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Rhett Barnwell is an organist, composer, conductor, cellist, pianist, and French horn player when he’s not wearing his hat as a classical and Celtic harpist. As a harpist, he has concentrated on music for healing, sacred and meditative purposes, and organized the 2007 Liturgical Harp Retreat. He has also published a number of compositions and arrangements for the harp which are distributed internationally and has four recordings, several of which were included at the 2002 International Conference on Healing Music in Athens, Greece. A particular interest in Gregorian chant and early music has led him to study at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome, Italy, the Abbey of St. Pierre, Solesmes, France, and Westminster Choir College and he is now on the Board of Trustees of the Historical Harp Society. He is the general manager of the Atlanta Harp Center.
Performer website: Seraphim Music

“Life without music would be a mistake.” The focal point of Angi Bemiss’ distinguished lever harp career has been bringing music to people in need of healing and relief. Her workshops and publications take a direct ‘soup-to nuts’ approach to the practical issues and challenges facing today’s harpist, including publishing, arranging, playing at weddings, and using music software. Angi has been a practicing CMP for over a decade, has recorded four CDs, and has published her own arrangements for a wide variety of musical genres from classical and contemplative to popular.
Performer website: Simply the Harp

“My Muse, tho' hamely in attire, May touch the heart." Robert Burns There is nothing ‘hamely’ about Debbie’s artistry as a musician and singer, and the combination of these skills with her passion for Robert Burns results in music that echoes ‘the wood note wild’ as Burns describes the natural and unpretentious singing he liked best. An experienced performer and teacher, Debbie’s repertoire also includes many traditional Scots ballads and Scottish jigs, reels, and strathspeys as well. To date, she has three solo CDs, Dream of Caledonia, Roots and Wings, and Love Came Down at Christmas, a mix of original and traditional songs. Cofounder, with Kathy DeAngelo of the Harper’s Escape (and co-author of the associated publication Ten Years of Tunes) Debbie has also published two song and harp arrangement collections: Burns for Bairns and Wood Notes Wild.

Performer website: Debbie Brewin-Wilson

A life-long musician, trained classically on piano and cello, Pamela was drawn to the Celtic harp nearly two decades ago and found her true love, particularly as it felt like the perfect accompaniment to her singing. Along with performing, Pam works as a life-coach and, in one workshop, she combines her teaching and music skills to help musicians overcome their hesitations: ‘Creating Music with Love, not Fear’ has been called ‘life-changing.’ Pamela also writes and arranges music, and has released over a dozen CDs and books,including the acclaimed Play the Harp Beautifully, a self-teaching package on book and DVD. One comment about her teaching book was, “this is clearly one of the finest method books available for harp.” With her husband, Dave Woodworth of Heartland Harps, she also helps to design harps and creates and paints artwork for the soundboards.

At home in two cultures, Nicolas Carter was raised in Asuncion, Paraguay, where he learned to play the Paraguayan harp and in Minnesota (where he is currently settled). His principal teacher Isidro Caballero (Father to Paraguay's harp genius Nicolasito) taught him in the traditional folk style of learning by ear, an “ideal way for me to learn, every note I have to hear and feel it.” Playing professionally since 1988 in a variety of settings, as accompanist to singer Lizza Bogado, to playing in a various trios and groups from “Son del Sur” (Song from the South, Latin-American folk music), and “Los Amigos” (traditional Mexican music) to ” Nube” (New World Fusion). As a solo harpist Nicolas has had concerts in Europe, the United States and Latin America. Nicolas combines his passion for music with a deep interest in theatre, and indeed, holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Theatre Direction from the University of Minnesota. His CD’s, more than a dozen, reflect the several musical idioms from Latin to Fusion in which he is fluent.

A visit to Cynthia’s superbly organized and informative web site will fill you with an instant desire to play the clarsach, the wire strung harp, of Scotland and Ireland. In lucid prose Cynthia presents herself with anecdotes and practical information as well as giving a taste of her teaching style in pieces on such topics as how harmonics work and how to handle accidentals on a lever-free harp. You can also listen to a selection of her playing which has been described as ‘Clear, pure and glistening… bell-like…’ and giving the ‘impression of very fine china.’ It is no surprise then to read of Cynthia’s multiple awards and accomplishments, among them being a two-time winner of U.S. National Scottish Harp Competition and recognition that she is one of the world’s foremost experts on the wire strung harp. Cynthia has recorded two CD’s, Alchemy of a Rose and Joy to the World and has four books, including Pathway; A Primer for the Wire-Strung Harp (with CD), From my Music Stand and Traditional Beginnings for the Gaelic Harp .

Singer/harpist Melissa Collins has spent over 30 years in the music education field working as an elementary music teacher and instructor and teaching consultant for the International Yamaha Music School. Now days she takes her small harps to schools, churches, healing centers and anyplace that will have her to teach introductory harp classes. She is also a certified Therapeutic Harp Practitioner with the International Harp Therapy Program and uses music for healing and restoration in area nursing homes, hospitals and private settings. She is also the creator of the Music Vigil, a palliative care program for the dying. Hand in hand with her musical endeavors, Melissa is on the faculty at Binghamton University as a yoga instructor.

Sometimes a particular experience will connect with existing skills in such a way that a person will embark in an entirely new but inspired path. Such is the case for Edie Elkan, who with a strong background in music, experience as a teacher of piano, and an an early grounding in playing the harp, found herself first, returning to the harp to assuage her own grief, and then discovering that the harp was being used in medical environments which in turn led her to found Bedside Harp in 2002, a New Jersey, hospital-based harp therapy program. In 2005 Elkan was recognized by the Society for the Arts in Health Care for her work at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital’s cancer center, where, in a research project, she discovered that patients who listened to live harp music while receiving chemotherapy were less anxious that those patients who did not. Edie has published Everything You Ever Wanted to Know (about Harp Therapy) and her master’s thesis: The Edie Elkan Method of Teaching Folk Harp as an Instrument of Healing. Also available is a 4-set CD Oodles of Noodles, a recording of a workshop on ‘noodling’ presented by Edie in 2006.

Performer website: Bedside Harp