Anna-Maria Ravnopolska-Dean

Anna-Maria Yordanova Ravnopolska-Dean (Bulgarian: Анна-Мария Йорданова Равнополска-Дийн), Sofia, Bulgaria, is a Bulgarian and American harpist, composer, pedagogue, musicologist and TV host.

By a recommendation of Nicanor Zabaleta she was accepted as a student by Italian harpist Liana Pasquali.

After her participations in international competitions, Ravnopolska-Dean was invited to continue her studies by Susann McDonald at Juilliard School, New York and at Indiana University, Bloomington. At the Indiana University School of Music, Anna-Maria was awarded an Artist Diploma for 'Superior Artistic Achievement in Harp Performance'.

When asked about her education as a harpist Ravnopolska-Dean highlights that both of her major professors were students of the French harp school: Liana Pasqualli was a student of Marcel Tournier, while Susann McDonald was a student of Henriette Renie.

Ravnopolska-Dean began her career as a soloist at the international stage in a series of notable international competitions, including those of Gargilesse in Berry, Munich, and Jerusalem, where she was first noticed by renowned names such as Nicanor Zabaleta and Susann McDonald.

During her education in Juilliard School and Indiana University, Bloomington, she was presented on the McGraw-Hill Young Artists Showcase of WXQR radio in New York. The invitation came after a committee from the program recognized her talent in the Artist Diploma recordings at Indiana.

After a competition in 1991 the North Carolina Arts Council appointed her Artist in Residence.

In 1992, Ravnopolska-Dean made her New York début at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. Her repertoire at Carnegie Hall included some rarely performed virtuoso pieces, such as the J. S. Bach violin Partita No. 3. She later debuted in various prestigious halls throughout Europe, among others in Salle Poirel, Nancy and Gasteig, Munich.

Throughout her career she has participated in many World Harp Congresses, including those in Vienna, Copenhagen, Seattle. At the Eighth World Harp Congress, Geneva, she played the first harp in an ensemble of six harps and had a separate solo performance despite suffering partial paralysis of her left hand.

Before being active as a composer, Ravnopolska-Dean arranged various pieces for harp including Isaac Albeniz’s Suita Espanol (1988), Enrique Granados’s Valses Poeticos and Parashkev Hadjiev’s Twelve Pieces in Bulgarian Rhythm (1995).

In 2003, Ravnopolska-Dean wrote her first composition "Improvisation" for solo harp. The piece was influenced by Bulgarian folk music. She was invited as a special guest performer and lecturer at the international folk harp conference HarpCon in Bloomington, Indiana: she was the only classical harpist at the HarpCon program. To honor the conference Ravnopolska-Dean decided to write the piece.

Later she wrote a series of compositions for harp based on Haiku poetry in collaboration with haiku poet Ginka Bilyarska. Follow compositions for harp and voice, harp and flute, piano, piano four hands.

In 2010, string quartet “Hors” performs her first string quartet “Istvan”.

Gradually the focus of her compositions starts to gravitate towards popular genres, as documented by her piano and pieces. Her interest in Jazz manifests itself in her Jazz trio “Just Like This’’ (piano, saxophone and percussions) as well as „Circus“ for Jazz Band, performed by Blagoevgrad Jazz Band.

In 1991, Anna-Maria Ravnopolska-Dean became one of the founders of the American University in Bulgaria. At the university, she is professor of Music and teaches applied courses on the harp and the piano, as well as different theoretical courses on topics such as Latin American and Jazz music.

In her TV shows, besides playing, she also introduced the audience to different aspects of classical music and music periods, such as romanticism.

In 2002 she was awarded a Ph.D. in Music on the dissertation The Harp as A Coloristic Instrument in the beginning of the 20th Century, where among others she explored impressionist composers and their use of the harp

In 2008 students of hers played the full version of the Tchaikovsky seasons for first time on the Balkan Peninsula.

“Modeling orchestration on harp techniques in the works of Wagner, Smetana and Stravinsky,” in “WHC Review”

The Harp in the orchestral works of Bulgarian Composers (1900–1930)

The Harp as a Coloristic Instrument in the Beginning of the Twentieth Century (Original title: Арфата като колористичен инструмент в началото на ХХ век), 200 pp., ISBN 954-90353-9-5, Music Society “Vassil Stefanov”, Sofia 2001

“The Harp as a Coloristic Instrument in the works of Claude Debussy”, In: Musical Horizons, vol. 7 - 8, 2001, 21- 25, 27 - 33.

The turtle’s castle for harp solo, September 2003

Four compositions for harp on Haiku poetry, October 2003

Waltz and Lullaby for piano solo, November 2003

Rap Tango for harp and voice, November 2003

Suite of eight dances: Laendler, Tango, Fandango, Horo, Kazachok, Arabian dance, Pavane, for solo harp, April 2004

Just Like This, Jazz trio for Piano, Saxophone and Percussions