Zachary Hatcher

Zachary Hatcher is an American harp soloist living in Copenhagen. Born in 1996 he began to study the harp at the age of four with Robbin Gordon-Cartier of the Cicely Tyson School of the Performing Arts. At age 14 he was admitted to the Juilliard PreColllege Division where he then studied solo harp with June Han and chamber music studies with Bridget Kibbey. At sixteen Hatcher performed his concerto debut with solo parter Stefan Ragnar Hoskuldsson (former solo flute player of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, now solo flute player of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) performing Lowell Liebermann’s “Concerto for flute and Harp” with the New Jersey Youth Symphony under the baton of Geoffrey Grogan. At 18 Hatcher became the first American to be accepted to the harp class of Isabelle Moretti and Genevieve Letang at the Conservatoire Nationale de Musique et de Danse de Paris.

Within a year Hatcher won the Prix d’honneur of the International Music Competition of Paris “Léopold Bellan”. Two weeks after Hatcher was offered a three year contract as solo harp of the Verbier Festival orchestra where he performed each summer from 2015-2017. One year after beginning in Paris, Hatcher was recruited by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra where he was awarded the solo harp position at age 19 and holds the position today. Hatcher finished his studies with Caitriona Yeats at the Royal Danish Academy of Music.

Since beginning in Copenhagen, Hatcher has become known as an orchestral and chamber musician as well as a soloist. His first solo debut was of “Ravel Introduction and allegro” with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra in 2016 (age 20) and has subsequently performed with the orchestra nearly every season since. In 2019 Hatcher and composer Martin Stauning began a collaboration for a new solo harp and orchestra work which was premiered in 2021 to critical acclaim.

Hatcher most recently in 2021 was appointed the new harp teacher at the Royal Danish Academy of Music where he teaches enthusiastically along with continuing solo and orchestral engagements. Hatcher is now under the career and professional mentorship of the conductor/soprano Barbara Hannigan.