Elizabeth Richter
Elizabeth Richter has enjoyed a distinguished career as both a performer and teacher. Formerly principal harpist with the Kansas City Philharmonic and the Kansas City Lyric Opera, she has performed as concerto soloist with many orchestras, including the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra in a performance of her edition of Carlos Salzedo’s previously unpublished concerto, The Enchanted Isle. She has performed with renowned artists including, Janos Starker, Gary Karr, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Pinchas Zukerman, with whom she played a duet encore following a performance with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Her critically acclaimed CD of solo harp music, Looking Glass River, includes the premiere CD recordings of the Dello Joio Bagatelles and the harp transcription of the Bach Chaconne. Montage: Four Centuries of Music for Flute and Harp, with flutist Sandra Lunte, was released on the Centaur label. Ms. Richter also can be heard on recordings with cellist Mihai Tetel and with Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist Jackie Allen.
An enthusiastic player of chamber music, she was a founding member of the Aeolian Trio, the resident flute, viola and harp trio at Ball State University for many years. Ms. Richter has appeared in recital in the United States and Europe and has been heard on National Public Radio’s Performance Today. She has performed at many regional and national harp conferences, and was a featured concerto soloist at the 2004 American Harp Society National Conference.
She earned Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in harp performance from Boston University College of Fine Arts, where she was a student of renowned teacher Lucile Lawrence. She pursued further musical studies at the Tanglewood Music Festival, the Music Academy of the West, and the Salzedo Harp School in Camden, Maine, where she studied with Alice and Jeanne Chalifoux.
Elizabeth Richter is widely recognized as an inspiring teacher and mentor. Professor of Harp at Ball State University, in 2001 she received the Ball State University College of Fine Arts Dean’s Teaching Award, given “in recognition of her superior teaching and dedication to student development.” Her students have been prize-winners in numerous national, regional and local competitions and auditions, and have established successful careers as soloists, orchestral harpists, and teachers in the United States, Europe, and South America. She has conducted master classes at Tanglewood, the Royal Academy of Music in London and at many American universities and harp festivals, and is a frequent judge at competitions, including the American Harp Society National Competition. In the summer she performs and teaches at the Midwest Harp Festival and is the harp clinician for the Music for All National Festival and the Honor Orchestra of America. She has published many articles in the American Harp Journal, the American Harp Society Teacher’s Forum and The Harp Column. She formerly served as First Vice-President of the American Harp Society and as director of the Society’s Concert Artist Program, as a member of the Board of Directors and Vice-President of the American Harp Society Foundation, and on the editorial board of the American Harp Journal.
