Harp Faculty

Current Faculty

Jacquelyn Bartlett

A champion of chamber music, Jacquelyn Bartlett has worked with some of this generation’s most well known composers such as Aaron Copeland, George Crumb, Alberto Ginastera, Dan Locklair, George Rochberg and John Rutter and she continues to bring new compositions to the concert stage as a soloist and chamber musician.  Ms. Bartlett is a founding member of Fire Pink Trio and a long time member of Mallarme Chamber Players.  For ten years, she was the Founder and Artistic Director of SummerMusic in Blowing Rock, N.C. and Music at St John’s in Valle Crucis, N.C. She has written and published articles in professional journals, has edited music for publication and is a recorded artist on the Albany, Capstone and Naxos labels. Her recent world premiere recording of Dan Locklair’s Concerto for Harp and Orchestra with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra was released by Naxos and has received high, critical praise.

Ms. Bartlett is much sought-after as a teacher, chamber music coach and presenter for master classes and seminars.  Her students have garnered top prizes at international and national competitions, and have been featured in Europe at the World Harp Congress and on Christopher O'Reilly's National Public Radio show, "From the Top."

Grace Ludtke

Praised for her “brilliant” and “stunning” playing (Cultural Voice of North Carolina), American harpist Grace Ludtke loves giving audiences a new impression of the harp and sharing its stories so its secrets can be discovered. She has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician throughout North America and Europe, including concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York City, St. George’s Church in London,
and Liben Castle in Prague and has performed with the North Carolina Opera Orchestra and regional orchestras across the state.

Currently, Ludtke serves on the artistic teams of the American Harp Academy and North Carolina Harp Ensemble at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with the mission of nurturing the artist within the harpist. These programs provide transformational learning and performance opportunities to harpists of all ages and skill levels nationwide.

Ludtke earned a Master of Music degree from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where she studied harp performance with Jacquelyn Bartlett. She also received a Master of Social Work degree with an emphasis in empowerment practice from Winthrop University and Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from Converse College. Her performance and teaching career are influenced by her combined passions for music and social practice. She believes cultivating creativity and artist practice is a tool for empowerment, for both individuals and communities.

2027 Guest Faculty

Principal harp of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since 1995, Elisabeth Remy Johnson performs nationally and internationally in solo and chamber music recitals. An avid recording artist, her recent solo album, “Quest,” spotlights works by women past and present, and has been acclaimed internationally, Gramophone calling it “an exquisite demonstration of the harpist’s art laid out in virtuoso swirls of colour, pearls of elegant nuance and audiophile sound.” She performs as principal harpist with the Grand Teton Music Festival, and teaches at Emory University and Georgia State University. She has performed as guest principal harpist with the orchestras of Baltimore, Boston, Houston, and Milwaukee.

Remy Johnson is a graduate of Harvard University, Phi Beta Kappa, where she majored in Music and French. Winner of first-place awards in competitions of the American Harp Society and the American String Teachers Association, she was an NFAA/ARTS awardee.  

In 2018, she founded The Merian Ensemble, a chamber group dedicated to performing and commissioning chamber music composed by women. The Merian Ensemble has received a travel grant from Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation USArtists International; commissions have been funded by grants from the American Harp Society, the PRS Foundation, Agnes Scott College’s Kirk Fund, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and individual donors. Their 2023-2024 season was supported by New Music USA’s Organization Fund. Their debut album, “The Book of Spells” on the Navona label, presents their commissioned works and was released in August 2024. Textura notes the “exceptional chamber performances” and “compelling musicianship” and EarRelevant calls it “one exciting project, gorgeously prepared, played, and recorded.”

Remy Johnson recently published two volumes of transcriptions of works by female composers; additional transcriptions of works by Mel Bonis are published by Éditions Billaudot. 

Remy Johnson was co-founder and artistic director (2000-2010) of the Urban Youth Harp Ensemble, serving students from the Atlanta Public Schools. She has received Atlanta's Channel Eleven Community Service Award, the TBS Pathfinder’s Award, and the Atlanta Business Chronicle's "Up & Comers Award.” She was a 2022 awardee of New Music USA’s Creator Development Fund for her project Solais with composer Clarice Assad, exploring the roles of women in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics. From 2022-2024, she served as Governor for the Recording Academy’s Atlanta Chapter. 

Recent guest faculty

Elisabeth Remy Johnson (2026)

Noël Wan is a Taiwanese-American harpist and an interdisciplinary scholar. Recognized for her charismatic artistry and genre-crossing virtuosity, Noël has won major competitions, including the 2023 Astral Artists National Competition, 2022 USA International Harp Competition, and 2010 World Harp Competition, and actively performs around the world. She combines her work as a performer with theoretical research on gender, sound, and performance practice, and her current project connects ideas about embodiment with digital sound creation via the electroacoustic harp. An alumna of the University of Illinois (BM, DMA) and the Yale School of Music (MM), Noël is currently the Assistant Professor of Harp and Entrepreneurship at Florida State University and serves on the harp faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music. 

Elizabeth Hainen (2025)

Elizabeth Hainen, principal harp of the Philadelphia Orchestra, has earned an international reputation as one of classical music’s great harp ambassadors. She has presented programs showcasing the diversity and virtuosity of her instrument to audiences throughout the world, receiving critical acclaim.