Born in Canada, Katrina Szederkényi is an internationally acclaimed harpist, having won numerous prizes at international competitions in Austria, UK, Belgium, Hungary and Russia. Szederkényi started playing the harp at the age of 12, and was accepted for full-time solo instrumental studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria after only four years. In 2013, she graduated with a soloist’s diploma with distinction from the Hochschule für Musik in Frankfurt, Germany, under the tutelage of Prof. Françoise Friedrich.
An active orchestral musician, Szederkényi has performed in numerous notable orchestras, including the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. She has worked with prominent conductors including Perre Boulez, Riccardo Muti, Christian Thielemann, Herbert Blomstedt and Riccardo Chailly. As a chamber musician, she has performed with members of the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Gewandhausorchester.
Szederkényi is also highly active in broadening the harpist’s repertoire, for both soloists and chamber musicians. In 2009, she premiered Poème by Michael Kimbell, a work for violin and harp written for her and Nandor Szederkényi, her father and chamber music partner. Kimbell’s Ballade Arctique, also written for Katrina, was premiered in 2013.