Curriculum Vitae
Described as "dramatic", "virtuoso", “superb concert artist”, "a marvellous performing artist", and “an extraordinarily multi-talented American musician and scholar” who possesses an "irresistible creative force", international artist, Nancy Lee Harper, is a pianist whose compelling performances have inspired audiences in on four continents: Europe (England, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Italy, Czech Republic, Austria, Cyprus, Slovakia, Rumania, Ukraine), South America, North America, and China. In 2007, she is invited to give Masterclasses and lecture-recitals at the Juilliard and Eastman Schools of Music.
An American who resided in Portugal from 1992 until 2013, Dr. Harper has dedicated much of her time to exploring Ibero-american music, including performances of several world premières (5 viñetas para piano emocionado by Eurico Carrapatoso in Poltava, Ukraine; Rhapsody for flute and piano by James Wintle in Funchal, Madeira, Lírios roxos do campo by Amilcar Vasques Dias in Sernecilche, Portugal; 2 CDs of Portuguese 20th-century composers on the Numérica label in 1999, 2006). Several of her performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio (USA) Portuguese national radio (Antenna 2), and Portuguese national television (RTP 2).
Like poet Maya Angelou, Nancy was raised in Stamps, Arkansas. She began her musical studies at the age of ten, playing her first professional concert four years later as soloist with the Shreveport Symphony, Rudolf Ganz conducting. As the result of winning various competitions, prizes, and scholarships in high school, she then performed with various orchestras (Tschaikovsky Concerto, no. 1; Schumann, Concerto in a minor; Franck, Variations symphoniques), including the Shreveport Symphony, the North Texas State University orchestra, and the New Orleans Philharmonic.
Dr. Harper holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance from the University of North Texas at Denton (1985), as well as a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Pedagogy from the University of Texas at Austin (1970). She is also an accomplished harpsichordist/fortepianist. Post-graduate studies were done at the Royal Academy of Music in London in harpsichord, accompanying, chamber music and composition. Her piano teachers have included: Larry Walz, Ralph Berkowitz, Frank Mannheimer, Dalies Frantz, Denise Lassimonne, Verna Harder, Nena Wideman, and coaching with Carola Grindea.
Listed in American Keyboard Artists, she has performed with such musicians as conductor Nicholas McGegan; former members of the Beaux Arts Trio Ida Kafavian (violin) and Peter Wiley (violoncello); singers from the Metropolitan Opera and City Opera Jean Kraft, Maralin Niska, Joyce Castle, Bruce Brewer, and William Parker; countertenor Paul Esswood, contralto Margun Risa, and bass-baritone António Salgado; trompeter Stephen Burns; violinists Bijan Khadem-Missagh, Jaime Laredo, James Oliver Buswell III, and Jack Glatzer; violist David Wyn Lloyd; violoncellists Rohan de Saram, Peter Retjo, Gwendolyn Marie Watson; flautists István Matuz, Ransom Wilson, Jorge Correia, and Ariadne Paixão; clarinetist Howard Klug; lutenist Jurgen Hübscher; and pianist-composer Marc Neikrug. She has performed at Festivals in Santa Fe, Taos, Seattle, London (England), Kristiansund (Norway), Cyprus (2007), Montenegro (2007) and Aveiro (Portugal). She has been member of the Jury of the 1st International Gustav Mahler Piano Competition in Jihlava, Czech Republic, the International Festival of Young Pianists in Nicosia, Cyprus, the Helena Sá e Costa International Piano Competition in Portugal, the 3rd International Isidor Bajic Memorial Competition in Serbia-Montenegro, the 5th EPTA International Young Pianists Competition in Croatia, and the IBLA International Grand Prize in Sicily (2006), as well as Artist-in-Residence at the Bahá’í Arts Academy in England.
