Prof. Viktor Hartobanu is winner of the Grand Prix at the international harp competition “Félix Godefroid” in Belgium, second prize winner at the Franz Josef Reinl Foundation international harp competition in Vienna, and finalist at the USAIHC composition competition in Bloomington with his work Chants.
Viktor Hartobanu was born in 1990 in Bernburg (Saale), Germany, to Romanian musician parents. At the age of five, he received his first piano and harp lessons from his mother. At seven, he began studying piano with Dorislava Kuntschewa at the “Heinrich Berger” music school in Coswig, and by age nine, he was accepted into the preparatory class at the Leipzig University of Music, where he was taught harp by Prof. Max Koch and piano by Prof. Hanns-Martin Schreiber and Oriol Plans Casal.
A 17-time first prize winner at the “Jugend musiziert” competition, he was also a scholarship holder of the Jürgen Ponto Foundation between 2005 and 2008. He later received the main scholarship from the Hans and Eugenia Jütting Foundation, as well as a scholarship from the Wagner Association Heidelberg, which enabled him to attend Wagner’s Ring Cycle in Bayreuth.
In 2010, Viktor completed his studies at the Leipzig University of Music with a diploma after just four semesters, making him not only one of the youngest graduates of the institution but also one of those with the shortest study duration. He then taught for a trimester at the royal harp school “Tamnak Prathom” in Bangkok, Thailand, before continuing his master’s studies from 2011 at the HEM in Geneva with Prof. Florence Sitruk, and from 2012 at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels with Prof. Jana Boušková.
In 2013, Viktor won the audition for the orchestra academy of the Staatskapelle Berlin, participating in two seasons of numerous opera and ballet productions, as well as concerts with the Staatskapelle. He performed under the direction of conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Sir Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel, Daniel Harding, and Paul Connelly, and collaborated with artists including Anna Netrebko, Placido Domingo, Anna Maria Westbroek, Peter Seiffert, Waltraud Meier, Siegfried Jerusalem, Hans Mazura, and Klaus Florian Vogt. He was also active in many of the academy’s chamber concerts and served as its spokesperson. As a guest artist, he participated in radio and CD recordings with the MDR Symphony Orchestra and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.
Since 2021, he has been involved in the “Wagner-Lesarten” project with Concerto Köln and the Dresden Festival Orchestra under the direction of Kent Nagano. This project aims to perform and record the entire Ring Cycle on historical instruments by 2026. In 2023, he gave concerts and recordings with the Orchestra La Scintilla, and in 2024 with the J.S. Bach Orchestra St. Gallen, performing Brahms’ German Requiem, also on historical instruments.
He has been a guest at numerous festivals, including the Mecklenburg Spring Festival, the Schwetzingen Mozart Festival, the Leipzig Bach Festival, the Derbyshire Harp Festival, the Bucharest Harp Festival, and the Prah-a-harP Festival in Prague. He has performed with the Heidelberg Philharmonic, the Brandenburg State Orchestra, the Oradea State Philharmonic, the Anhalt Chamber Philharmonic, and other orchestras and ensembles. He has also made appearances on radio and television for ARD, ZDF, BR, MDR, BBC, ORF, and TVRi.
Viktor has attended masterclasses with Isabelle Moretti, Germaine Lorenzini, David Watkins, Susann McDonald, Ion Ivan Roncea, Xavier de Maistre, Sylvain Blassel, Fabrice Pierre, Frédérique Cambreling, Elisabeth Fontan-Binoche, Godelieve Schrama, Maria Luisa Rayan, Ursula Holliger, among others. From 2013 to 2017, he taught a successful harp class at the Coswig (Anhalt) music school, with several students winning national and international harp competitions.
In 2017, at just 26 years old, Viktor Hartobanu was appointed Professor of Harp at the Vorarlberg State Conservatory. At the same time, he took over the harp class at the Bregenzerwald music school, which he led until 2020, before turning his attention to the Koosha Music Center in Tehran and the newly founded Ginza Jujiya Harp Elite Academy in Tokyo. As part of his development work, he created the first comprehensive beginner’s harp method. His numerous compositions and arrangements have expanded the harp repertoire, especially in underrepresented areas.
Invitations to teach masterclasses and serve on competition juries have taken him across Europe and Asia. Since 2020, he has also served as Director of Studies in the development of the now-accredited Stella Vorarlberg Private University of Music, the successor institution to the Vorarlberg State Conservatory. After two years as a university lecturer, Viktor Hartobanu successfully completed an internal appointment procedure in 2024 to become a full professor.
As artistic director of the European Harp Symposium, which he revived under the name “Stellae Matutinae” after an 18-year hiatus, he invited the European harp scene to Feldkirch in April 2025. Over seven days, 85 artists presented the harp in all its diversity across 54 individual events attended by more than 400 guests.
Viktor Hartobanu plays a Salvi “Iris” named “Stella dell’Est”, a 1925 Érard double-action harp once owned by the legendary harpist Clelia Gatti-Aldrovandi, an 1825 Érard single-action harp formerly owned by David Watkins, and a 1955 Obermayer harp.
His YouTube channel reaches thousands of music lovers worldwide.