About this Event
Lizzie Steiner is an acclaimed solo and collaborative harpist whose expansive artistry has made her one of the most sought-after players in contemporary music. Combining her classical training with an imaginative approach to improvisation and arranging, she has forged a distinctive path across genres, extending beyond the concert stage into fashion, film, and media.
For Reluctant Princess, her debut album of solo harp interpretations of songs by Sade, Beyoncé, SWV, Kali Uchis, Solange, and others, Steiner tests the harp's ability to hold pop, R&B, soul, and funk without sanding away the groove. Across the album, she transforms the functions of an entire band—bass lines, guitar parts, melodies, and percussion—into arrangements for a single instrument, proving that the harp can do more than shimmer in the background.
Growing up in Seattle, she discovered the harp by chance. After playing piano as a child, she joined the orchestra at Washington Middle School, where she asked what instruments were available. There was a harp waiting for her to begin. She said yes to playing the instrument, despite never having seen one in person. Her earliest visual fascination with the instrument came through Disney's Fantasia, whose images and sounds of the harp stayed with her. Twenty-seven years later, she still hears the instrument as something that radiates.
That sensibility has carried Steiner across genres and stages. As an orchestral harpist, she has recently performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, the Kennedy Center Honors Orchestra, Chineke Orchestra, Delaware Symphony, Gateways Festival Orchestra, Sphinx Symphony, and the Sarasota Orchestra, among others. She is also a member of The Sinfonietta, an all-female-identifying ensemble that made its live debut through Carnegie Hall Citywide and is signed to Sony Masterworks.
As a recording artist, Steiner can be heard on the GRAMMY Award-winning track “Refuge” by Geoffrey Keezer, on Marco Benevento’s Glera, Joy Guidry’s Five Prayers, and on Unheard Bird with Ken Peplowski, among other releases. A passionate advocate for new music, she has also performed with The Crossing and Arcana New Music Ensemble and presented a solo program of her own arrangements for Bowerbird New Music.
Her versatility has brought her into collaboration with artists across musical worlds, including Stevie Wonder, Raye, Brandy, Lalah Hathaway, Josh Groban, Moses Sumney, and Tierra Whack. Her recent projects have also included an appearance at the 2026 Met Gala as part of an ensemble of six harps, as well as performances for New York Fashion Week, including designer Tia Adeola's FW22 show and the film Le Noir Est Beau, which premiered on Vogue.com.
Steiner was a member of the inaugural cohort of the Sphinx Organization’s LEAD Fellowship in 2019–2020 and received a Sphinx MPower Artist Grant in 2021 and a Fitler Club Fellowship in 2020–2021. As an advocate for equitable access to high-quality harp education, she formerly served as Executive Director and, most recently, as a Teaching Artist at the Philadelphia High School for Girls for the Lyra Society, a nonprofit which provides free weekly harp instruction to students throughout Philadelphia.
She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Harp Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Yolanda Kondonassis, and a Master’s degree from Temple University, where she studied with Elizabeth Hainen as a scholarship recipient.
As a guest artist, she has most recently performed as the Lyon & Healy-sponsored Artist for the Atlanta Harp Center Festival and presented a program of her own arrangements to honor the 100th Anniversary of the Cass Tech Harp Department. As a guest teacher and clinician, Steiner has served on the faculty of the Utah Suzuki Harp Institute, Fortissima at the Colburn School of Music, and Curtis Institute of Music Summerfest.
Event venue & nearby stays
Harp Center Los Angeles, 2927 South Sepulveda Boulevard, Los Angeles, United States
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