professional harpist thanks to hes meetings with two leading exponents of the French harp school; Elizabeth Fontan-Binoche for the beginning, and Catherine Michel for advanced training. She has also attended master classes with leadings figures in the French harp world: Marie Claire Jamet, Fabrice Pierre, Marielle Nordman and Isabelle Moretti..

She contributes to the development of the harp both pedagogically and artistically. She recently accepted to be Vice-Secretary of the “Association Internationnale des Harpistes et Amis de la Harpe”,and she is in charge of pedagogy for the events she organizes with the “Récital” association at the “Les Harpes Maritimes” and for the ‘Harpchallenge’ festivals.

She is involved in the creation and production of two shows based on historical letters set to music, with which she performs: “Les Harpes Maritimes” and “Le Harpchallenge”. with which she performs: “La musique d'un destin : Marie Antoinette” and ‘Empire, Musique et sentiments’ about Napoleon's three loves.