Faculty
Susan Bennett Brady and Kimberly Rowe form a dynamic and inspiring teaching duo; the two met in 1980 while studying harp at the Brevard Music Center summer program in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Brady went on to attend the Curtis Institute of Music, in Philadelphia, and Rowe became her private student, later attending the Cleveland Institute of Music. They share a common teaching philosophy that emphasizes a strong tone and facility on the harp, regardless of a student's technical background. Both have gone on to professional harp careers and credit their time spent in intensive summer study as an integral part of their success.
Susan Bennett Brady, Artist Faculty
Susan Bennett Brady performs extensively in the Atlanta area as a classical free-lance harpist and soloist. As principal harpist in the Atlanta Opera, Macon Symphony and Columbus Symphony Orchestras, she is also co-founder and faculty harpist at the Young Artist’s Harp Seminar and founder/director of the Atlanta Harp Ensemble, for which she writes and arranges music. She is a prizewinner in the American Harp Society National Competition, Young Professional Division, and the Elizabeth Herbert Hobin Harp Competition and attended Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood. Brady currently has one of the highest regarded private harp studios in the country, and writes regularly for Harp Column.
Kimberly Rowe, Artist Faculty
Kimberly Rowe is best known as editor of Harp Column, a magazine she founded in 1993 that now circulates to harpists worldwide. She also teaches young harp students and performs for ensembles throughout the mid-Atlantic region that have included the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony. She also performs frequently in Atlantic City showrooms for stars such as Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra, Jr.
Kimberly has been a featured performer at the American Harp Society's National Conference (in 1993 and in 2004), at the 2002 World Harp Congress in Geneva, and at the Lyon & Healy Jazz and Pop Harpfest (in 1993 and 2007). She is the co-founder of the Beginning in the Middle Seminar for adult harpists and is on the faculty at Rowan University and the Saratoga Harp Colony. Kimberly attended the Cleveland Institute of Music where she received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in 1987 and 1989 as a student of Alice Chalifoux.
Marissa Knaub, Teaching Assistant
In spring 2007, Marissa Knaub was appointed to a teaching position with the Urban Youth Harp Ensemble at Carver High School's School for the Arts in Atlanta. Knaub was the first harpist to receive a Bachelor of Music degree from the Berklee College of Music, in Boston, as a student of Felice Pomeranz. In spring 2007 she received her Master of Music degree from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University as a student of Jeanne Chalifoux. Knaub first came to YAHS as a counselor in 2005; she returned in 2006 and 2007 as a teaching assistant with a full roster of private students. She has performed with Chamber Music International, in London, and with the Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific, in British Columbia. In her free time, Marissa enjoys doing yoga.
Jennifer Ellis, Counselor/Intern
Jennifer Ellis, a YAHS high school student in 2003, returns this summer as a counselor/Intern. Jennifer is currently a sophomore at Oberlin Conservatory pursuing a Bachelors of Music in Harp Performance under Yolanda Kondonassis. She is a recipient of the Conservatory Dean’s Scholarship and the SBC Foundation Scholarship. She has won numerous awards, including prizes in the California State American String Teacher’s Association’s Solo
Competition and the American Harp Society’s Bay Area Chapter Inez
Stafford Competition. Jennifer teaches as part of the Oberlin Secondary Instrument Program and earned her Girl Scout Gold Award running a music education program for elementary school students. Her studies in musicians’ wellness have led her to incorporate injury prevention as a major part of her curriculum. Prior to enrolling at Oberlin, Ms. Ellis studied harp with Jessica Siegel and Alice Giles and piano with Earl Fredericks.
Kristal Schwartz, Counselor/Intern
Californian Kristal Schwartz received her Bachelor of Music Degree from Thomas Edison State University in 200 and her Master's Degree in harp performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2007. Her teachers have included Doug Rioth and Marcella Decray. She has performed with orchestras in the San Francisco area and is an active freelance harpist there. She has been a counselor for the West-Coast Christian Worldveiw Conference, and also serves as a nanny for four children ages 9–15.