Clinicians and Staff

Faye Seeman

Faye Seeman principal harpist of the Chicago Sinfonietta and Joffrey Ballet Orchestras, is adjunct professor of harp studies at both Wheaton College and Northern Illinois University. As founder of the “Kithara” flute, cello and harp trio, she has led the group to notoriety with its broadcast work on WTTW’s “30 Good Minutes”, the recording of two CD’s, and published arrangements for the group through Lyon and Healy Harps West. The group currently performs in recitals and churches throughout the Midwest. Stepping away from traditional classical playing, Faye and several colleagues from the Chicago jazz community established the “ZigZag” Jazz Harp Quartet (harp, piano, bass and drums), exploring an eclectic blend of jazz, classical and new age styles of music. Their CD” Caught” features Seemans’ own compositions, several jazz standards and includes free improvisation.

One of her proudest accomplishments is the commission of a concerto for harp and orchestra in memory of her father, violinist and conductor Ernest Seeman. Noted Chicago composer Gustavo Leone wrote the music which premiered in 2006 at the Birch Creek Music Festival in Door County, Wisconsin. Since then the work has been played throughout the United States, most recently with the Northern Illinois University Orchestra. It continues to be a favorite with conductors and orchestral musicians alike.  During the summer, Faye is on the faculty of the Birch Creek Music Festival in Door County, Wisconsin, and is guest lecturer at the Midwest Harp Festival in Tulsa, Oklahoma and the Pacific Harp Institute in Seattle, Washington. Faye recently finished her first solo CD, “Nearer to Heaven”, recorded at Bastyr University chapel in Seattle, Washington. The disc features several of Faye’s own compositions along with transcribed favorites and music written specifically for the harp. For more information, log onto www.fayeseeman.com.

Mary Bircher

Mary Bircher has performed as principal harpist of the Omaha Symphony and the Omaha Symphony Chamber Orchestra since 1981.  On numerous occasions she has been featured as soloist with the Omaha Symphony and has been praised for her “truly virtuoso and seemingly effortless performance”.  She has performed with the Baltimore Symphony, the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Des Moines Metro Opera and the Colorado Music Festival. Ms. Bircher is an active freelance performer, and enjoys the opportunity to creatively explore all types of music in a wide variety of venues. She plays often at Omaha Children’s hospital as part of their Art Therapy program, and collaborates with her husband, Omaha Symphony trumpet player Craig Bircher, sharing in the joy of providing music for numerous weddings each year.   Ms. Bircher is an enthusiastic and respected teacher, working with students of all ages and abilities.  She has recorded for American Gramaphone Records and Summit Records and also with flutist Willis Ann Ross and trumpeter Craig Bircher.  In July of 2002, Ms. Bircher was invited to perform as a member of the Salzedo Harp Ensemble at the World Harp Congress in Geneva, Switzerland . 

A native of Richmond, VA, Ms. Bircher is a graduate of the Peabody Institute of Music and a student of Jeanne Chalifoux and Alice Chalifoux. Additionally, she spent six wonderful summers studying at the Salzedo Harp Colony in Camden, Maine. Mary Bircher and her husband, Craig Bircher are the proud parents of two children, eighteen year old son, Walter, and daughter Josie, who is fourteen.
 

Jan Jennings

Jan Jennings is a past first prize winner of the Lyon & Healy International Pop & Jazz Harp competition. She is a widely respected performer and teacher of both classical and popular music. Her students have been finalists in the national competition of the American Harp Society as well as prize winners in other local, state, and national music competitions. She is in demand as a clinician and guest artist at harp seminars around the country. She has written two instructional books, The Harpist’s Complete Wedding Guidebook, and Effortless Glissing. Miss Jennings is the Music Review Editor and former Assistant Editor for Harp Column magazine. She was recognized as one of the “prominent movers and shakers of the new millennium” in the January 2000 issue, and was on the cover and the subject of an in-depth interview in the May 2002 issue. She has made five recordings, and several of her arrangements for both pedal and lever harp have been published.

Jan served two terms as Director-at-Large and Treasurer for the American Harp Society. She founded the Central Florida Chapter of the American Harp Society in 1987 and presently serves as President. She also serves on the Board of Directors and as Treasurer of the World Harp Congress.

Jennings was introduced to music with five years of piano lessons as a child. She studied harp for seven years with Marie Mellman Naugle in Harrisburg, PA, but did not intend to pursue the harp as a profession. She chose banking, not music, as her career. However, as demand for her talents as a harpist increased, she “retired” from her management position to become a full time harpist. For almost ten years, she performed nightly at the five-diamond Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando . Currently a free-lance harpist based in Orlando, she has been the featured artist at prestigious venues in both the U.S. and Europe.

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.  Conductors and artists with whom she has worked include Sir Colin Davis, Maurice Abravanel, Gerard Schwarz, Maxim Shostakovich, Christof Perick, Dimitri Sitkovetsky, 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, LookingGlassRiver, was released on the Beneficence label in 2006 and includes the premiere CD recordings of the Dello Joio Bagatelles and the Bach Chaconne.  Montage, her recording with flutist Sandra Lunte, was released on the Centaur label in the fall of 2007.  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 is a past winner of an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Indiana Arts Commission. 

