Harpist Nadia Pessoa

---

Nadia Pessoa has emerged as one of the most vibrant and exciting young harpists today. Currently the harpist with the US Army Band "Pershing's Own" in Washington DC, she has performed throughout the US, Canada, Europe, and Brazil. With a career spanning over 20 years, she has appeared as soloist with the Lima Symphony Orchestra in Ohio and the Fort Collins Symphony, where she made her debut in 2005 playing the Ginastera Concerto under the direction of Wes Kenney.

Her natural and intuitive approach to her instrument comes as no surprise to anyone who has heard her joke that she has been playing the harp for as long as she can remember. Growing up in Miami, Florida, she began playing a tiny South American folk harp under the guidance of her father, at the age of two and a half.

Known for her distinctive and commanding sound, Ms. Pessoa is the recipient of awards from the National Society of Arts and Letters, the Fort Collins Young Artist Competition, the American Harp Society, the National Federation of Music Clubs, and Downbeat Magazine. She has appeared at the National Orchestral Institute, Domaine Forget, Henry Mancini Institute, the 2002 World Harp Congress in Geneva, and spent two summers as the resident harpist at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, where she was a featured soloist in Ravel's Introduction and Allegro.

An avid orchestral musician, she has worked with some of the world's most respected conductors, including Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Juan-Luis Novo, Gerard Schwarz, JoAnn Falletta, Alasdair Neale, Alexander Lazarev, Gunther Schuller, David Effron, Kenneth Kiesler, Michael Stern, and Leonard Slatkin, and has performed in concert with leading artists such as Diana Krall, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Denyce Graves, Placido Domingo, Regina Carter, Wynonna Judd, Randy Newman, Frederica von Stade, and David Daniels. Ms. Pessoa can be heard on the 2005 Grammy award-winning recording of William Bolcom's Songs of Innocence and Experience, under the direction of Leonard Slatkin, on the Naxos label.

Equally at home with contemporary works as with more traditional styles, Ms. Pessoa is an active proponent of new music. As a resident artist at the Festival of New Music at Domaine Forget in 2004, she performed Philippe Leroux's (d')Aller with members of the Montreal New Music Ensemble. Ms. Pessoa has collaborated with dozens of award-winning composers, including Susan Botti, Bright Sheng, and Sean Sheperd. In 2002, she performed Pierre Boulez's tour-de-force Sur Incises for three harps, three pianos, and three percussionists with the Indiana New Music Ensemble in Bloomington.

Ms. Pessoa holds degrees in Harp Performance from Indiana University and the University of Michigan, and completed additional studies in Vienna as the recipient of a travel grant to Austria. In 2006, she served on the faculty of Louisiana State University and served as interim principal harp in the Louisiana Philharmonic.

She currently resides in Washington DC, where she freelances and performs as a harpist for weddings and special events.