Tjasha Gafner

Tjasha Gafner, harpist born in 1999 in Switzerland, graduated from the Juilliard School in New York under the guidance of Nancy Allen. She earned a Master Soloist degree as well under Letizia Belmondo at the Haute Ecole de Musique in Lausanne. In September 2023, Tjasha won the 1st prize and the audience prize at the prestigious ARD Competition in Munich. She holds more than 20 awards and has won 1st prizes at competitions such as the Suoni d'Arpa (Italy, 2014) and the Martine Géliot Competition (France, 2016). In 2021, she was awarded "Soloist 2022" at the MFP (Médias Francophones Publics) Competition, won the Max D. Jost Prize, and received the Leenaards Cultural Grant. In 2023, she was recognised as one of the 30 influential personalities under 30 in Germany by Die Zeit.

Since the age of 10, Tjasha has regularly performed in recitals across Europe. She has been invited to perform as a soloist with orchestras including the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, the Ensemble des Jeunes Virtuoses de New York and the London Mozart Players.She has been featured on Swiss Radio and Television, and recorded her first CD at the age of 18. In 2022, she conducted her first masterclass during a solo tour in Argentina. In 2023, she travelled to Congo to perform, teach, and build instruments from waste.

She contributes to expanding the harp repertoire by creating her own transcriptions and collaborating with composers such as Heinz Holliger, Ziyi Tao, Jake Safirstein, and Laurent Coulomb, who have dedicated works to her.