“Musically, I wanted to initially create for the listener a mood of quiet reflection. The form is a fairly simple AABC Coda, prefaced by an introduction in c-sharp. The primary melodic theme, also in sharp, is stated twice and leads to a rather forceful section in f-sharp which develops fragments of earlier material. This is followed by a contrasting dolce in G, which builds in intensity and leads to a coda. Here, the listener is teased into an expectation of a return to the primary melodic theme when, instead, the material from the introduction is used in a downward cascade of chords, ending in a quiet echo of the opening theme.”
~Paul Smadbeck, September 2005
Erin Freund holds a Doctor of Music degree, Certificate of Performance, and Master of Music degree from Northwestern University, where she studied under Elizabeth Cifani. She received a Bachelor of Music degree at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music under Yolanda Kondonassis. Erin was a student of Alice Chalifoux at the Salzedo Harp Colony in Camden, Maine. Erin is a faculty member at Augustana College, and has previously taught at Indiana University South Bend’s Raclin School of the Arts. She has taught at the Music Institute of Chicago, and maintains a private studio as a registered Suzuki teacher. Erin is a board-certified music therapist with training in neurologic music therapy. Erin has worked at Lyon & Healy’s factory as their harp tester, playing on every instrument to give it a final check before it reached customers. Her true zeal for the harp can be seen in her canon of transcriptions and compositions. She loves transcribing unusual pieces for harp, presenting beloved pieces of music in a new light and expanding the harp’s repertoire. She aims to create works that are challenging, idiomatic, engaging, and satisfying for harpists to play.
