In the Christmas Grotto ~ Transformational Residencies at Hip Harp Studio

Many years ago – before I had created my online “Hip Harp Academy” and my “Harness Your Muse” mentorship, the only way for people to study with me was to come live in my studio. It was a transformational mentorship experience with harpists from all around the world, like Shelley Fairplay from Wales, Robbin Gordon-Cartier from New Jersey, Monica Stadtler from Austria, Michelle Smith from Australia, Katya Herman from the UK, Nicole Müller from Germany, and Magali Zgimond from France, all of whom I’m so proud to have worked with.

In the winter of 2019, after renovations and updates to the studio bedrooms and kitchen, the residency program REOPENED with more resources, like the video studio, two dedicated student rooms and an improved studio kitchen. More info can be read HERE.

One of the powers of the Transformational Residency is the opportunity to ‘optimize’ learning time. When you’re learning an instrument the ratio of lessons to practice needed is about 1% new information to 99% practicing with that new information. But it’s also really important to have help when you get stuck!

We figured that out in the residency by changing how we do 1-on-1 coaching time so that it really empowers practice and rehearsal time.

That means we met 10 or 12 times a week for short sessions for questions or clarification between pre-scheduled longer sessions.

One of the other powerful aspects of a residency is that you’re HERE in my studio. That means that residency students can end up performing on stage with me in Boston-Area shows, AND sometimes we simply we just do silly things for fun.

Katya Herman was here studying during Christmas of 2011 and we had the idea to decorate the harp studio like a Grotto, pull out anything green or red we could find in the costume box and create a holiday greeting.

So, may I introduce: