About HIMA USA
Inspired by our Icelandic sister festival, Harpa International Music Academy (HIMA), HIMA USA is an intergenerational, U.S.-based intensive summer music academy focusing on the study and performance of string solo and chamber music playing. HIMA-USA takes place on “Ohio’s most beautiful mile,” Lakeside Chautauqua, on the Lake Erie shore.
HIMA-Iceland was founded in 2013 to offer high level training for music students through solo and chamber music instruction, master classes, seminars, social events, and concerts in Reykjavik’s iconic, world-class concert venue, Harpa Concert Hall. In addition to serving Icelandic music students, HIMA-Iceland draws participants from around the world including Europe, the Americas, and Asia.
HIMA-Iceland’s artistic director, Sibbi Bernhardsson, is also the co-founder and artistic director of HIMA USA. HIMA USA’s inaugural festival was launched in August 2022. Along with his wife and co-founder, HIMA USA executive director Sally Takada, Sibbi has curated a festival with three key program elements — 1) a string quartet intensive for advanced pre-formed quartets, 2) a junior strings intensive, and 3) a chamber music workshop for string players. Serving an intergenerational mix of musicians, each program enhances and inspires the others, fostering a supportive community of chamber music lovers. In one week, participants will experience a full immersion in string playing, listening and performing through coaching, string technique workshops, master classes, community engagement and performances, as well as fun recreational and social activities in scenic Lakeside Chautauqua.
HIMA USA participants will have access to an abundance of recreational and cultural programs offered through the private, lakefront vacation community of Lakeside Chautauqua. Lakeside presents a variety of classes and activities including a lecture series, art classes, sailing, water sports, swimming, tennis, shuffleboard, yoga, pilates, educational workshops and performing arts programs. Within the Lakeside Chautauqua village are restaurants, shops, cottage- and house-rentals, two hotels and an aquatic center. This setting offers the ideal environment for an immersive, supportive music making and intergenerational community building experience with an audience of arts and culture appreciators.
The Team
Artistic Director, HIMA Iceland and HIMA USA: Sibbi Bernhardsson
HIMA USA Executive Director: Sally Takada
HIMA Iceland Managing Director: Ari Þór Vilhjálmsson
Artistic Director Sibbi Bernhardsson
Icelandic violinist Sibbi Bernhardsson is Professor of Violin at Oberlin Conservatory. He was previously violinist for 17 years with the Pacifica Quartet, with which he won a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance, Musical America Ensemble of the Year honors, and the Avery Fisher Career Grant.
As a member of the Pacifica Quartet, Bernhardsson appeared in more than 90 concerts worldwide each year, including engagements in Wigmore Hall (London), the Vienna Konzerthaus, Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Suntory Hall (Tokyo), Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall (New York), and other major venues. He has performed at the Edinburgh Festival, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, and the Reykjavík Arts Festival, and has collaborated with Menahem Pressler, Yo-Yo Ma, Jörg Widmann, Lynn Harrell, Leon Fleisher, the Emerson String Quartet, Johannes Moser, and members of the Guarneri and Cleveland quartets. His television appearances include The Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live, and the MTV Europe Music Awards with Icelandic artist Björk. He appears on 16 recordings with the Pacifica Quartet and has recorded the violin music of Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson and the sonatas for violin and piano by Franz Schubert.
Bernhardsson serves as director of the Cooper International Violin Competition at Oberlin and as artistic director of Iceland’s Harpa International Music Academy. He gives regular concerts and master classes in the United States, Europe, and Asia, and has appeared as a soloist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra, CityMusic Cleveland, and other ensembles.
Bernhardsson is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory. His teachers include Guðný Guðmundsdóttir, Almita and Roland Vamos, Mathias Tacke, and Shmuel Ashkenasi. He previously served on the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University.
Executive Director Sally Takada
An accomplished cellist, Sally Takada has cultivated an extensive career in arts administration and fundraising in the higher education and arts sectors. She currently serves as Associate Dean for Artistic Programming and External Relations at Oberlin Conservatory of Music. She was a member of the advancement team for Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music from 2017 to 2022, most recently having served as Conservatory Giving Director. Sally also serves as executive director and co-founder of the Harpa International Music Academy USA along with her husband, violinist Sibbi Bernhardsson.
Prior to her time at Oberlin, Sally held lead development posts at Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival and Institute, University of Illinois School of Music, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and the WonderLab Museum of Science. She frequently serves as a presenter and facilitator of fundraising training sessions for non-profit organizations, conferences, and workshops.
Sally received her Master of Music in cello performance from New England Conservatory and her Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Music from Barnard College where she participated in the cross-registration program with Manhattan School of Music. Her teachers have included Peter Stumpf, David Geber and Irene Sharp.