Literary and academic pursuits include: the publication of the books Manuel de Falla: a Bio-bibliography (Greenwood Press, 1998), Manuel de Falla: His Life and Music (Scarecrow Press, 2005), Portuguese Piano Music: A Brief Introduction and Annotated Bibliography (with CD, Lanham, MD, Scarecrow Press, 2013), and Part 2 in Joseph Banowetz's The Performing Pianist's Guide to Fingering with Philip Fowke (2021, Bloomington, Indiana University Press); more than 70 articles and reviews in 5 languages in Oxford University Press’s Music & Letters, MLA Notes, Piano Quarterly, Journal of the American Liszt Society, American Music Teacher, Piano Journal (EPTA), ComunicArte, Bilten, Parlando, ex tempore, and various dictionary articles on Ibero-American composers for Scarecrow Press (Biographical Dictionary of Latin American Classical Composers, ed. Miguel Ficher, 1996) and Círculo de Leitores (Enciclopédia de Música Portuguesa do Século XX, ed. Salwa Castelo-Branco); and coordinator of editions of music and of conference proceedings. Too, she has served as referee for the University of Melbourne’s (Australia) musicological magazine, Context. Her lecture-recitals feature such topics as: “Liszt in Portugal”, “The Iberian Elements in the Scarlatti Sonatas”, “Portuguese Piano Music”, “The Interpretation of Manuel de Falla’s Fantasía bætica”, amongst others.
In 2013, she retired from her academic position as Associate Professor of Piano with Distinction at the Universidade de Aveiro in Portugal, Founder-President of the European Piano Teachers Association in Portugal, Vice-President of EPTA (international), and European President of EPTA (2005-6). She co-organized the 1st International Course and Festival in Honour of Vladimir Horowitz, Artistic Director of the International Piano Festival and Course “Celebrating the Great Pianists” at the University of Aveiro, and the “Festivais de Outono”. Having completed the first UK certificate course in Music-Medicine “With Distinction”, she assisted in developing a Masters degree in this area at UA. In 2005, she was featured on the cover of Piano Journal and was the interviewee subject by Carola Grindea. In 2006, she was nominated for a prize from the Samii-Houseinpour Foundation in Belgium.
Prof. Harper currently resides in Victoria, B.C. Canada and is a member of the Bahá’í Faith. Email: [email protected]
Described as "dramatic", "virtuoso", “superb concert artist”, "a marvellous performing artist", and “an extraordinarily multi-talented American musician and scholar” who possesses an "irresistible creative force", international artist, Nancy Lee Harper, is a pianist whose compelling performances have inspired audiences in on four continents: Europe (England, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Italy, Czech Republic, Austria, Cyprus, Slovakia, Rumania, Ukraine), South America, North America, and China. In 2007, she is invited to give Masterclasses and lecture-recitals at the Juilliard and Eastman Schools of Music.
An American who resided in Portugal from 1992 until 2013, Dr. Harper has dedicated much of her time to exploring Ibero-american music, including performances of several world premières (5 viñetas para piano emocionado by Eurico Carrapatoso in Poltava, Ukraine; Rhapsody for flute and piano by James Wintle in Funchal, Madeira, Lírios roxos do campo by Amilcar Vasques Dias in Sernecilche, Portugal; 2 CDs of Portuguese 20th-century composers on the Numérica label in 1999, 2006). Several of her performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio (USA) Portuguese national radio (Antenna 2), and Portuguese national television (RTP 2).
Like poet Maya Angelou, Nancy was raised in Stamps, Arkansas. She began her musical studies at the age of ten, playing her first professional concert four years later as soloist with the Shreveport Symphony, Rudolf Ganz conducting. As the result of winning various competitions, prizes, and scholarships in high school, she then performed with various orchestras (Tschaikovsky Concerto, no. 1; Schumann, Concerto in a minor; Franck, Variations symphoniques), including the Shreveport Symphony, the North Texas State University orchestra, and the New Orleans Philharmonic.
Dr. Harper holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance from the University of North Texas at Denton (1985), as well as a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Pedagogy from the University of Texas at Austin (1970). She is also an accomplished harpsichordist/fortepianist. Post-graduate studies were done at the Royal Academy of Music in London in harpsichord, accompanying, chamber music and composition. Her piano teachers have included: Larry Walz, Ralph Berkowitz, Frank Mannheimer, Dalies Frantz, Denise Lassimonne, Verna Harder, Nena Wideman, and coaching with Carola Grindea.
