Getting Hands on Harps: Rachel Clemente, Harp Instructor and Musician

Although every culture has a version of the harp, it isn’t one of the most common instruments for today’s musicians. But recently Rachel Clemente, UVMC harp instructor and professional harpist, has seen a change.

“There is lots of great traditional music in New England and I’m floored by the amount of interest in the harp,” she said. “The community of instructors and faculty at UVMC have embraced the harp and try and include it as often as they can.”

Clemente began her harp training as a student of the Suzuki method at age 5 and is now a certified Suzuki teacher. “I’m classically trained but lever harp and Scottish music won out,” she said.

Clemente plays a lever harp with 37 strings, which is smaller than a pedal harp with 47 strings. “People see the lever harp as a beginner instrument. I try to fight that take on it,” she said. “It has its own repertoire and people are writing music for it. There so much more this instrument can do.”

Clemente grew up near a week-long summer camp called the Ohio Scottish Arts School and was able to meet Scottish harpists, a connection which eventually led her to Scotland. She graduated from the arts boarding high school Interlochen Arts Academy and later the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow with a bachelor’s degree in traditional Scottish music.

When she was considering a move back to the States in 2019, a friend based in Boston mentioned a thriving music scene in Brattleboro, Vermont. “I wasn’t sure about moving to another city, but Brattleboro was a stone’s throw away from Boston,” she said. “I signed a six-month lease and then the pandemic happened. I was happy I wasn’t in a city.”

Clemente started a harp building program, Hands on Harps, to provide access to the lever harp and traditional Scottish music with workshops throughout New England. She also established herself in the New England folk scene as a soloist and as part of a duo, If You Must Know, with bagpiper Dan Houghton. In 2021, she won the annual Princess Margaret of the Isles Clàrsach Competition, held in Charleston, South Carolina.

In May 2022, Clemente offered a workshop and concert at UVMC and, due to the amount of interest, started teaching a regularly-scheduled class at UVMC in 2023. “I was not expecting there to be so much draw for harp instruction,” she said. Her Suzuki harp training also meant that younger children can get their start on the instrument as part of the Suzuki program, which embraces learning by ear, group instruction, and parental involvement.

Clemente is currently recording her debut solo album, The Unwritten Rules, which features her instrumental compositional work influenced by traditional Scottish and Gaelic melodies. She is also one of the UVMC faculty members behind the new Colburn Park Traditional Music Festival, planned for July 2025. The mission is two-fold: promoting the history and future of traditional music as well as encouraging intergenerational music education.

“UVMC is a welcoming and encouraging environment for being able to explore multiple different genres of music and be able to take an active role in your own musical journey,” Clemente said. “Friday night Slow Jam sessions give my students the opportunity to be part of music creation and I encourage them to participate. That is so much rarer than people realize. I see UVMC having so many paths like that. No matter your age, you are able to come and listen to concerts, take classes, join groups, and have those experiences. It is paramount.”