Krysten Keches, harpist
Massachusetts native Krysten Keches has been called an “excellent young soloist” by the Boston Globe. She began harp lessons at age four with Elizabeth Morse and has since appeared as a solo, chamber, and orchestral musician at venues throughout the United States and overseas, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Royal Albert Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, Teatro alla Scala, the Gewandhaus, and Boston’s Symphony Hall.
An avid orchestral musician, Ms. Keches performs regularly as a guest harpist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops. She has toured with the BSO domestically and throughout Europe, and she played on the orchestra’s Grammy-award-winning live album Shostakovich Under Stalin’s Shadow. She is the principal harpist of Boston Festival Orchestra and the Boston-based chamber orchestra Phoenix. She has also performed with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston Ballet Orchestra, Odyssey Opera, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, and the New World Symphony.
Ms. Keches's recent solo performances include Debussy's Danses sacrée et profane with Boston Festival Orchestra and Ginastera’s Harp Concerto with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Berkshire Symphony. She has also appeared as a soloist with the New England String Ensemble, Mistral Chamber Players, the Australian National University School of Music Orchestra, and the Wellesley Symphony. Additionally, Ms. Keches has been a prizewinner in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, New England Philharmonic, and New England Conservatory concerto competitions, and she was invited to play alongside Yo-Yo Ma and members of the Silk Road Ensemble to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In 2010, Ms. Keches won a U.S. Fulbright Scholarship to study with renowned harpist Alice Giles at the Australian National University School of Music, where she earned a Graduate Diploma with high distinction. While in Australia, she performed as a soloist at Canberra’s Llewellyn Hall and was also broadcast in recital on ArtSound FM.
Ms. Keches graduated cum laude with a B.A. in art history from Harvard, where she continued her training with Elizabeth Morse. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra Foundation. A recipient of the Scovell Family Scholarship, Ms. Keches completed her M.M. at New England Conservatory, where she studied with Boston Symphony Orchestra harpist Jessica Zhou.