Harp

2022-2023 Headshot

About Me...

Harp headshot shoot!

Taylor Harper is a rising senior at Drew Charter School. She is a member of the Urban Youth Harp Ensemble and has been playing for 7 years. She enjoys how relaxing the harp is and how challenging it is. In addition to harp, Taylor is a Varsity cheerleader for the Drew Charter Fury Varsity Cheer Squad and plays Varsity golf for the Drew Charter Golf Team. She is also a member of Jack and Jill of America Incorporated. In this organization, she has won Outstanding Female Athlete in the Southeastern region and is the immediate past Senior Teen Recording Secretary. Taylor is also the class President for the class of 2026 and has held the position since freshman year. She has also performed in the Fall '23, Spring '24, and Spring ‘25 Solo and Ensemble Performance evaluation and received superior (highest) ratings every time she performed! Taylor enjoys reading, listening to music, and talking with friends in her free time. She hopes to study psychology and sociology at Spelman College. Taylor aspires to be a sports psychologist or a family therapist.

11th Grade (2024-25)

Solo performance - Malagueña by Ernesto Lecuona

This piece is titled "Malagueña" by Ernesto Lecuona. It is a Spanish piece and has a lot of emotion and dynamics. I really enjoy this piece because all of the rolled cords.

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10th Grade (2023-24)

Wedding Project

In this project, we were assigned to simulate a wedding to provide a way for us as students to prepare to book weddings in the future. This project spanned about 5 months and in that time, we were given music traditionally played at weddings and also non-traditional music. I worked in a group with Maya Aquino, Marielle O'Niell, and Lauren Howard. We recieved wedding groups who were in the theater class and we had the chance to meet with them to choose the music for their wedding. We created a wedding menu of songs so we were able to offer many different options for songs during their prelude, processional, in-ceremony, and recessional. I had a good time working with my group to determine who would learn what music and how long we would play this piece. In class, we practiced stopping our pieces in the middle in case unplanned things during the wedding happened. This helped with my improvisation skills to abruptly finish a song. In our final performance, the entire theater class acted out a wedding with random things taking place. Our wedding went very well, and our "couple" got married. We played Canon in D, Prelude in C, Can't Help Falling in Love, and Can You Feel the Love Tonight. During other weddings, people intervened and some couples did not get married. Overall, this project was very fun and I had a great time with my group and learning how to work with different people. I am also glad this project gave me experience to potentially play a wedding one day.

Wedding consultations

Aisle walk cut off practice

Final Wedding

Wedding Consultation form

Wedding menu

Arranging Project - Yebba's Heartbreak, Yebba, arr. Taylor Harper

For my project, I chose to arrange the song "Yebba's Heartbreak" by Yebba (also co-written by James Francies and Yebba) , featured on Drake's album Certified Lover Boy. I chose to do the first snippet of the song because I really like how the chords sound. “Yebba’s Heartbreak” is an interlude on Drake’s album Certified Lover Boy. This song is an emotional plea asking how much better can one show their love for someone. It is sung by Yebba and written by Yebba and James Francies. I chose this piece because I really like the vocals and how the song makes me feel. The song is sung very calmly and I really like the lyrics. The song is written for Yebba’s late mother who unfortunately passed away by suicide. The arranging process has been very interesting because the chords in the bassline were difficult to translate to the harp. I think it translates well to the harp because the piece is very soft and the harp contributes to the atmosphere of the piece. I really enjoy the song on its own and I had a great time arranging it.

9th Grade (2022-23)

Ensemble performances

When I first saw “The Sparrows”, I was confused about how we were supposed to play the song. I also thought the techniques used were interesting. I think figuring out the timing was difficult. I liked the way we got to layer different sections of the piece to make it sound like birds chirping. I wouldn’t change anything about the piece.

In ‘Even among insects” I liked the thunder glissandos. In the final performance, I think we reflected the haiku well because we performed how it was written but we also added our own spin to make it have a unique sound. I really enjoyed learning both of these haikus.

Solo performances

This solo is titled 'Processional' and is perfect for a wedding and includes many harp techniques.

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