Lynnelle Ediger

Position:

Adjunct Associate Professor, Harp

Pronouns:

She / Her / Hers

Location:

Armstrong Hall, Room 20

Email: lediger@jdzruiran.com

Employed Since:

2021

Educational History:

B.M., M.M., Oberlin College

Fields of Expertise:

Harp
Music Education
Conducting
Choral
Arts Management

Professional Highlights:

An award-winning harpist, ensemble director and music educator, Lynnelle Ediger has specialized in teaching the harp and directing ensembles for more than 25 years. Her students have won international and national competitions, established solo careers, landed recording contracts and performed with the world’s leading orchestras. She is the founder and director of the American Youth Harp Ensemble acclaimed a “national cultural treasure” by the U.S. Department of State. Under her leadership, the American Youth Harp Ensemble (AYHE) has established and enjoyed a reputation for musical and educational excellence through over 1,000 performances, recordings, and media features around the globe. The AYHE was the subject of two PBS television specials and its 2016 CD was considered for a Grammy Award. An advocate for new music for the harp, Ediger has commissioned many new works and arrangements which are now part of the mainstream harp repertoire.

She is also the director of GreenSpring International Academy of Music, central Virginia’s leading classical music school. GreenSpring is a unique performing arts organization which combines the highest caliber professional musical training, innovative programming and premier performance ensembles with community outreach, music therapy, tuition-free music education for underserved youth, mentorship, healthcare and social justice programs. Serving hundreds of music students annually, programming includes a chamber music program, chamber orchestra, the Virginia Choristers, summer music institutes, private lessons, early childhood music, partnerships with 11 educational institutions and two concert series (Virginia and Maryland). GreenSpring performances reach an audience of more than one million viewers and listeners through broadcast and live performances annually.

Ms. Ediger has performed and led ensembles on 29 national and international tours to Australia, Canada, Ireland, Belgium, Norway, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Scotland, Wales and England and has sold out Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Salle Gaveau (Paris), Salla Puccini (Milan), St. John’s Smith Square (London) and Carnegie Hall (four times). Other highlights include performances for the 34th annual Kennedy Center Honors, in St. George’s Chapel (London), the Washington National Cathedral, the U.S. Department of State, the White House, the United Nations (New York), as the opening concert for the Association for Music Personnel in Public Radio National Conference, and on the Queen Mary 2. She has presented, performed and conducted at professional conferences including the American Harp Society National Conferences and World Harp Congresses. Since 2016, she has partnered on performances and tours with the U.K.-based former Royal Harpist, Claire Jones, and composer Chris Marshall.

Ms. Ediger is a recipient of the Virginia Governor’s Citation for Excellence in the Arts and has twice been named a Top Forty Under Forty by arts and business publications in Virginia. She was honored with the American Alliance for Performing Arts Educators 5th annual Del Keiffner Award for Outstanding Arts Educator at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., the Teresa Pollak prize for Excellence in the Arts from Richmond Magazine, and was the recipient of the 2011 Distinguished Alumni Award in Music Education from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. She was a semi-finalist for the 2016 Grammy Teacher of the Year award, received the VASTA 2016 Outstanding String Educator award for Virginia, and the 2017 YWCA Outstanding Woman of the Year Award in the Arts.

Ms. Ediger attended Oberlin College Conservatory of Music where she received both the Bachelor of Music in Harp Performance and Master of Music Education degrees as a student of renowned harpist and teacher Alice Chalifoux. At Oberlin, she also studied conducting with Dr. Daniel Moe and voice with Dr. Mary Schiller. She holds a master’s in arts administration degree from Goucher College and has completed additional graduate studies at the University of Akron (voice), Boston University (music education) and at the Juilliard School (Dalcroze Eurhythmics). She spent seven summers at the Salzedo Harp Colony in Camden, Maine, studying with both Alice and Jeanne Chalifoux.

Personal Quote:
I am honored to join the Shenandoah Conservatory faculty to support the musical and professional development of harpists as they forge their own unique career path through our versatile instrument. I look forward to expanding the harp department with lessons focused on both standard and diverse, new solo, chamber and orchestral repertoire, studio classes, masterclasses, entrepreneurial skill development and pedagogy training opportunities.