“Long before I ever played my first wedding or stepped into a sanctuary to lead music, I was learning what it meant to listen, to serve, and to create something meaningful for the people in front of me."
The Heart Behind
The Harp
I grew up on a farm in northern Minnesota, land my great-grandfather homesteaded. On any given day, life included tractors and farm animals, ice skating in winter, and practicing piano, violin, or harp. My dad was a farmer who loved to sing. My mom was a violinist, longtime orchestra teacher, and church choir director. My siblings and I grew up well rounded without knowing it.
I’m the youngest of three, and before any of us graduated high school, my dad made sure we could change the oil in our cars, fix a flat tire, trim horse hooves, drive tractors and trucks, and nurse an orphaned calf. One winter I helped feed 200 calves so I could buy a van to haul my harp. As a 4-H’er, I trained a 400-pound steer to lead. There was skiing, swimming, cleaning, and always music, music, music woven through it all.
I started violin and piano at age five. When I was ten, I met a young harpist at a concert in our hometown, and something clicked. My mom asked every question imaginable, and before long I was taking monthly lessons in Fargo, ND with a teacher who traveled from Minneapolis. When the other students stopped, I had a choice: quit or make the drive to Minneapolis (harp lessons were not exactly available at the neighborhood music store). So every three to four weeks, one of my parents drove me 300 miles each way to Minneapolis for a two hour lesson. AMAZING - right?
When I was fifteen, my brand new harp from the Lyon & Healy Harp Company arrived at my high school in a massive plywood crate. It felt like Christmas and a calling all at once and this is the same instrument I play today.
Gratitude has been a steady thread through my life. In high school, I performed with the Grand Forks Symphony and frequently played for events at my church. I went on to attend the University of Minnesota, earning degrees in Harp Performance and Music Education.
A few years later, with two young children and a cross-country move to Boston, life felt full in every sense of the word. Being so close to the New England Conservatory made it possible to achieve a huge goal - my graduate degree in harp performance, continuing the path that had started years earlier on a Minnesota farm.
Since moving to North Carolina, I’ve enjoyed a full schedule playing harp with symphony orchestras, in recording studios, in churches, and at beautiful wedding venues most every weekend. When I’m not at the harp, you’ll usually find me with a strong cup of coffee and something sweet, preferably chocolate!
"Thank you so much for making Brooke and Alec's ceremony and cocktail hour a HUGE success. You are so talented and you did not disappoint. I'm sure they will remember you just like Dale and I do!"
— Jan
