Diane Michaels

Biography

Diane Michaels has served as the principal harpist with the Orchestra of St. Peter by the Sea since 1993, has played on Broadway in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and with the Queens Symphony, Metro Lyric Opera, the New York Verismo Opera Company, RTG Productions, the Garden State Philharmonic, and the Monmouth Symphony. She has also performed with Tony Bennett at Caesar’s Palace in Atlantic City and was a member of the All American College Orchestra at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT Center. Diane has played aboard the QE2 and the Radisson Seven Seas Navigator, currently performs for tea at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City, and has performed at New York’s most prestigious hotels and restaurants, including the Plaza Hotel, the Rainbow Room, the Waldorf-Astoria, the Ritz Carlton Hotel, and the Hilton at Short Hills. Diane is on the roster of Music for all Seasons, a non-profit organization through which she performs at numerous facilities including hospitals and shelters for victims of domestic abuse. She has toured with the New York Harp Ensemble in the United States and Italy and with the Paulson Harp Ensemble in New Jersey and Ireland. Diane was a Masterwork Music and Arts Foundation Young Artist Recitalist and a four-time gold medallist in the harp division of the United Irish Counties of New York, Inc. Feis. As a winner of this competition, she appeared in the winners’ concert at Carnegie Recital Hall. She served as the President of the North Jersey Chapter of the American Harp Society 2008-2012, following four years as the Chapter secretary. In addition to maintaining a private teaching studio, Diane is on the faculty of Wharton's Performing Arts School in Berkeley Heights. She also has published arrangements for harp ensemble and a book for beginning harp students. Diane received a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music where she studied harp with Alice Chalifoux. She attended Interlochen Arts Academy, where she was a student of Joan Holland, and National Music Camp, both in Interlochen, Michigan, the Salzedo Harp Colony in Camden, Maine, and the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin.