La Fête Française

Harpist Franziska Huhn is a vibrant musical force as a soloist, chamber musician, pedagogue and orchestral performer. Ms. Huhn has given solo recitals throughout the United States and worldwide in Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Turkey, Georgia, Russia, Syria, Pakistan and Germany, including performances for German Presidents Johannes Rau and Horst Koehler at Schloss Bellevue. Ms. Huhn has been featured in recital on WGBH’s “Live from Studio 1” and as part of New England Conservatory’s First Mondays performance series. In 2007 Ms. Huhn’s recording Harp Solo was released and features both contemporary and classical works for harp. 

A 2003 Fromm Fellow, Ms. Huhn is known as a proponent of contemporary music for harp and performs works written especially for her by composers Daniel Pinkham, Lior Navok, and John Heiss. Ms. Huhn plays as part of contemporary chamber ensembles Callithumpian Consort, Collage New Music and Sound Icon. Since 2007 Ms. Huhn has served as a performer and coach at the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP) at New England Conservatory. 

Ms. Huhn performs as part of harp and flute ensemble Duo Elysee based in Berlin, Germany. She has also performed as a substitute harpist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as well as in orchestral positions with the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, and the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. 

As a pedagogue Ms. Huhn holds faculty positions at New England Conservatory, Boston University, Longy School of Music of Bard College, and Wheaton College. Since 2003, Ms. Huhn has been the Assistant Director of the Harp Seminar at Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute and has served on the faculty of the Connecticut Valley Harp Intensive since 2012. 

Ms. Huhn established herself as an artist of distinction at a very young age, earning first prize in the prestigious Jugend Musiziert Competition in Germany at the age of fourteen. She was then invited to study on a full scholarship with Lucile Lawrence at Boston University and then continued her harp studies with Ann Hobson Pilot at New England Conservatory, where she became the first ever harpist to be awarded the Artist Diploma by the Conservatory in 2005. In 2007, she received an Artist Diploma from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg, Germany.

William Kirkley is in demand as an orchestral musician, recitalist, and chamber performer, and his playing has been labeled “emotional, committed, and intensely exciting” by the Boston Globe. The Boston Musical Intelligencer called him “a musician in total command of his instrument.”

Bill’s orchestral playing has been heard in some of the world’s great concert halls, including Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall in New York, Symphony Hall Boston, Orchestra Hall Chicago, the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal Festival Hall in London. He is principal clarinetist and one of the founders of the Lexington Symphony, principal clarinetist of Cape Ann Symphony, solo bass clarinetist with Orchestra of Indian Hill and the Albany Symphony. As a guest clarinetist, he can often be heard performing with the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, Boston Ballet, and City Ballet in NYC.

Bill is sought out as a concerto soloist and has been featured with the North Arkansas Symphony, Mesquite Symphony, North Shore Philharmonic, Gordon Symphony, Cape Ann Symphony, and the Lexington Symphony. He has recorded extensively on such labels as CRI, SEAMUS, New World, Albany, Naxos, and Centaur. His playing has been heard on WGBH Boston and the BBC from London. If you play SimCity BuildIt! you’ve heard his playing behind the game.

A performer dedicated to educating, Bill has served on the music faculties of University of Southwestern Louisiana, Brandeis University, UMass Boston, and is currently on the music faculties of Gordon College, Berklee College of Music, the College of the Holy Cross, and Indian Hill Music. Bill attended the University of Arkansas, Northwestern University and Southern Methodist University, where his major teachers were Robert Marcellus, Anthony Gigliotti, and Robert Umiker.

Bill is an avid lover of the outdoors, and lives in New Hampshire with his adorable Scottie Dogs.

“Supple and riveting…. elegant and adroit playing…dazzling” (Worcester Telegram) eloquently describes the playing of Tracy Kraus. She has performed throughout Europe and the United States and participated in the Aspen and Tanglewood festivals. Her love of the Northern California coast led her to her current orchestral tenure with the Mendocino Music Festival.  In 1982 Ms. Kraus founded the Abbot Chamber Players and quickly discovered her passion for the genre and organization management. Ms. Kraus is a co-founder and Executive Director of the Worcester Chamber Music Society and has led the group through a significant stage of growth and success.

Tracy is a graduate of Clark University and the Boston Conservatory and studied with flute masters Louis Moyse, Trevor Wye, Leone Buyse, and Geoffrey Gilbert.