American Harp Society

About the Artist

Helen Gerhold is a 12 year-old student of Germantown Academy, Pennsylvania.  She started harp lessons with Lucille Lawrence at age five. She also studied harp with Dewey Owens, and is currently studying with Virginia Flanagan and Judy Loman.  Ms. Gerhold started learning piano at age four with Zhaozen Li, and is currently studying with Sandra Carlock of Settlement Music School.  She played Vivaldi’s “Concerto in C” with the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra at the 2004 National Harp Conference.  She has also played solos at the Academy of Chamber Music.  She placed fourth in the junior division of the 2007 American Harp Society National Competition.

Hannah Blalock is from Matthews, North Carolina and began her harp studies with Jacquelyn Bartlett.  She was selected as third place winner of the Intermediate I Division of the 2007 American Harp Society’s solo competition held in Chicago, Illinois.  Ms. Blalock has won many awards and honors including being selected to perform at the Stars of Tomorrow concert at the 2007 USA International Harp Competition held in Bloomington, Indiana.  She was selected to perform at the Focus on Youth concerts at the 2005 World Harp Congress in Dublin, Ireland.  She is a member of the Charlotte Symphony Youth Orchestra where she has received awards for outstanding performance.  She is also a Young Artist Concerto Competition winner.  Ms. Blalock was the youngest participant of the first Victor Salvi Foundation awards in the U.S. and is the youngest harpist to ever be selected to participate in the Aspen Music Festival in Aspen, Colorado.

Beginning at the age of three, Alexandra Katelyn Mullins studied piano with mom, Pamela Mullins and harp with Bette Roth using the Suzuki method.  Currently, Ms. Mullins studies harp with Ms. Dan Yu of Atlanta and coaches with Bette Roth and Dr. Carrol McLaughlin.   Dr. Paul Nitsch of Queens University is her piano teacher.  In February 2008, she won the Charlotte Symphony Young Artist Concerto Competition, playing the Mozart Harp and Flute Concerto.  She will perform the Allegro of this work May 19, 2008 with the Charlotte Symphony Youth Orchestra.  Ms. Mullins was an American Harp Society National Winner for the last two competitions, 2005 in Los Angeles and 2007 in Chicago.  She performed in the “Stars of Tomorrow” recital in July 2007 at Bloomington, Indiana during the USA International Harp Competition.  She has also performed on WDAV Main Street Sessions and at the World Harp Congress in Dublin, Ireland, and has played harp in the orchestra for Providence High School’s production of Sound of Music.  Last November, Ms. Mullins was guest artist in the Charlotte Children’s Choir Fall Concert.  She also performs in churches, nursing homes and various other community venues.  As an eighth grader, she is merit scholar harpist in the Charlotte Symphony Youth Orchestra.  She won the Charlotte Symphony Junior Young Artist Grand Prize for piano in 2006, performing the Haydn D Major Piano Concerto, Vivace.  Ms. Mullins has also won numerous prizes in the Charlotte Piano Teachers Forum Concerto and Solo Auditions, having been a finalist in the Senior Division in March 2008.

Grace Browning is currently a junior harpist at the University of Michigan School of Music.  She previously studied for two years at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York with Lynn Aspnes and Kathleen Bride.  Some of her major achievements include finalist in the 2008 Michigan Concerto Competition and the 2008 Anne Adams Competition, prize winner in the American Harp Society Advanced division, and the winner of the 2007 Harp Concerto Competition in at the Eastman School of Music.  Formerly a resident of the Washington, D.C., area, she has studied with Elizabeth Blakeslee, second chair harpist with the National Symphony Orchestra.  In her junior and senior years of high school, Ms. Browning was co-principal with the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, where she had the opportunity to play at venues such as the Carnegie Hall and the National Cathedral.  She also participated in the select National Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Fellowship Program, playing both with the orchestra and as a soloist in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.  During the summer, Ms. Browning has participated in programs including the National Orchestral Institute, the Saratoga Harp Colony, Tanglewood, and the Sewanee Summer Music Festival.