Harpist, Composer, Interdisciplinary Artist

Renée Qin is a Canadian harpist, composer, and interdisciplinary artist whose performances bring classical technique into dialogue with evolving visual and technological worlds. Renée creates programs where sound, visuals, and presence gradually reveal a shared narrative.

Renée has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician at venues including Carnegie Hall, Bing Concert Hall, and the Curtis Institute of Music’s Field Concert Hall, with additional performances in the United States and Canada. Named one of CBC Music’s “30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30” (2024), she is equally at home in traditional repertoire and new works, performing concertos by Handel, Mozart, and Baker alongside new works written for her by contemporary composers, realized through recordings and digital releases.

Central to Renée’s artistry is the belief that listening can be participatory. Recent projects invite audiences to shape the unfolding performance through light, spoken input, or touch. In Polar Night, concertgoers influence music texture and color using the glow of their phones; in The World We Speak Into Being, an AI-assisted soundscape grows from words offered by the audience; and in Beneath the Waves, Beyond the Stars, the harp becomes the emotional anchor of an immersive audiovisual environment. These works have been presented in concert halls and community spaces, reflecting her conviction that contemporary music can live fluidly across contexts.

An avid collaborator, Renée is the artistic director of Sound Palette, an interdisciplinary project that bridges contemporary music, visual media, and emerging technologies. Under her direction, the project has developed community concerts, library series, and educational public-engagement initiatives that introduce new audiences to the harp and chamber music through interactive experiences. The project has been supported by cultural organizations in California, including InterMusic SF.

Her recent international appearances include performances of her original multimedia work Beneath the Waves, Beyond the Stars at TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht (2026), and as performer–composer at One Harp World in Toronto (2026), where she is also featured in the Gala Opening Concert alongside leading Canadian harpists.

Renée holds an Artist Diploma from OAcademy and is an alumna of the Curtis Institute of Music’s Summerfest Harp Colony and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestral Institute. She earned a B.A. with Distinction and Honors in Music and Economics from Stanford University, with graduate study in Computer Science. These intersecting paths have shaped a practice that connects classical musicianship with technological imagination, leading her to create performances in which the harp meets design, data, and human presence.

She has been a Fellow of the Orchestra of the Americas and participated in the ensemble’s artist residency in Mexico (2025), performing and collaborating with an international roster of musicians.

Renée Qin now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. When not in concert, she can often be found exploring how new technologies can reshape and amplify musical expression. For Renée, the harp remains a point of departure, the voice through which she shapes her artistic world. 

Ania Filochowska is a concert violinist and creative strategist dedicated to expanding how people experience music. A graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, and formerly a member of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Karajan-Akademie, she has performed across five continents and led orchestras as concertmaster on international stages.

Ania has collaborated with an eclectic group of artists, including Chris Botti, Jacob Collier, Bobby McFerrin, Itzhak Perlman, Charlie Puth, Sting, and John Williams, embracing music-making that blurs genres and invites collective expression. With the Berliner Philharmoniker, she performed and toured under legendary conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Simon Rattle, Herbert Blomstedt, Zubin Mehta, Daniel Barenboim, and others.

Alongside her performance life, Ania works as a technology consultant, holding an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. Through Sound Palette, she creates interactive, multimedia concert experiences where audiences are not only listeners but co-creators.