American Harp Society
- Martha Woodward
- , revised by Suzanne L. Moulton-Gertig
Extract
Organization founded in New York in 1962. Its archetype was the National Association of Harpists (established in 1919 by William Place Jr.), active between 1920 and 1933 under president Carlos Salzedo. During the interim between its dissolution and the founding of the American Harp Society, the Northern California Harpists Association (which evolved from the Northern California Chapter of the National Association of Harpists) published Harp News (1950–66), an immediate forerunner to the American Harp Society’s American Harp Journal (since 1967). Under Marcel Grandjany, chairman of the founding committee, the American Harp Society (http://www.harpsociety.org/) was established to function as a clearinghouse for information related to the harp. Its stated mission is “to foster the appreciation of the harp as a musical instrument, to encourage the composition of music for the harp and to improve the quality of performance of harpists.” The society has over 3000 members from all 50 states and 20 countries. Membership elects a board to oversee its activities: including a biennial national conference (concerts, lectures and workshops combined with a general meeting), a biennial Summer Institute (with biennial AHS National and Lyon & Healy Awards Competitions), administration of the Concert Artist Program, and an endowment fund to support conferences, competitions, institutes, harp literature, education programs, audiovisual, and archives/research collections. A separate support organization, the AHS Foundation (established in ...
