About Me
Alina Bzhezhinska is an international harpist and teacher based in Edinburgh. Her diversified repertoire includes classical, folk and jazz music. She arranges and composes jazz music for harp and has been inspired into making numerous arrangements for the clarsach.Alina has been tutored by some of the very best teachers in Europe. She studied classical music with Prof. Ursula Mazurek in Poland, and Prof. Helga Storck in Germany, and then studied jazz with Dr Carrol McLaughlin in Arizona. She has also attended several master classes with, most notably, Isabelle Moretti, Kumiko Inoue, and jazz harpist Park Stickney.Educationally, Alina has achieved a Masters Degree in Art from the F. Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, Poland and a Masters Degree in Classical and Jazz Harp from the University of Arizona in the United States.She has performed with some major orchestras in Europe. Early in her career she played with the Young World Symphony Orchestra and, later, with the Young German Philharmonic orchestra, touring Germany and Italy. After achieving her first Masters degree, Alina was a harpist with the National Opera in Warsaw and the Poznan Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra in Poland.When she was in the USA, Alina was a member of Harp Fusion, one of the largest harp ensembles in the world. In that time, she composed numerous pieces for the ensemble, toured with them around Europe and the USA, and recorded a CD and DVD.Alina is now actively involved in promoting harp music in the UK and abroad. She has opened her harp studio and has formed harp ensemble 'Harp Angels', who have already appeared in several concert programs, including performing in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2003 and 2004. Alina also worked with the Scottish Opera in 2003 for a formidable project of Wagner’s Ring Cycle that was performed in the Edinburgh Festival. Her recently established Amadeus Duo, Alina Bzhezhinska (Harp) & Margaret Preston (Flute), has been giving regular performances to great critical acclaim. She is currently a guest harpist for the Aberdeen Sinfonietta, and teaches both lever harp (clarsach) and pedal harp in Loretto School in Musselburgh.Despite a hectic schedule of performances and teaching, Alina has started her own Record Label “Amadeus Records†and her new solo CD was released in April 2005 and has featured on Classic FM.
