Grace Scheele
American-Canadian Grace Scheele is a contemporary harpist, composer, and improviser based in Kitchener. Her music hones minimalistic textures within noise landscapes – creating a sound that is “a pliable, fluid, continuum…that’s as beautiful as it is unconventional” (Canadian Music Centre).
Grace interweaves electronics, structured improvisation, and sampling: reimagining the pedal harp as an electroacoustic instrument. An active performer, improviser, and interdisciplinary collaborator, she has performed in venues, festivals, and concert series across Canada and abroad. Highlights include premiering new solo works 12 Layers and manifest for harp and electronics at the Canadian Music Centre’s 2021 Multilocation Festival, making her American debut at Oh My Ears’ 2020 New Music Festival, and performing solo improvisations at The Music Gallery and Soundstreams.
She has composed and premiered film scores during the Toronto International Film Festival’s Next Wave Festival in 2019-2020, winning Audience’s Choice for Best Score in 2019. She recently scored the short film Notes on a Performance by writer/director Jennifer Law-Smith which was a finalist in the Vancouver Independent Film Festival and Toronto Independent Film Festival of CIFT in 2021.
She has premiered over 35 solo and chamber compositions for pedal and lever harp. An active proponent of new music, she offers sliding-scale harp composition and engraving consultation.
Winner of Numus Concert’s 2017 Emerging Curator Competition, Grace is a founding member of HARP+, an award-winning electroacoustic improvisation trio with percussionist Dave Klassen and violist Arie van de Ven.
A graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University with an Honour’s Bachelors of Music, she performed with the Improvisation Concerts Ensemble, directed by Dr. Kathryn Ladano. She has performed in masterclasses by Sarah Bullen and Floraleda Sacchi. Grace holds an Associates of Arts Degree from Franklin University Switzerland in Sorengo, Switzerland.