Anna-Maria Ravnopolska-Dean

Before being active as a composer, Ravnopolska-Dean arranged various pieces for harp including Isaac Albeniz’s Suita Espanol (1988), Enrique Granados’s Valses Poeticos and Parashkev Hadjiev’s Twelve Pieces in Bulgarian Rhythm (1995).

Gradually the focus of her compositions starts to gravitate towards popular genres, as documented by her piano and pieces. Her interest in Jazz manifests itself in her Jazz trio “Just Like This’’ (piano, saxophone and percussions) as well as „Circus“ for Jazz Band, performed by Blagoevgrad Jazz Band.

Later she wrote a series of compositions for harp based on Haiku poetry in collaboration with haiku poet Ginka Bilyarska. . Follow compositions for harp and voice, harp and flute, piano, piano four hands. In 2010, string quartet “Hors” performs her first string quartet “Istvan” .

In June 2008, she became the first Bulgarian to perform Carl Reinecke’s Harp Concerto with Vidin Philharmonic and Hans Peter Ochsenhofer. . In addition to her harp performances, Ravnopolska-Dean also has been active as perfomer on piano and Paraguayan Harp. She is among the first, or the first to introduce the instrument to the Eastern European audience. She has also played concerts of her compostions on different celtic harps, the Finnish instrument kantele and piano.

In 2008 students of hers played the full version of the Tchaikovsky seasons for first time on the Balkan peninsula.

Kazachok, Arabian dance, Pavane, for solo harp, April 2004

In 2003, Ravnopolska-Dean wrote her first composition "Improvisation" for solo harp. The piece was influenced by Bulgarian folk music. She was invited as a special guest performer and lecturer at the international folk harp conference HarpCon in Bloomington, Indiana: she was the only classical harpist at the HarpCon program. To honor the conference Ravnopolska-Dean decided to write the piece .

In 2002 she was awarded a Ph. D. in Music on the dissertation The Harp as A Coloristic Instrument in the beginning of the 20th Century, where among others she explored impressionist composers and their use of the harp

In 1992, Ravnopolska-Dean made her New York début at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. Her repertoire at Carnegie Hall included some rarely performed virtuoso pieces, such as the J. S. Bach violin Partita No. 3. She later debuted in various prestigious halls throughout Europe, among others in Salle Poirel, Nancy and Gasteig, Munich.

After a competition in 1991 the North Carolina Arts Council appointed her Artist in Residence .

In 1991, Anna-Maria Ravnopolska-Dean became one of the founders of the American University in Bulgaria. At the university, she is professor of Music and teaches applied courses on the harp and the piano, as well as different theoretical courses on topics such as Latin American and Jazz music.

Anna-Maria Ravnopolska-Dean (Bulgarian: Анна-Мария Равнополска-Дийн ; born 3 August 1960, Sofia, Bulgaria) is a Bulgarian and American harpist, composer, pedagogue, musicologist and tv host.