Diana Rowan

Diana Rowan (born 26 January 1971 in Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish harpist and pianist. She specializes in lever harp, concertizing, lecturing, teaching and recording worldwide. She currently splits her time between San Francisco, California and Eastern Europe, pursuing a PhD in Harp Composition at the National Academy of Music in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Rowan was born to Belfast-bred parents while they were students at Trinity College, Dublin. Upon graduation, her father John Rowan joined the Irish Foreign Service as a diplomat.

Her mother Phyllis (McCrory) Rowan is a pianist and childhood music educator, and arranged piano lessons for her daughter. Rowan was noticed by Robert Redaelli, the head of the music conservatory she attended in Brussels, Belgium, and he would occasionally teach Rowan himself in addition to her regular teacher Greek-born Mina Papamanolis. Later, Tchaikovsky prizewinner Roy Bogas would be her piano teacher at Holy Names University in Oakland, California, where she gained an MM in Piano Performance; Israeli Harp Competition winner Alice Giles of Australia would become her harp mentor; andalkan singing maestra Bon (Brown) Singer of Kitka would become her Eastern European and Sephardic music mentor, as well as the instigator of the concert where Rowan discovered the potential of the harp.

Rowan's work is influenced primarily by Bach, Debussy, Poulenc, Bartók, and Celtic, Balkan, Middle Eastern and Hindustani styles. Her compositions are inspired by Irish poet Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Greek poet Odysseas Elytis, and English/US poet W.H. Auden, among others, as well as Celtic and Greek myths. Recent travels in Southeast Asia have made an impact on her latest compositions.

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