Daniel Harp, Teaching Associate
Daniel Harp is currently active as a soloist, chamber music player, orchestral cellist and teacher. He has taught cello and chamber music in the Brown University Music Department since 1986.
As a soloist, Mr. Harp has performed numerous recitals throughout the U.S.. Recently he performed a series of solo recitals under the auspices of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts titled "The Art of Cello". He has performed often at Blithewold Mansion, the Music Mansion, and at many local colleges and universities. In his debut at age 19 as a concert cellist Mr. Harp performed "Schelomo" by Ernst Bloch with the Charleston (SC) Symphony Orchestra. and was called a "Master of the Cello" by the Charleston Evening Post. He has subsequently performed concertos by Saint-Saens, Brahms, Bloch, Piston, Vivaldi and Martinu.
In 2007, he was asked by the Governor of Rhode Island to perform as cello soloist for a September 11 Memorial ceremony at the Rhode Island State House.
As founding cellist with the Charleston String Quartet, Mr. Harp performed nationally and internationally at some of chamber music's most prestigious venues. The quartet performed hundreds of concerts throughout New England, the United States and Europe, performing on chamber music series at major universities throughout the country including Harvard, Yale, Haverford College, Bryn Mawr, Michigan State University and the University of Arizona, as well as on series in such cities as Chicago, New York, Buffalo and Atlanta.
In Europe, they played concert tours in France, Denmark and Sweden (where they performed a special concert for international ambassadors at the American Ambassadors Residence in Copenhagen and performed live broadcast concerts on Swedish National Radio). The Charleston String Quartet has also performed many premiers by American and European composers and has recorded works of Samuel Adler and Amy Beach, among others, for Albany Records and Gasparo Records.
He has also appeared with the Tidewater String Quartet, the Stewart String Quartet and the Katonah Piano Trio He has performed with such concert artists as members of the Juilliard, Fine Arts and Cleveland String Quartets as well as members of the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Mr. Harp has been principal cellist of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Ballet Orchestra, and has performed as cellist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Rhode Island Philharmonic. He currently performs regularly with the RI Civic Choral and Orchestra, the Providence Opera and other local groups.
While still in high school, Harp was accepted by Indiana University's School of Music to perform in classes given by the eminent concert cellist Janos Starker and members of the Beaux Arts Trio. He was later accepted into the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music on a full scholarship to study with concert cellist Lynn Harrell and chamber music with the LaSalle String Quartet. He has also studied with or attended classes with some of the great cellists of the last century including Zara Nelsova, Bernard Greenhouse and Raya Garbousva.
He has also performed and studied at the Aspen Music Festival, the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Tidewater Music Festival and the Sandpoint Music Festival. He has written for Chamber Music Magazine, lectured on classical music and appeared numerous times on radio and television. For many years Harp was active as a conductor and conducted at Lyric Opera Cleveland, the Dayton Opera, the Providence Sinfonia Camerata Chamber Orchestra, and at the Esterhazy Castle (Haydn's home for thirty years) in Eisenstadt, Austria. He also conducted concerts with the Brockton Symphony, the RI Philharmonic, the Hartford Symphony, the New England Music Festival Orchestra, the Waterford Music Festival and the Southwest Florida Symphony.
Daniel Harp has taught cello privately for over 25 years at the University of Charleston, Providence College, The University of Massachusetts, Connecticut College and Brown University. At Brown, Mr. Harp's students have won the orchestra concerto competition many times, playing concertos by Dvorak, Saint-Saens, Tchaikowsky, and others. Many of his students have gone on to graduate studies in music at major music schools and conservatories.