Rebekah Hou, harpist

REBEKAH HOU is a classical harpist based in Northeast Ohio. She has acquired several notable awards including the first prize of the Mid-Atlantic Symphony’s 2024 Elizabeth Loker Concerto Competition in Easton, Maryland, winner of the 2023 Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) Concerto Competition, and winner of the 2022 Anne Adams Award from the American Harp Society’s National Foundation competitions. She has performed as a featured soloist with the Asheville Symphony Orchestra, Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, the CIM Orchestra, and the National Repertory Orchestra.

As an orchestral musician, Rebekah has appeared as guest principal harpist of several orchestras in the Northeast Ohio area and in the United States including the Baltimore Symphony, New World Symphony, the Erie Philharmonic, and the Akron Symphony Orchestra. This past summer took her to Breckenridge, Colorado, where she was the resident principal harpist and a soloist of the National Repertory Orchestra. She has also received fellowships from Round Top Orchestral Institute, Chautauqua Festival, Interlochen Arts Camp’s World Youth Symphony Orchestra, and Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra of the United States (NYO-USA). Most notable orchestral performances were from the NYO-USA 2019 American and European tour, which was directed by Sir Antonio Pappano and joined by guest artists Joyce DiDonato and Isabelle Leonard. Highlights of the tour included Carnegie Hall in New York, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, Usher Hall in Edinburgh, Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms, the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Both her orchestral and solo performances have included collaborations with acclaimed conductors including Leonard Slatkin, Michael Stern, Matthias Pintscher, Jason Seber, Darko Butorac, Kazem Abdullah, Michael Repper, Robert Moody, Larry Rachleff, Karina Canellakis, JoAnn Falletta, and Brett Mitchell.

Rebekah completed both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in harp performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of Yolanda Kondonassis, graduating with honors and receiving the Alice Chalifoux Prize in Harp. She also attended the Interlochen Arts Academy as a student of Joan Raeburn Holland, receiving both the Orchestral Fellowship and the Fine Arts Award for Harp.