Praised by The New York Times as a “brilliant harpist,” the harp sounds like never before when Remy van Kesteren(1989) plays. When Remy was five years old and was enchanted by the sound of the instrument in a garden, he immediately knew that this was it.
He developed into an internationally renowned harpist, winning numerous awards and competitions, including the world’s largest international harp competition in the United States in 2013. He has performed in concert halls across the globe. But when Remy turned 25, he realized: This is not it. Not anymore. Not completely.
This realization led to Tomorrow Eyes in 2016, the genre-crossing album featuring several compositions by Remy himself, released by Universal Music/Deutsche Grammophon—the same year he won the Dutch Music Prize. He transitioned from playing with world-famous orchestras to performing in clubs and at pop festivals—solo, with his band, and with his Analogue Robot Orchestra. His goal was to find the limits of his instrument and then push beyond them.
That’s why he is the only person in the world with a custom-designed and specially crafted harp with 49 strings, the Salvi Réus, co-designed by him and funded by the National Musical Instruments Fund. He also modified other technical aspects of the harp so innovatively that harp maker Salvi has now incorporated many of these changes into the latest concert harps.
Additionally, together with instrument maker Joris Beets, he developed a new, more accessible harp—the Harp-E, specially designed for the children of the Leerorkest (a music education program). Already, 300 of these harps have been crowdfunded, but the instrument is available to anyone looking for a more affordable option. People can order a self-assembly kit, building this ‘IKEA harp’ themselves with just an Allen key.
