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The American harpist, Victoria Drake, is a multi-faceted artist with a career that stretches the boundaries of music for the harp. She now lives in New York City where she works as a free-lance musician. She has performed as concerto soloist with over a dozen notable orchestras in the New York area, many with repeat appearances, including the Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York, Concordia Orchestra, American Classical Orchestra, Westfield Symphony, Connecticut Orchestra at Harkness, and at the Vermont Mozart Festival. As recital soloist, she has appeared in series across the country, from Los Angeles to New York City, as well as in Israel and France. She also performs in a duo with flutist David Fedele.
Victoria Drake performs in several New York orchestras, including the American Symphony Orchestra, New York City Ballet, New York City Opera, Orchestra of St. Luke's, American Ballet Theatre, Orpheus, the Brooklyn Philharmonic and has worked with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta. She has performed at the Aspen, Banff, Bard, Cabrillo, Caramoor, Fontainebleau, Waterloo, Cape May, and Vermont Mozart Festivals. She has played with Summer Music in Connecticut, the Berkshire Opera Company and was featured soloist at L’Association des Rencontres Culturelles d’Orbec in France in 1999. She performed and recorded Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Sir Georg Solti on London/Decca. She has recorded chamber music for the ESS.A.Y, CRI, Spectrum, Well-Tempered, Arabesque, MSR Classics and Koch International labels. Recent performances and recordings in contemporary chamber music includes works of Osvaldo Golijov, Susan Botti, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Lowell Liebermann, Michael Kamen, Harvey Burgett, Michael Cohen, Laurence Rosenthal, Jeffrey Mumford, Bun-Ching Lam, Zhou Long, and Chou Wen-Chung.
Victoria Drake's interest in expanding the harp repertoire has led to three solo recordings on the Well-Tempered Productions label: Harping on Bach (keyboard and lute works of J.S. Bach); the critically acclaimed Scarlatti's Harp (keyboard works of Domenico Scarlatti); and Spanish Gold (harp works and piano and guitar transcriptions of Spanish composers). She has recorded Frank Martin's Petite Symphonie Concertante with Anthony Newman and Philharmonia Virtuosi, and the Mozart Concerto for Flute and Harp on period instruments with Sandra Miller and the Orchestra of the Old Fairfield Academy (now the American Classical Orchestra). She is currently preparing a fourth solo CD.
Victoria Drake has toured Japan repeatedly with the New York Pops Orchestra and can be heard on several soundtracks and many commercials. She has performed and recorded for many stars such as Tony Bennett, Luciano Pavarotti, Kathleen Battle, Dave Brubeck, Branford Marsalis, Paquito d'Rivera, Victoria Clark, Audra McDonald, Dawn Upshaw, Celine Dion, Mary J. Blige, Johnny Mathis, Barry Manilow, Luther Vandross and Aretha Franklin. She recently played in the orchestra for the new Tony-winning Broadway show The Light in the Piazza at Lincoln Center. She was also in the Tony Award-winning revivals of 42nd Street and The King and I, as well as many performances of The Music Man, Ragtime, 1776, and Peter Pan. |
