About

As an advocate for new music, Angela has worked on commissioning projects with many prominent composers. Her debut album, detach, of all Canadian new music won a 2020 JUNO award for Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber, and is regularly played on CBC radio. detach, features several new Canadian commissions by composers Monica Pearce, Elisha Denburg, Kevin Lau, and Mark Nerenberg. She has received grants from the American Harp Society for commissioning new works and a grant from the Ontario Arts Council for her recording project. In the spring of 2022 Topaz Duo released their debut recording, lumena, in featuring works by living North American composers including a new commission by Kevin Lau. The recording has since been met with praise and is played regularly on CBC radio. They received grants from both FACTOR Canada and the Ontario Arts Council for this project. Angela’s past collaborations with organizations like the Caution Tape Sound Collective and the Toy Piano Composers have yielded several new harp solo and chamber works for harp. Angela continues to actively support Canadian new music giving presentations on writing for the harp to different organizations including the Canadian League of Composers.

Angela is an instructor at the University of Toronto and the Glenn Gould School of Music. During the summer she is on faculty at the internationally renowned Young Artist’s Harp Seminar in the US. Angela maintains a thriving studio of private students in Toronto. Angela is the newly appointed harp examiner with the Royal Conservatory College of Examiners. Recently, Angela has given masterclasses and presentations at several institutions including the University of Arizona and Sam Houston State University. As a juror, she has adjudicated for recitals, juries, chamber music, orchestral exams, and auditions of all kinds. Most recently she has adjudicated for the National Arts Centre Orchestra Bursary Competition, the Kiwanis Music Festival, the University of Toronto, the Glenn Gould School, and at the Young Artist’s Harp Seminar Competition.

A frequent contributor to the international publication Harp Column, Angela also served on the editorial board of The American Harp Journal 2018-2022. An extract of her doctoral dissertation was published in the 2016 summer edition of The American Harp Journal. During the summer of 2016 Angela presented her research at the American Harp Society National Conference in Atlanta. In 2019 and 2022 she was invited to perform recitals and speak on a panel discussion at the American Harp Society Summer Institute and Conferences. After serving as President of the Toronto Chapter of the American Harp Society from 2012-2018, she now serves as President and Director at Large for the American Harp Society. Angela Schwarzkopf received a Bachelor of Music in harp performance from the University of Ottawa in 2007; a Master of Music in harp performance from the University of Toronto in 2009; and a Doctorate of Music in harp performance from the University of Toronto in 2015.