Harpist - Alison Read

Alison Read, harpist, has maintained an active performing and teaching schedule around her native Dallas for over two decades. She established harp departments at both Stephen F. Austin State University, in Nacogdoches, where she taught 1999-2007 and more recently at The Hockaday School, where she began teaching in 2014. She leads the harp programs of Garland ISD, in addition to teaching privately at home. 

As an orchestral harpist, she is Principal Harpist at both the Abilene Philharmonic and Opera, as well as the Las Colinas, Garland, and Arlington Symphonies. Ms. Read has performed as a featured soloist with all of her regular orchestras and also in Varna, Bulgaria. An advocate of new music, she is currently involved with several duos which are in the process of commissioning new works for unusual combinations with harp.  In October 2017, she was thrilled to give world premieres performances in both Oxford and London of several new works which had been written for her.

In addition to her orchestral and chamber music performances, Ms. Read also regularly performs outreach concerts in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes. During the summer, she is Principal Harpist of the Utah Festival Opera. Ms. Read received her Bachelor of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she studied with renown harpist, Alice Chalifoux. She completed her Master of Music at Southern Methodist University, where she studied with Susan Pejovich.