Kathryn Harms

Biography

Kathryn Harms is instructor of harp at Colorado State University. In demand as an orchestral harpist, chamber musician, and soloist, she performs throughout the western region of the US in addition to maintaining a thriving private harp studio. For the 2018-2019 season, she was acting principal harpist with the New Mexico Philharmonic, and she also performs as substitute principal harpist with various ensembles including the Colorado Symphony, Colorado Springs Philharmonic, and Opera Southwest. She has appeared on stage with artists including Ben Folds, the Indigo Girls, and Jónsi & Alex. She is principal harpist of the Colorado Mahlerfest Orchestra and a frequent guest artist with ensembles such as the Ars Nova Singers. During the summers, she is on faculty at the Rocky Mountain Springs Harp Program in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

An avid promoter of new music, Harms regularly collaborates with composers to encourage quality and inventive composition for the harp. In 2019, she was selected to perform at the American Harp Society National Institute in Winston-Salem, NC, in a new music concert titled, “Collaboration, The Heart of Innovation.” She was also an invited soloist at the Society of Composers, Inc. 2018 National Convention in Tacoma, WA. She has also received an American Harp Society grant to commission a chamber piece for harp and string quartet that integrates the harpist as a true chamber musician: I ran out of black paint and sunshine by Kurt M. Mehlenbacher. This piece premiered as the finale of the 2015-2016 CU Pendulum New Music Concert Series.

Harms received her M. M. in harp performance from the University of Colorado Boulder as a student of Janet Harriman, and she received her B. M. in harp performance from Ball State University as a student of Elizabeth Richter. At the Ball State University School of Music, she received the prestigious Presser Scholar award and made her international solo recital debut at Mukogawa Women’s University in Nishinomiya, Japan, as the Ball State-Japan exchange soloist. In addition to her music studies, she also received a B. A. in French from Ball State University.