Christina Brier, harp and Executive Director
Christina Brier serves as Executive Director and harp teacher at Brooklyn Arts Music Academy. Additionally, Christina is principal harpist of the Wilmington Symphony, Carolina Philharmonic, and Opera Wilmington Orchestra, as well as a second and substitute harpist for the North Carolina Symphony.
Christina presents chamber music in a variety of settings. She performs with Manhattan harpist Kathryn Sloat as a member of the international prize-winning harp duo Lilac 94. In September 2018, Lilac 94 placed third in the International Harp Competition in Saluzzo, Italy. Lilac 94 performed “Freude” from Karl Stockhausen’s twenty-one hour chamber work Klang with Analog Arts in Philadelphia in 2018 and at Montreal’s New Music Festival in 2019. Lilac 94's performances also include the American Harp Society’s Summer Institute, Hill and Hollow, Philadelphia Harp Day, Christopher Newport University’s Harp Festival, The Women Composer’s Festival of Hartford, MISE-EN Place (Brooklyn), Constellation Chicago, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Village Chapel of Bald Head Island, and Hatch Hall (NY). Christina also performs chamber music with the Brierwood Ensemble (violinist Linda Estep, violist/violinist Clark Spencer, bassoonist Helena Kopchick Spencer, and harpist Christina Brier) which is a local ensemble based in Wilmington, North Carolina. The Brierwood Ensemble presents Candlelight Christmas annually at the Tryon Palace in New Bern, NC.
In 2014, Christina spent 6 months touring India performing as a solo harpist and chamber musician. Based in Mumbai, the duo performed Bollywood music throughout India, including the major cities of Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Chennai, and Bangalore as well as Muscat, Oman.
As noted by Star News, Christina "loves to do outreach for her instrument." In 2018 she co-founded the Brooklyn Arts Music Academy with violinist Linda Estep in the Brooklyn Arts District of Wilmington, North Carolina where she teaches harp and operates as Executive Director. She works as a harp instructor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. A passionate harp educator, she has been asked to present harp-related workshops and masterclasses (both with Lilac 94 and individually) for various harp camps, ensembles, and college programs such as the Connecticut Valley Harp Intensive, Christopher Newport University, Virginia Commonwealth University, GreenSpring International Academy of Music (Richmond, VA), South Carolina Music Educators Association (Columbia, SC), and Urban Youth Harp Ensemble (Atlanta, GA).
Christina holds a Master's degree in Harp Performance from the Eastman School of Music where she studied with Kathleen Bride. At Eastman, she earned a certification in Community Music Teaching and was awarded the Willow Hall Press Award for Harp.