I have been playing the harp since I was eight years old.  I remember seeing several different harpists perform at different times and places during my early childhood, and somewhere along the way I decided I wanted to play the harp too. My mom didn't make a lot of money and it was just the two of us, but somehow we made it work.

Just a couple months after I began playing, my first small harp burned up in a school fire.  I was sad, but I kept practicing on a friend's instrument.  We would drive almost an hour each way so I could practice every day. Eventually, we found another small harp we could afford.

A few years later, I was ready for a larger harp with pedals. My mom and her partner looked for months and found the beautiful instrument that I currently play.  He bought it, and we drove from Texas to Chicago to bring it home safely. I got to meet the young woman who had owned it previously.  Her teacher had sold it to her when she was about my age.  Now she was selling it to buy a blue electric harp. 

When I first saw the harp, the strings were loose so I could not really play it, but I sat down and pretended to play with my hands, doing what my friends and I call "air harping."  My mom says the young woman who was selling the harp caught her breath when she saw my hands and exclaimed in a hushed voice "those are harp hands!"  I guess during her training in London she had been taught how to spot the hands of a promising young harpist.  I just knew I loved that harp with all my heart.  

Now, several years later, I am going away to college, and my mom and her partner are breaking up. Unfortunately, in order to take the harp with me, I need to buy it from him for $16,000 by mid-August. Otherwise, he is planning to sell it to someone else.  My mom and I both work, but we don't earn enough to purchase a harp on top of college tuition and other bills. 

My mom says the world needs more beautiful music like what I play. I just know that I love this harp, and that it is a part of who I am. Being able to keep it would mean the world to me.

Thank you for your kind support.