ANITA BURROUGHS-PRICE

The Ron and Janie Kupferman Chair

North Carolina Symphony harpist Anita Burroughs-Price has appeared as a soloist with the North Carolina Symphony, Durham Symphony and South Carolina Chamber Orchestra. She frequently appears in solo recital and has been featured in the Piccolo Spoleto Festival and England’s Brighton Palace. Notable performances include a duo appearance with Marilyn Kaiser, world-renowned organist and professor at Indiana University, and with Grammy Award-winning saxophonist Branford Marsalis. In addition to the pedal harp, her recitals often include harps from Ireland, Africa, Paraguay and a rare Erard single-action harp from England.

Burroughs-Price is a graduate of Furman University with a double major in French and harp performance. Her teacher there was Marjorie Tyre, former harpist with The Philadelphia Orchestra. She earned a master’s degree from Yale University, which also awarded her the illustrious Alumni Prize. In 1985, she received a Rotary International Fellowship for post-graduate study with Marisa Robles at London’s Royal College of Music, where she earned diplomas in harp performance and harp pedagogy. Other teachers include Catherine Michel of the Paris Opera and Nancy Allen in Aspen.

A devoted educator, Burroughs-Price is often sponsored by institutions for cultural arts presentations and appears under the auspices of the United Arts Council’s Artists-in-Education program. She is the head of the harp department at Furman University and has served on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Wake Forest University, St. Mary’s School, and South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts. Her students have won many competitions and scholarships for further study at Eastman and Peabody.

A scholar of early harp music, she has been the recipient of Regional Artist Project Grants from the United Arts Council for travel to London to research the history, technique and repertoire of her 1810 Erard harp; the instrument was selected by Haydn’s favorite harpist, Anne-Marie Krumpholtz, for her friend Samuel Farmer, a member of Parliament.

Anita Burroughs-Price has supported the arts thought her volunteer performances for many charities, churches, synagogues, and civic groups. She has performed in soup kitchens, prisons, Red Cross hurricane shelters, hospitals, and at the bedside of terminally ill patients. She was awarded the 1999 Raleigh Medal of Arts, the city’s highest award, for her “outstanding artistry and humanitarian service.” Her CD Healing Touch won the 2006 Excellence in Media Silver Angel Award. It includes music of hope and reflection and features North Carolina Symphony musicians Brian Reagin, violin; Bonnie Thron, cello; and Donna Jolly, organ.