Susan Knapp Thomas - Director & Instructor

Susan Knapp Thomas, harpist, received her Bachelor’s Degree from the Eastman School of Music, and is a well-known Chamber, Orchestral and Solo Concert Artist and Instructor throughout Connecticut and Southern New England.

She has been a recital soloist and chamber performer at such reputable programs as Connecticut’s Sunken Garden Poetry Festival, the Trinity College Summer Concert Series, and Hartford’s New World Chamber Ensemble series. She has co-founded and arranged music for her flute and harp duos, and flute, harp and cello trios.

As an orchestral harpist, Susan is Acting Principal for Hartford Symphony, and has enjoyed a long relationship with the The Hartford Symphony, and was their featured concerto soloist in June of 2008, performing Mozart’s Flute and Harp Concerto with principal flutist, Grieg Shearer. She also plays regularly for the Waterbury Symphony, and the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and performed as harpist for the U.S. Coast Guard Band from 1987-2002. Ms. Thomas regularly plays touring shows for the Bushnell and the Shubert Theaters in Hartford and New Haven, CT, and frequently for Frank Sinatra Jr. and other well known celebrities.

Ms. Thomas, a passionate harp instructor and coach, runs a vigorous harp studio in Connecticut, in addition to her role as faculty member for MusicMakers Academy in Manchester, Trinity College, and Central Connecticut State University. She has coached varied configurations of student ensembles at both the Hartford Conservatory and MusicMakers, and has developed, marketed and run her own student summer course and harp ensemble programs since 2002. An experienced administrator, Ms. Thomas was the Summer Program Coordinator at the Hartford Conservatory from 1999-2002. Her students were first and second and third prize winners in the American Harp Society Connecticut Chapter Harp Competition in the spring of 2005, and 1st and 2nd prize competition winners in 2002.

For more information on Susan Knapp Thomas, harpist, go to: www.harppro.com.

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.........2009 - 2012 Instructor ............................ 2011 Instructor ..................................2010 Instructor
.............Rachel Miller.................................................Brandee A. Younger ......................................Megan Sesma