Praised by the press as “a magician” (New York’s WQXR), of “unheard of depth of colors, range of expression and rhetorical flow” (American Record Guide), Sivan Magen is the only Israeli to have ever won the prestigious International Harp Contest in Israel, a recent winner of the Pro Musicis International Award in NY and the 2012 Award Winner of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust.

Recent performances include recitals in NY (Merkin hall, Carnegie’s Weill Hall), London (Wigmore Hall), Amsterdam (Musiekgebouw) and solo appearances in the US, South America, Europe and Israel including the world premiere of Haim Permont's "Aviv" concerto with the Israel Philharmonic. Debut performances for the 2013-14 season will include concerto appearances with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony, and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra at the Vienna Konzerthaus. He has also been invited by Carnegie Hall to return for a recital in fall 2014 to celebrate the American release of his new solo CD for Linn records, Fantasien. This recital will also include the world premiere of the Carnegie Hall commissioned Fantasy for solo harp by emerging American composer Sean Shepherd.

Aside from his growing activity as a soloist, Mr Magen is an avid chamber musician and has appeared in Paris (Salle Gaveau), NY (Allice Tully Hall, the Metropolitan Museum, Bargemusic), with Musicians from Marlboro, and at the Marlboro, Kuhmo, Giverny, and Jerusalem International Chamber Music festivals, collaborating with artists such as Nobuko Imai, Shmuel Ashkenazi, Gary Hoffman, Michel Letiec, Charles Neidich, Carol Wincenc, Emmanuel Pahud, soprano Susanna Phillips and members of the Guarneri and Juilliard Quartets. The 2011-12 season marked the debut of his new trio Tre Voce with flutist Marina Piccinini and violist Kim Kashkashian.

Since January 2007 Mr Magen is a founding member of the Israeli Chamber Project, a group which performs in both outreach venues and major concert halls in Israel and the US, including Enav Center in Tel Aviv, the Embassy Series in Washington D.C. and Carnegie’s Weill Hall, Town Hall, Merkin Hall, Symphony Space, the Morgan Library and Bargemusic in New York City. The ICP is the winner of the 2011 Israeli Ministry of Culture Outstanding Ensemble Award.

This past season were released to great critical acclaim his new CD with the Israeli Chamber Project for Azica Records as well as an all-Britten CD Still Fall the Rain with tenor Nicholas Phan for Avie (listed in the NY Times’ “Best recordings of 2012”). Next season will be released his second solo CD for Linn Records as well as a recording with Trio Tre Voce for ECM. His performance of Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro is featured on Marlboro’s 60th Anniversary CD.

Mr Magen is also gaining a reputation as a sought-after teacher, presenting masterclasses in the US (The Juilliard School, The Curtis Institute, The Peabody Institute, The New England Conservatory, Duquesne University, University of Texas), Colombia, Taiwan and Israel, the Utrecht Conservatory, London’s Guildhall School and Trinity College, the Kuhmo Festival Academy in Finland, and the Jerusalem Music Academy’s International “Music in the Valley” seminar for strings. In addition, he has been invited to serve as member of the jury of the International Harp Contest in Israel, the first Netherlands International Harp Competition, the Lyon& Healy Awards and the 2011 Vera Dulova International Harp Competition in Moscow, and served as Head of the Jury of the 2007 National Harp Contest in Taiwan. He is currently a faculty member at the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music.

Born in Jerusalem, Sivan Magen studied the piano with Benjamin Oren and Talma Cohen and the harp with Irena Kaganovsky-Kessler at the Jerusalem Academy for Music and Dance. After completing his military service as an "Outstanding Musician" in 2001, he continued his studies with Germaine Lorenzini in France and then joined Isabelle Moretti’s harp class at the Paris Conservatory (CNSMDP) from which he graduated with a “Premier Prix”. He has then completed a Master of Music degree as a student of Nancy Allen at the Juilliard School. He currently resides in New York City.

Sivan was a recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Awards from 1995 to 2008.

(from Sivan's web site, 02/2014)