Heaven Fan
Adjunct Professor of Music – Harp
huiwen.fan@valpo.edu
VUCA B532
Biography
Currently on faculty at Valparaiso University, University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College, Indiana University South Bend, and Anderson University, Dr. Fan is also a member of the artist faculty of the MasterWorks Festival in South Carolina. Her performances have been featured on National Public Radio (NPR), as well as radio and TV stations in the US, Canada, the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia. She has recorded with the Pacific Harp Quartet under the Fons label and with the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir under the Naxos label.
Fan has won competitions in Taiwan and the United States, including the national Anne Adams Competition of the American Harp Society, the Travel Grant Competition of Indiana University, and the Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship Award of the Arts Council of Indianapolis and Lilly Endowment. She was invited internationally as a featured soloist in the MasterWorks Festival in South Carolina, the Festival of Chinese Performing Arts in Boston, the Boston Harp Festival, the World Harp Congresses in Czech Republic and Geneva, the International Harp Festival of Mexico, and the New Year Concerts with the Qingdao Municipal Opera and Dance Drama Theater Orchestra in China. As an orchestra musician, Fan has performed with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, the National Taiwan Symphony, Contemporary Chamber Orchestra Taipei, Yellow River Symphony of China, and many ensembles throughout Central Indiana.
Besides performing, Fan is also a sought-after teacher in and outside the U.S. Selected by the Arpas sin Fronteras (“Harps Without Frontiers”), an interview series compiled by the National University of the Arts in Argentina, she was interviewed as one of the world-renowned harp professors of the most recognized and prestigious conservatories and universities of the world. In 2017, Fan was invited as the advisor for the Central Illinois Roslyn Rensch Chapter’s Auditions and Evaluations, a two-part program focusing on the improvement by participating in two events sponsored by the American Harp Society. As a harp scholar, Fan is the first person to publish an in-depth analysis on the New Method for the Harp by the early 19th-century English harp virtuoso Elias Parish Alvars, which was published in the 2011 winter issue of the American Harp Journal. She has also been elected as a member to Pi Kappa Lambda, the National Music Honor Society, and classified by the US Government as an Alien of Extraordinary Abilities in the Arts.
Fan has served on the judging panels for the 2007 National Harp Competition in Taiwan, the 2008 and 2012 Young Artist’s Harp Competition in Rabun Gap, Georgia, the FY2012 Individual Artist Program of the Indiana Arts Commission, the 2013 Indianapolis Matinee Musicale Collegiate Scholarship Competition, the 2016 International Harp Competition in Mexico, the 2019 Indiana University Harp Concerto Competition, and the 2021 Kansas City Lyra Chapter Harp Competition. She has also served as Chair/MC for the panel discussion with jury members at the 2017 International Harp Competition and Festival of Mexico. Fan currently serves on the Board of Directors of the prestigious USA International Harp Competition.
Fan has received her bachelor’s degree with highest distinction in both harp and piano from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music of Griffith University in Australia, and her master’s degree, Artist Diploma, and Doctor of Music in harp performance from Indiana University under the tutelage of Distinguished Professor Susann McDonald