In 2002 Virginia Schweninger and her husband, Dave, decided that the Charlottesville area was where they wanted to spend the second half of their lives. Leaving L.A. was traumatic, but living in Nelson County soon felt like a “little bit of paradise. [+]In 2002 Virginia Schweninger and her husband, Dave, decided that the Charlottesville area was where they wanted to spend the second half of their lives. Leaving L.A. was traumatic, but living in Nelson County soon felt like a “little bit of paradise.”
Virginia played the piano as a child, taking up the harp in high school so she could play in the orchestra. She soon won a full scholarship from the Samuel Mosher Foundation to attend Stephens College, Columbia, Missouri. There she studied with acclaimed classical/jazz harpist, Mimi Allen, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Harp Performance.
Virginia studied both the French and Salzedo schools of harp, but had to discover on her own how to make a living as a harpist. Determined, she entered the emerging world of “pop harp” in the 1970’s performing in major resort hotels, restaurants and private homes. Over time her very special musical style emerged through a repertoire of the Classics, Broadway and Movie Themes and everyone’s favorites.
As an orchestral harpist she has performed with legendary entertainers Sammy Davis Jr., Tina Turner, Jerry Lewis, Melissa Manchester, Carmen Dragon, Rudy Friml, Kenny Rogers and even Jack Benny (at a very young age!).
She now enjoys giving private lecture concerts and workshops, playing for weddings and other special events, has performed with the Charlottesville Symphony Orchestra and with numerous church choirs.
She particularly enjoys teaching the harp at her Nelson County studio and in Lynchburg where she is Adjunct Harp Instructor at Lynchburg College and Randolph-Macon Women’s College. Her students, age 6 to 82, play the harp for a million reasons . . . to play in hospitals or for hospice; to earn a degree in music; to play for church or weddings; or simply because they’ve always wanted to the play the harp.
Virginia Schweninger is a member of the Charlottesville Music Teachers Association and the American Harp Society, and is a Nelson County Master Gardener.
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