Harpist Linda-Rose Hembreiker
 
 
Described by the Denton Record-Chronicle as “evangelizing for the harp,” Linda-Rose Hembreiker is dedicated to sharing the beauty and grace of her instrument. From performances at Yale’s International Festival of Arts and Ideas, the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, and the Soka Performing Arts Center, to local libraries and schools, she conveys the joy of the harp everywhere she plays. Continuously working with composers and arrangers, she is passionate about creating new music for the harp. Pieces she has premiered include: Chapman Welch’s Four Pieces for Solo Harp and Stratosphere Exit Scenarios, James Worlton’s The Etiquette of Ice and Dilute Light, Isaiah Castro’s Dios Mío, and Yo Goto’s The Talking Trees Tell Great Secrets. She also chaired the Los Angeles Celebrates the Harp: New Music Composition Competitions (made possible by grants from the American Harp Society). Her current projects include bringing new immediacy to the art of story-telling through music by pairing standard harp repertoire with contemporary works of art. She performs and tours regularly as a member of Duo Mystére, with pianist Mei-En Chou. She can be heard on the Klavier Wind Project recordings: Retrospectives, Passions, Poetics, Allegories, and the GIA recordings: Transformations, Donald Grantham, Joseph Schwantner, with the North Texas Wind Symphony, and on the C. F. Peters recordings Music of the Americas and Reflections with the American Wind Symphony Orchestra and the AWSO’s harp. Equally committed to scholarship and teaching, Dr. Hembreiker has had articles published in the American Harp Journal on Alexander Technique and on the history of the Northern California Harpists Association; she has also given presentations about various aspects of teaching for the American String Teachers Association National Convention and the American Harp Society National Conference and Institutes. She teaches at Cal State University Los Angeles, Irvine Valley College, and the Orange County School of the Arts. Her students have performed at the National Catholic Educational Association Convention and the American Harp Society Summer Institute. Several of her students have received competitive awards including the Julia Louise Herman Scholarship and the Valeria Finzi Scholarship, and have been accepted as harp majors at Indiana University and Cal State Fullerton. Being drawn to the harp after seeing Disney’s The Aristocats and Fantasia as a young child, she began Celtic harp lessons with Sylvia Fellows following many years of piano study. Her studies quickly progressed to the pedal harp; Dr. Hembreiker holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Harp Performance and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History from the University of Southern California, and Master’s of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Harp Performance from the University of North Texas. Her principal teachers include Ellie Choate, JoAnn Turovsky, Ellen Ritscher, and Heidi Lehwalder. In addition to the harp, she is devoted to her three cats: Patrick, Opal, and Theodore.
Linda-Rose Hembreiker, harp
Bio