Karen Tay, harpist, enjoys a multifaceted career as a soloist, orchestral player, chamber musician, and educator. Praised by the Straits Times for her “elegant and understated virtuosity,” she is a highly sought-after harpist in New York and Singapore. Her achievements include winning the NAFA-Kris Foundation Concerto Competition (Strings), reaching the finals of the Young Artist Harp Competition in the United States, and reaching the semifinals of international competitions in Japan and Italy. She was the solo artist for Kris Foundation’s annual recital series in 2024.
She performs regularly with orchestras and ensembles in Singapore and New York and was the harp fellow at the Pacific Music Festival 2025 in Sapporo, Japan. Orchestral credits include the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. Recent U.S. engagements include performances at notable halls such as Carnegie Hall and Merkin Hall, appearances with the Kaufman Special Music School, Mayflower Art Center, Cecilia Chorus Foundation, and Zamir Foundation, collaborations with the orchestras of Bard College-Conservatory and the City University of New York, and recordings for artists across genres.
Karen is no stranger to the social scenes of both Singapore and New York City, having graced countless weddings, corporate events, and private parties. Notable clients include Chanel, Pandora, Viking Cruises, and Christian Dior. She was the resident harpist at The Fullerton Hotel from 2016 to 2019, at the Shangri-La Hotel in 2023, and at present.
As A Creative Counterpart
As a chamber musician, she enjoys diverse settings and presented a full recital of harp chamber music in 2024, featuring the premiere of a harp septet by a Singaporean composer. Also by the same composer, she premiered a Peranakan-inspired work for harp and marimba at the Pacific Music Festival 2025 in Sapporo, Japan. She was a guest artist with the Astralis Chamber Ensemble, touring Ohio and Pennsylvania in 2026.
She leads harp workshops and broader music foundation programs in schools and engages in community outreach projects. She is a founding member of Singapore’s first harp quartet, The Harp Quarterly. One notable production reimagined Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as a multidisciplinary show featuring a new Singaporean composition and visual art projections. Through curating and delivering multidisciplinary performances and workshops, she remains a versatile performer who enjoys sharing her art.
Representing her cohort as the valedictorian, she graduated with a Bachelor of Music with First Class Honours from the joint program between the Royal College of Music, London, and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore, on a full OCBC scholarship. Her harp teachers in Singapore were Huang Yu-Hsin and her mother, Magdalene Wong. She earned a Master of Music and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the Manhattan School of Music, where she has also served as a Doctoral Fellow, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses and reviewing the precollege curriculum. She was a faculty member in Theory and Aural Skills at the Manhattan School of Music Precollege (2023-2026) and at Musart Music in Long Island (2025-2026). She has also been a Teaching Assistant at Columbia University under Christopher Washburne, professor and chair of the music department. Throughout her years in New York, she was under the tutelage of Mariko Anraku, Associate Principal Harpist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
Her research explores Peranakan heritage, and her dissertation, published on the intersection of cultural and social identity and music, is available.