Check out this CD on amazon and then make sure you click “see all” because it’s near the bottom of the page. Hope this helps !

http://www.amazon.com/Handel-Concertos-Sonatas-Bernard-Fonteny/dp/B000005E8W

I majored in music with little music background and in an instrument that I had never played before.

To be honest, you probably need to be more technically advanced, beyond the beginner stage, and have some of the standard repertoire under your belt before you should consider taking it to the higher education stage.

There is a lot of excellent advice here! When you are applying for universities, see if there is a good harp teacher on faculty at the music school, and if not, see if the university is situated in a city where there are some good harp teachers. My advice? Take a course in Biology for now, but take private lessons on the harp, or maybe the university will let you take harp as an elective. All music schools require an audition, and the applicant has to be at a certain level. Otherwise, they will be unable to handle the workload once they get there. I have a good friend who majored in Engineering and then immediately got a job in a symphony orchestra after graduation. Another one graduated with a degree in Music Education and then was hired in a top-rank symphony orchestra in Europe. A music degree in Performance not only demands a high level of playing ability and hours of practice once you are accepted, but also has other courses such as history, theory, composition, which require your time. I should confess that I started university with only about a year of harp, but I had been playing piano and flute since I was quite young, and had all my Royal Conservatory theory and history courses before I went in. I did my audition and was accepted as a flautist, then switched my major later. When you get out there to perform, you do not want to be wondering how your technique will hold up and be quaking with stage fright. Your other options, if you really want to study music: take a course in Music Education or Music History or Composition, but not Perfomance.

I disagree with everyone here, it seems. Majoring in biology because of your family is the worst reason to do it, at least in American culture. It is time for you to begin your journey into what you are interested in most. If it is music, so be it. Music can provide a reliable living, through education, for one direction. Church music is another. You can go to any college with a music department, which most have, and preferably one with a good harp teacher who will give you a good foundation. You can also transfer to a music school after two years, or go for your graduate studies. If you want to play professionally someday, you need time to practice, three hours a day or more. Therefore, you need a light course load. I avoided classes with a lot of papers required. No, you probably can’t go to a conservatory right now, but in five years, yes you can. While making a living is important, education is important for its own sake, detached from practicality. That’s what the Liberal Arts are about. Sure, a lot of us came out not knowing business, but we were intelligent, employable people. An education taken solely for one type of job is narrow and unfulfilling. Of course, you have to have talent. I don’t like the idea of trying to be a harpist without an education in music. There are too many harpists with low standards and knowledge about music, not referring to anyone here. If I knew where you were I might be able to recommend a teacher. I will recommend Karen Thielen, who teaches at San Jose State and Santa Clara Universities in the San Jose area if you are anywhere near California. You can’t go into music and only be concerned about money, because then you will not be a good musician, in my view. You can keep harp as an avocation if you

Another thing to think about is the joy of being an amateur musician.

Hi Brittany,

First of all, choosing a major is a difficult choice (in fact, most students who know what they are majoring in change at least once in their four years)