Listed in American Keyboard Artists, she has performed with such musicians as conductor Nicholas McGegan; former members of the Beaux Arts Trio Ida Kafavian (violin) and Peter Wiley (violoncello); singers from the Metropolitan Opera and City Opera Jean Kraft, Maralin Niska, Joyce Castle, Bruce Brewer, and William Parker; countertenor Paul Esswood, contralto Margun Risa, and bass-baritone António Salgado; trompeter Stephen Burns; violinists Bijan Khadem-Missagh, Jaime Laredo, James Oliver Buswell III, and Jack Glatzer; violist David Wyn Lloyd; violoncellists Rohan de Saram, Peter Retjo, Gwendolyn Marie Watson; flautists István Matuz, Ransom Wilson, Jorge Correia, and Ariadne Paixão; clarinetist Howard Klug; lutenist Jurgen Hübscher; and pianist-composer Marc Neikrug. She has performed at Festivals in Santa Fe, Taos, Seattle, London (England), Kristiansund (Norway), Cyprus (2007), Montenegro (2007) and Aveiro (Portugal). She has been member of the Jury of the 1st International Gustav Mahler Piano Competition in Jihlava, Czech Republic, the International Festival of Young Pianists in Nicosia, Cyprus, the Helena Sá e Costa International Piano Competition in Portugal, the 3rd International Isidor Bajic Memorial Competition in Serbia-Montenegro, the 5th EPTA International Young Pianists Competition in Croatia, and the IBLA International Grand Prize in Sicily (2006), as well as Artist-in-Residence at the Bahá’í Arts Academy in England.
Literary and academic pursuits include: the publication of the books Manuel de Falla: a Bio-bibliography (Greenwood Press, 1998), Manuel de Falla: His Life and Music (Scarecrow Press, 2005), Portuguese Piano Music: A Brief Introduction and Annotated Bibliography (with CD, Lanham, MD, Scarecrow Press, 2013), and Part 2 in Joseph Banowetz's The Performing Pianist's Guide to Fingering with Philip Fowke (2021, Bloomington, Indiana University Press); more than 70 articles and reviews in 5 languages in Oxford University Press’s Music & Letters, MLA Notes, Piano Quarterly, Journal of the American Liszt Society, American Music Teacher, Piano Journal (EPTA), ComunicArte, Bilten, Parlando, ex tempore, and various dictionary articles on Ibero-American composers for Scarecrow Press (Biographical Dictionary of Latin American Classical Composers, ed. Miguel Ficher, 1996) and Círculo de Leitores (Enciclopédia de Música Portuguesa do Século XX, ed. Salwa Castelo-Branco); and coordinator of editions of music and of conference proceedings. Too, she has served as referee for the University of Melbourne’s (Australia) musicological magazine, Context. Her lecture-recitals feature such topics as: “Liszt in Portugal”, “The Iberian Elements in the Scarlatti Sonatas”, “Portuguese Piano Music”, “The Interpretation of Manuel de Falla’s Fantasía bætica”, amongst others.
In 2013, she retired from her academic position as Associate Professor of Piano with Distinction at the Universidade de Aveiro in Portugal, Founder-President of the European Piano Teachers Association in Portugal, Vice-President of EPTA (international), and European President of EPTA (2005-6). She co-organized the 1st International Course and Festival in Honour of Vladimir Horowitz, Artistic Director of the International Piano Festival and Course “Celebrating the Great Pianists” at the University of Aveiro, and the “Festivais de Outono”. Having completed the first UK certificate course in Music-Medicine “With Distinction”, she assisted in developing a Masters degree in this area at UA. In 2005, she was featured on the cover of Piano Journal and was the interviewee subject by Carola Grindea. In 2006, she was nominated for a prize from the Samii-Houseinpour Foundation in Belgium.
Prof. Harper currently resides in Victoria, B.C. Canada and is a member of the Bahá’í Faith. Email: [email protected]