Ms. Richter earned Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in harp performance from Boston University, where she was a student of Lucile Lawrence.  Professor of Harp at Ball State University since 1982, 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 local, regional and national competitions and have established successful careers in the United States, Europe, and South America.  She has conducted master classes at Tanglewood and the Royal Academy of Music in London, and is a frequent judge at competitions, including the American Harp Society Young Professional Competition.  Ms. Richter formerly served as First Vice-President of the American Harp Society and as director of the Society's Concert Artist Program and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the American Harp Society Foundation.

Peter Wiley (The Harp Doctor)

Peter Wiley was employed by Lyon & Healy Harps for over twenty years. Working primarily in the regulation/assembly department he served as an apprentice. After ten years he was honored with the title Master Regulator. While at the factory he also worked in the action/mechanism department and as the Final Production Manager. In 1988 he began the Lyon & Healy Road Service Program which gave him the experience of getting to work with harpists in North America from NYC to LA as well as abroad in Japan, Korea, Australia and Israel. Mr. Wiley has also had the pleasure of being the harp technician for five USA International Harp Competitions and two International Harp Competitions in Israel. During his time as the Chief Harp Technician for Lyon & Healy he continuously worked with most of the major U.S.orchestras and many international orchestras including the Symphony Orchestras of: Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, Pittsburgh, Dallas Israel Philharmonic and the Sydney Symphony. Working with the major harp colleges such as IndianaUniversity, the JulliardSchool, the Eastman School of Music and the Curtis Institute he began presenting "Harp Care" classes back in 1990. He has also been a guest speaker at three American Harp Society National Conferences as well as a World Harp Congress.

Festival Director

Lorelei Kaiser Barton

As a Harp Performance graduate from the Lamont School of Music, University of Denver Lorelei Barton has been performing and teaching in the Tulsa area for 30 years. In her 21st year as faculty member at Oral Roberts University she is also adjunct instructor at Tulsa Community College, Tulsa University and principal harpist with Tulsa’s Signature Symphony and the Bartlesville Symphony. She has performed as principal with the Tulsa Philharmonic, Tulsa Opera, Tulsa Ballet, Fort Smith Symphony, Wildwood Opera Festival in Little Rock, Arkansas , Solisti Orchestra for OK Mozart, and Tulsa Performing Arts Center Brown Bag It series. Ms. Barton performs as soloist for many music and professional organizations throughout the state.  Her Chamber Music experience has included “Duo Arioso” flute and harp duo, “Harpeggio” harp duo, and recently, has performed with oboist Lise Glaser in several local performances.  Lorelei released her first CD in 1999 entitled, “A Christmas Offering.” 

As a director of harp ensembles her experience began with participating in the University of Denver Harp Ensemble and the Colorado Harp Ensemble from 1978 to 1982 where she also won the Denver Chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon Senior Solo Contest. Since then she has directed several local harp student ensembles whose performances have included the OK Mozart Festival In Bartlesville, TulsaFest Summer Music Camp at Tulsa Community College , Tulsa Mayfest, Inverness Retirement Village , Barnes and Noble, and several other area venues.

A certified teacher with Oklahoma Music Teachers Association, Lorelei is founder and artistic director of the Midwest Harp Academy which services harpists and students in the Tulsa area and the nationally recognized Midwest Harp Festival. This will be the 11th year for her to direct the Midwest Harp Festival. She is also a member of the local music affiliations TAMTA and Hyechka.  Lorelei’s studies have been with Jane Kauffman Brye of Lancaster, Pa., Suzann Davids, formerly of the Denver Symphony, currently in Elkhart, Indiana, and the late centenarian Alice Chalifoux, former principal harpist with the Cleveland Symphony under the baton of George Szell, and former harp instructor at Oberlin, Cleveland Institutes of Music, and the Salzedo Harp Colony in Camden, Maine.

Assistant to the Festival Director

Sarah Javaux has played the harp for ten years, and is continuing her education this fall as a sophomore harp performance major at Wheaton College Conservatory of Music, studying with Faye Seeman. While serving as a teaching assistant at the Pacific Harp Institute in Seattle, Washington in the summers of 2008 and 2009, she participated in the chamber music program there and performed with a professional string quartet. With a strong interest in performing solo repertoire, Sarah presented a recital at First Lutheran Church of Moline, Illinois, as part of their performing arts series. Since then, Sarah has continued performing solo recitals throughout the Midwest. As principal harpist with the Muscatine and St Ambrose Symphony Orchestras in western Illinois, she appeared as guest soloist with both ensembles, playing Grandjany’s Aria in Classic Style, and Handel’s Concerto for Harp and Orchestra in B flat Major.

Linda Barton Paul

Linda Barton Paul, a native Oklahoma, began playing the harp at 14. Studying under several nationally known teachers, Linda completed her Harp Studies at OklahomaUniversity. She studied with Suzanne Davids in Coloradowhile studying and teaching at TulsaUniversity.

Linda has been Principal Harpist with five symphonic orchestras in the Southwest Region of the US. She began studying Jazz Harp technique in the early ‘80's, and has been a Master Teacher for Jazz Harp, recording studio work, and how to run a harp business at festivals and harp camps. Linda currently has 12 CD’s in her recording catalog in several genres. Linda began working in Harp Therapy in 2006, especially for neuropathy and cardiac care.

Linda will be a Research Fellow in Spring of 2009 at the Seminary of the Southwest and the Universityof Texasin Austin. She will be researching and later recording plainchant melodies which she plans to use in her Harp Therapy sessions. Further information is available at www.harplinda.com.