Rosanna Chiu studied harp with Alys Howe and Elizabeth Volpé Bligh in Vancouver, and with Ina Zdorovetchi at the New England Conservatory (Boston, MA) on harp performance and David Zoffer on jazz and improvisation. Since her graduation, she has worked with orchestras including Vancouver Island Symphony, Vancouver Opera Orchestra, Okanagan Symphony Orchestra and West Coast Symphony, teaches harp for children and adults, and freelances throughout BC.
For her harp teaching, Rosanna focuses on techniques and how good postures can facilitate the tone quality when producing sound. Her teaching is customized to her students needs and she believes it is important to cultivate students’ solo repertoire, as well as to explore the student’s other areas of musical development, including chamber music with harp and other instruments, orchestral training and harp composition. Rosanna’s students regularly participate at various music festivals and have won competitions including the Kiwanis Music Festival, KPU International Music Festival, The Hong Kong International Harp Competition and Artist of the Year at the Online Global Great Composers Competition. They have participated in masterclasses with local and international harp masters. Some students have joined community orchestras such as Vancouver Pop Orchestra and Surrey Youth Orchestra. She also organizes non-competitive performance opportunities, for example at Vancouver Harp Day and senior homes. To motivate her students to explore their creativity, in 2020 Rosanna published her student’s compositions and organized a fund-raising concert for BC Children’s Hospital Foundation to raise awareness on harp and to help other children.
Rosanna Chiu is Director-at-Large for the American Harp Society and Board of Directors for West Coast Harp Society. She has given interviews and performances at Fairchild Radio and other media to promote harp education. Rosanna also gives regular composer /orchestration workshops at the Vancouver Academy of Music.