Deborah Henson-Conant
Grammy-nominated electric harp virtuoso with a wicked sense of humor, a gutsy set of vocal chords and theatrical flair.
“Inspire Your Audience with an Unforgettable Night of Entertainment.”
Soloist with Symphonies
Solo Concerts & Shows
Artist-in-Residence
“Dazzling harp playing, gorgeous jazz/pop singing, comic timing and impressive songwriting. Her program shows that the harp is at home with flamenco and Latin American music as it is with Arabic and Celtic music…with orchestrations that are as fresh and exuberant as her stage personality.” — Austin American-Statesman
Deborah Henson-Conant Tells Stories with Music
Electric Harp & Voice – in shows that fuse music, theater, humor, virtuosity and entertainment.
SOLOIST with SYMPHONY & CHAMBER ENSEMBLE
“Expect fire, folks; this will not be your average evening at the orchestra where audience members politely applaud and feign interest. Henson-Conant will have the audience and the orchestra members on the edge of their seats” Buffalo Beat
Original Grammy-Nominated symphonic compositions and custom-designed performances. She enters the stage like a rock star, lets loose with harp and voice, and ignites the Symphony in a way you’ve never heard before. This is Deborah Henson-Conant’s standard solo or orchestral show – authentic, electric and electrifying – with her iconic signature-model electric harp, and her distinctive style of musical storytelling.
SOLO ARTIST
“A one-woman dynamo, a visionary harp virtuoso with a sense of humor, a flair for showmanship, a gorgeous voice, and a jazz artist’s love of adventure.” The Toledo Blade
Concerts – One-Woman Shows – Keynotes – Private Performances & Events – With harp, voice and looper pedal, Deborah Henson-Conant – solo – spins an entire world, pulling sounds out of the harp you never thought you’d hear.
Her solo shows range from concerts to theatrical one-woman concept-musicals like “Electra’s Lyre” a retelling of the story of Electra – to keynote presentations like “Strings of Passion” – the seven principles of creative expression – presented ‘from the harp.’ All her work combines original music, story and the innovative exploration of music through the electric harp.
ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE
Performance ~ Composing ~ Collaboration ~ Teaching. Rarely can a visiting artist bring dance, theater, music, history, technology, women’s studies — and creative entrepreneurship together to give students in the arts a full spectrum of what it takes to develop a life as an artist today. When both students and faculty can also collaborate with that artist on a live performance that brings all those values alive, the experience is not just learning and watching, but creating art with the artist.
“Plays the harp like a dream, sings and plays the blues with a deep spirituality, expressiveness and harmonic sense matched by few other performers today, and animates everything she touches with a spine-tingling sense of gently propulsive rhythmic drive.” — Buffalo News
“…a mischievous performer who can take off on extended jazz jams and return to classically inspired licks. Playing her harp at one moment like an electric guitar, like a percussion instrument the next, Henson-Conant proved she is master of a highly unusual musical niche.” — Pittsburgh Tribune
BIO
Deborah Henson-Conant (“DHC”) is an ambassador to the world of music and imagination — a Grammy-nominated electric harp virtuoso with a wicked sense of humor, a gutsy set of vocal chords and a theatrical flair.
She’s intimate, inventive, spontaneous and bigger-than-life – and she pulls sounds from the 32 strings of her custom-built electric harp that you’d never expect to hear from the instrument Saint Peter hands out at the Pearly Gates: Blues. Jazz. Latin. Flamenco.
She uses a foot-pedal to capture musical phrases on the fly and loop them together, building a pulse of sound an rhythms she improvises over, and tells stories of her own improbable life as she strides the stage strapped onto her harp like a musical centaur.
Poetic dissonance, movement, story and song – she pulls it all from the world’s most cutting edge harp, built for her by the CAMAC company and named after her, the “DHC.”
She’s opened for Ray Charles at Tanglewood, toured with the Boston Pops as a featured soloist and with guitar legend Steve Vai as a rock harpist. Her music special “Invention & Alchemy” appeared on PBS Stations throughout the US and she performs her own solo shows in theaters and concert halls around the world.
REPERTOIRE
Original award-winning music for solo harp and voice — solo on stage or with original orchestra or chamber ensemble. Her style combines Latin Jazz, Blues, Flamenco and Musical Theater – combined with the kinds of stories that landed her on the TEDx stage.
A pioneer on the electric harp, Deborah’s music is now played by thousands of artists on stage and in YouTube covers, even as she continues to add to the concert repertoire for harpists, chamber ensembles, orchestras and musical theater worldwide.
Her “Composer’s Spotlight Series” features the performance of her work by other artists — but in her shows, you hear the music from the hands of the creator. Authentic, exciting, and different every concert.
“Striking flamenco sparks from the strings … wrenching distorted bends worthy of Eddie Van Halen … belting gutbucket blues and crooning lullabies … It’s impossible not to be mesmerized. Henson-Conant brings utter sincerity, prodigious technique and courageous, elegant invention to the intense focus commanded by a master storyteller.” — Springfield Union-News
“A confident and exciting entertainer … Deborah Henson-Conant delights in musical adventure.” — CBS ‘Sunday Morning’
SOCIAL MEDIA & STREAMING LINKS
