ANNA KATE MACKLE (principal harp) is a former EMF student who is returning for her 25th summer serving on the EMF faculty. She currently holds the Dick and Helen Minck Chair as principal harpist of The Florida Orchestra, and has appeared as concerto soloist with TFO six times. Prior to joining The Florida Orchestra Mackle held principal harp positions in the New World Symphony, the Sarasota Opera Orchestra, the Ohio Light Opera Orchestra, the National Repertory Orchestra, the Colorado Music Festival, and the Spoleto Festival Orchestras in the U.S. and Italy.
Mackle and her husband, EMF principal percussionist John Shaw, formed the Mackle Shaw Duo in 2018 and since then they have commissioned and premiered multiple works for harp and percussion. The Mackle Shaw Duo has received grants from the New World Symphony (2023), Creative Pinellas (2022), the Palladium Theater St. Petersburg (2022), and the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance (2021), and have won third prize and Honorable Mention from the American Prize in consecutive years (2021-2022, 2022-2023).
Mackle teaches at St. Petersburg College and also teaches and coaches for orchestral auditions privately from her home. She holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Baldwin-Wallace University and the Cleveland Institute of Music, respectively, where she studied with Alice Chalifoux. She lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, with John, their daughter Madeline, and three cats.