The Kotas Project

Gretchen Van Hoesen is the current principal harpist of the Pittsburgh Symphony, a position that she has held since 1977. Van Hoesen earned both her Bachelor’s and Master’s from the Juilliard School where she studied under Marcel Grandjany and Susann McDonald. Van Hoesen has also held principal positions in the New York Lyric Opera, the New York City Ballet, the National Orchestral Association, the Greenwich Philharmonia, the Pittsburgh Opera and the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, the Spoleto Festival Orchestra (Italy), the Virginia Opera, the Sun Valley Summer Symphony and the Jeunesses Musicales Orchestra (Germany). Van Hoesen currently holds the Virginia Campbell endowed Principal Harp Chair of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

Van Hoesen has soloed with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Orchestral Association, the Greenwich Philharmonia and the Westmoreland Symphony. She also frequently gives recitals in the Pittsburgh Opera and was a soloist at several  American Harp Society National Conferences.

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Van Hoesen currently holds teaching positions at Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne University. She has given masterclasses at Eastman School of Music, The Curtis Institute of Music, Manhattan School of Music, the University of Illinois, the Aspen Music Festival and the National University of the Arts in Seoul, Korea.