Eleanor Kirk is an experienced orchestral, chamber, and solo musician from Evanston, Illinois. She served as guest principal harp with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra for the 2022-2023 season, and holds the position of Principal Harpist with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra and Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra. Eleanor served as the Principal Harpist with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago from 2018-2022, and has frequently performed as a guest with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. Season highlights from the past year include solo appearances on the Rush Hour, Musicians Club of Women Artists in Recital, and Dame Myra Hess concert series. Eleanor performed as a concerto soloist with the Bach Week Festival Orchestra and the Illinois Symphony Orchestra in their 2021 seasons.

With degrees from Columbia University, and Chicago College of Performing Arts, Eleanor is a dedicated educator, serving as harp faculty at the Peoples Music School and the Young Artist’s Harp Seminar. Her students have received top honors at the Greater Chicago Chapter of the American Harp Society Competition, the Illinois American String Teachers Association Concerto Competition, and the Midwest Harp Festival Competition.

Eleanor is a founding member of 5th Wave Collective, a Chicago based classical music ensemble dedicated to the performance and promotion of music by womxn, where she works as development director.

Canadian harpist, Phoebe Powell, is the newly appointed Principal Harpist of the Sarasota Orchestra. She has been praised for her breadth of expression ranging from “mature and virtuosic to gorgeously musical and sweet”. Ms. Powell previously held the principal harp position with the New World Symphony Orchestra in Miami Beach, FL (2020-2023). As an orchestral musician, Phoebe has performed extensively with some of the top orchestras in North America including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra.

Ms. Powell is an active participant in summer festivals, performing as Principal Harpist with the Sun Valley Music Festival (Idaho), and has previously been a fellow at the Aspen Summer Music Festival (Colorado), Spoleto Festival USA, NYO Canada, and Ticino Musica (Lugano, Switzerland). In 2018, Phoebe won the second prize for the OSM Manulife Competition in Montreal (Canada), and was also awarded the Aspen Summer Music Festival scholarship. She has also been the recipient of the Ihnatowycz Emerging Artist Scholarship, NYO Canada Award of Excellence, and an Alberta Foundation for the Arts Career Development Grant.

Phoebe holds a Bachelor of Music degree and an Artist Diploma from The Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory of Music, in Toronto, Canada where she studied with world-renowned harpists, Judy Loman and Heidi Bearcroft.