Harp Instructors:
Karen Conoan

Concert calendar

Harp resources

harp (harp) n. [ME < OE hearpe, akin to Ger harfe < Gmc harpa] 1 a musical instrument with strings stretched vertically in an open, triangular frame and played by plucking with the fingers: the modern harp has usually forty-seven strings and seven foot-pedals which permit the playing of halftones.

 Harp Instruction

Each year 50-75 Omaha Public School students in Music Magnet schools are introduced to the harp and have the opportunity to take lessons. Harp students receive weekly private or small group lessons and have opportunities to practice on the school harp. Lessons are given during instrumental music classes.

OPS is fortunate to own six Lyon and Healy harps: four Style 15 pedal harps and two Troubadour harps and one Blevins "Epic" lever harp. Catlin Elementary Music Magnet School has a Lyon & Healy "Ogden" lever harp.

Performance opportunities include school and area-wide band and orchestra ensembles and the annual All-City Harp recital.

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Karen Orr Conoán began playing the harp while she was a student at Omaha North High School.  She studied harp at North with Mary Alice Thomas and was part of the All City Orchestra, the Summer School of the Performing Arts, and a variety of school talent shows and musicals.  As a senior at North, she was named Viking "Best Girl Instrumental Musician."

Mrs. Conoán is a graduate of Wayne State (NE) College where she received the degree Bachelor of Fine Arts in Education. She taught vocal and instrumental music in Stuart, NE  and at O'Neill St. Mary's Elementary School. She taught vocal music at St.Robert Bellarmine Elementary School (Omaha) and at St. Columbkille School (Papillion), and served as Liturgical Coordinator and Music Director for St. Columbkille Parish for twenty-seven years. The Nebraska Arts Council sponsored her for harp recitals and school assembly presentations in Stuart and in Atkinson, NE. She played in the Northeast Nebraska Symphony Orchestra in Norfolk, NE.

Mrs. Conoán holds a Master of Arts (Christian Spirituality) degree from Creighton University. As a 'string specialist,' she provides harp instruction for students in the Omaha Public Schools. She has played harp at the Omaha Community Playhouse, and with the Symphonic Wind Ensemble at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, the Nebraska Wind Symphony, Orchestra Omaha! and the Hastings Symphony Orchestra. She enjoys performing as a free-lance harpist and with a variety of harp ensembles in the Omaha area. Karen is on the faculty of the St. Cecilia Institute for Adult Formation at St. Cecilia's Cathedral in Omaha. Currently she is the president of the Great Plains Chapter of the American Harp Society.