About
Described as “an artist with powerful expression” by the Diario Vasco (Spain) and as “a sensitive chamber musician as well as a virtuoso soloist” by the NY Concert Review (USA), Irantzu Agirre has performed as a soloist at the Las Rozas Auditorium and Casa de las Américas in Madrid, the San Sebastian International Music Festival, the Spoleto Due Mundi Music Festival in Italy, the International Music Festival of Santander in Spain, at the Weill Hall of Carnegie Hall in NYC presented by Artits International and sponsored by the Basque Government & the Spanish Consulate as well as at the Alice Tully Hall, Columbia University and The Carriage House in New York, at the 5th RioHarp Festival in Brazil, at the Contemporary Art Museum in Spain and the Bath Fringe Festival in the UK.
Originally from the Basque Country, Spain, Irantzu studied at the Reina Sofia Superior Music Conservatory in Madrid, at The Juilliard School (Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees) and New York University (Advance Certificate in Music Education). International prizes include: Best New Artist of the Year by Cultura Viva Association in Spain, First Prize at the Superior Category of the UFAM International Harp Competition in France and First Prize at the Artist International Special Presentations Awards in New York City. She was a Fulbright Grantee, a “Bizkaiko Foru Aldundia” Scholarship winner, and the only harpist to win the Nicanor Zabaleta Scholarship. During her years as a Fulbright Grantee, Irantzu performed for the former Secretary - General of the United Nations Kofi Annan at the Plaza Hotel in NYC. Irantzu is currently pursuing a PhD in Musicology at the Valladolid University, Spain.
Miss Agirre started playing in professional orchestras at the age of sixteen, and since then she has performed with the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Basque Country Symphony, Millenium Orchestra, Galician Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philarmonic of Santiago de Compostela and the A Coruña & Santiago Music Bands in Spain, the Philarmonia of the Nations, the Riverside Symphony, Middletown Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival Orchestra & Tanglewood Music Festival Orchestra in the USA, the Due Mundi Music Festival of Spoleto in Italy, the Freixenet Orchestra in France as well as the Opera Piccolina, North London Sinfonia, the Watford Symphony Orchestra, the London Video Game Orchestra, Opera Up Close and the Guernsey Symphony Orchestra in the UK. She has performed under the baton of J. Adams, M. Alsop, V. Askhenazy, J. López Cobos, S. Comissiona, J. Conlon, J. Depriest, C. Dutoit, M. Harth- Bedoya, K. Masur, D. Mason, J. Mena, O. Werner Müller, P. Oudjian, V. Pablo, J. Rudel, J. Sachs, G. Schwarz and A. Zedda to name a few. Immersed in the Musical Theatre tradition of NYC, Irantzu was the Principal Harpist for Candide by L. Bernstein and Little Night Music by S. Sondheim at the Frederick Loewe Theatre. In the Summer of 2022, Irantzu played Joaquín Rodrigo's " Concierto Serenata for Harp and Orchestra" with the North London Sinfonia in London under the baton of Owen Leech to great success.
As a chamber music player, she has collaborated with Sopranos Dawn Upshaw & Linda Larson, the Mont Claire Ensemble and also musicians of the Azure Ensemble and the Metropolitan Opera House Orchestra performing at various venues in Weill Hall- Carnegie Hall and at the National Flute Convention at the Marriot Hotel in New York City. From 2010 to 2015, she was a member of the Belle Époque Chamber Music Ensemble, a group focused on the repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries, with which she intensively performed in Spain. Nowadays, based in London, Irantzu is a member of the Olyver New Music Collective.