Netherlands-based Harpist Ian McVoy was born in the United States, where he began his harp studies.  By the age of sixteen, Ian took the gold medal in the third Mexico International Harp Competition of 2012, and he would make his début in that same year at the National Palace of Mexico in Mexico City.  Soon after, he relocated to France to pursue his studies.  Since then, he has studied at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels, the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon, and most recently at the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague, where he was the recipient of the Keep an Eye Talent Award in 2020.  Today Ian is dedicated to expanding the harp’s repertoire, through transcriptions of pieces written for other instruments, as well as looking to jazz and world music to enrich his repertoire.

Ian’s interest in transcription has led him to adapt many of the most important pieces for piano and guitar for the harp, many of which are available for purchase here.

Ian is also an avid collector and restorer of historical harps. As a graduate student at the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague, he completed his Masters thesis on the subject of American harp building in the late 19th and early 2oth centuries, a subject which he continues to research. He maintains a collection of almost 20 historical instruments, on which he performs and records regularly. For information about historical harps, or for a restoration consultation, please find contact information under the contact page of this site.