BEHIND THE MUSIC OF

KARI NOVILLA

Past. Present. Future.

Kari Novilla began her musical studies with the violin at age four, adding the harp at the age of seven, studying with William Lovelace (past president of the American Harp Society). At the age of ten, Kari made her solo concert debut opening for renowned German concert pianist, Uwe Romeike.

Kari served as Principal Harpist with the Oak Ridge Philharmonia from 2014-2017 and the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra from 2011-2017, and was a winner of the KSYO Concerto Competition in 2016 - which led to a solo performance with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. In the summers of 2016 and 2017, Kari was invited to study with Allison Allport at Idyllwild Arts Academy with a full scholarship, where she played under the baton of Maestro Larry Livingston, Joshua Roach, and Sey Ahn in the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. 

Other orchestral experience includes performing with the University of Tennessee Symphony Orchestra, University of Tennessee Chamber Orchestra, Johnson City Symphony, Carson Newman University Wind Ensemble and the TMEA Honors Symphony Orchestra 2014, 2016-2017, performing with such conductors as Giancarlo Guerrero and James Fellenbaum.

Kari is the recipient of The Knoxville Choral Society Classical Musician's Award, The Rose Center Council for the Arts Bravo Award, and The Tuesday Morning Musical Club Instrumental Award. She was also selected to participate in the Kennedy Center/National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) National Trustees Summer Music Institute (SMI) July 2018, in Washington, D.C. 

While there, she was one of two winners of the concerto competition, out of 36 entries of the finest high school and college musicians in the country.

She was a featured soloist at the Kennedy Center concert on July 29, performing the first movement of Reinhold Gliere’s Concerto for Harp and Orchestra in E flat major.

Kari has completed her first two years at Indiana University with highest academic honors. As a full scholarship Barbara and David Jacobs Scholar, Founders Scholar, and Dean’s Scholar recipient in the Hutton Honors College, Kari currently studies with Elzbieta Szmyt, Chair of the Harp Department at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She has been selected for a paid internship as the 2018-19 Communications and Marketing Specialist for Project Jumpstart, a student-led initiative that catalyzes innovation and entrepreneurial activity in the Jacobs School of Music. In addition to solo concert and orchestral engagements, Kari continues to perform for weddings, worship services, and other civic events around her East Tennessee home during the summer.