|
My daughter has studied harp with Kristie Smith for 4 years. My daughter has grown so much in that time in her level of playing and musicality. Kristie is highly educated and has been able to direct my daughter to repertoire choices that not only are beautiful, but challenge her and help her advance in her playing, while offering some freedom for style choice as well. Kristie is great at giving feedback, offering positive feedback as well as needed correction. Kristie's knowledge of the repertoire, history, technique, and theory are excellent and I feel like my daughter is getting a well rounded education in harp. Kristie is also incredibly supportive and goes to great efforts to attend important performances and rehearsals. Highly recommend!
--Hilary Ferguson, via Google |
Kristie is astoundingly responsive & adaptive to her students' unique learning style and needs. Our son is musically talented and also autistic. He loves his lessons with Kristie and so do I. I can't give a high enough recommendation.
--Melanie P., via Yelp
I studied with Kristie in 2012-13, after having studied with several other teachers over many years. She is both a superb teacher and a pleasure to work with as a person. Her technical mastery and musicianship are of the highest level, and she has the gift of being able to communicate those skills to a student. I found that she would often make fairly simple corrections to my technique that brought immediately noticeable returns, and she always had a clear vision of the musical shaping of a work that was helpful to me in learning it.
If I tried to sum up her style, it would be that her approach is very down-to-earth while simultaneously paying close attention to everything from overall form to small detail. There is no doubt that I am a much better player after having worked with her for a year. Added to all of that, she is fun to get to know.
I would recommend Kristie as a teacher for anyone who wants to further their harp skills and have an enjoyable series of lessons. For a student who is quite advanced, I think she would be a fantastic coach, as her own repertoire includes the most demanding works for the instrument, and her training has been with the finest teachers in the country.
Kristie gets an unqualified 47 strings up from me!
--Gordon Campbell, Durham, NC
"I sought Kristie's expertise in deciphering some orchestra music via Skype and was very impressed with her ability to quickly guide me through the process and break down the tricky measures for me. She was able to give me pedal diagrams, orchestra cues, fingerings, dynamic suggestions, as well as a video of her playing the music to refer back to. Her skills (and patience!) make her a joy to work with, and I'm so grateful for her invaluable help.
If you need some classical harp coaching, Kristie is the go-to person!"
- Lindsay Bratsman, professional harpist based in Utah