About Katherine Harris - katherinerharris[at]yahoo.com

Katherine was born June 18, 1989. She moved to Russia with her family when she was five years old. She began to seriously study music at six, when she auditioned and was accepted into the Higher School of Music in Yakutsk, Siberia, a government-sponsored school for gifted children. In Yakutsk, Katherine studied piano with Valentina Larionova, a graduate of the Novosibirsk Conservatory of Music.

From 2000-2004, she studied music at the Okhtinski Lyceum of the Arts in St. Petersburg, taking classes in piano, organ, choir, solfeggio, theory, music history, music literature, and harmony. Her piano teacher there, Natalya Reznik, was a graduate of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory of Music.

At 15 years old, Katherine received a Piano Merit Scholarship for full tuition at Azusa Pacific University in the Los Angeles area and was also accepted into the Honors Program. She is currently studying piano there with Roza Kostrzewska Yoder.

Katherine has successfully competed in various competitions at the regional, national, and international levels in five countries since she was nine years old:

1998 – Yakutsk, Siberia – third place for her age group and special prize for her outstanding performance of the required piece in the Republic of Yakutia Competition for Young Pianists.

1999 – South Carolina, USA – South Carolina Piano Festival Association State Competition. First place and a performance broadcast on state-wide educational television.

2000 – Saint Petersburg, Russia – third place in Tradition and Modernity, an ensemble competition.

2001 – Sebastopol, Ukraine – third place in the international competition Blue Birds.

2001 – Quebec City, Canada – third place in the Canadian Music Competition.

2002 – Belarus – second place in the Gatchina-Polotsk International Organ Competition

2003 – Velikiy Novgorod, Russia – finalist diploma and special prize for the best performance of polyphony in the Rachmaninoff Competition for Young Pianists.

2004 – Winner of the InternationalPiano Symposium Concerto Competition in the Los Angeles area

2004 – Los Angeles International Liszt Competition – first prize in her age group and a special prize for the best performance of a Hungarian Rhapsody. Featured performer at the Liszt Festival in Lincoln, NB.

2005 – Azusa Pacific University Concerto Competition – first prize ($1000 tuition grant) and a performance of Rachmaninoff’s First Piano Concerto with the APU Orchestra on October 25, 2005.

2005 – San Jose, CA – International Russian Music Piano Competition – second place and Grand Public Prize.

2005 – Palos Verdes, CA – Featured performer at the Young Artist Peninsula Music Festival.

2005 – Southwestern Youth Music Festival – two first places (Chopin Scherzo and Piano Duo categories).

2005 – Pasadena MTAC Russian Festival – first place

2005 – Southern California Jr. Bach Festival – first place

2005 – MTNA California State Competition – honorable mention

2006 – Gail Newby Concerto Competition (Antelope Valley Symphony Orchestra) – third place (Judge’s Award)

In the last two years, Katherine has performed in Master Classes with pianists Pavel Nersessian, Dina Joffe, Alexander Slobodyanik, Yevgeny Mikhailov, Jane Bastien, and Eteri Andjaparidze.