Biography

Biography:

Mary K. Lloyd has been a music lover and musician for most of her life, having sung in church choirs and occasionally as a soloist (self-accompanied by guitar) since her teenage years. An experienced musician, she provides music of a relaxing and meditative nature for a variety of public and private venues. Music is not just her hobby, but her vocation or calling. Mary specializes in Celtic, sacred, medieval and renaissance, and especially original music on the lever harp. She plays and sings solo, and with a church-based ensemble, Grace Notes, and also with the early music group, the Saint Cecilia Consort in College Station, TX. She also performs in a musical duo called Kindred Spirits.

In 2002, Mary earned the Harping for Harmony Millennium Harper Award, and was proclaimed the Millennium Harper of the Brazos Valley, Texas. She plays harps by harpmaker Dwight Blevins; a 34-string Encore floor harp and a 23-string Mezzo lap harp; and a double-strung Morgan Meadow lap harp by Wm. Rees Instruments. She also plays a Musicmaker's Limerick 26-string small harp, which she built from a kit and decorated with original artwork.

Mary is a composer and arranger as well as performer, having written numerous melodic pieces for lever harp over the past 7 years, and guitar-vocal pieces previously. She has composed many songs, some of which have been performed as solos or choral pieces in church, and in hospice memorial services. Mary has branched out as a lever harp instructor, beginning to intermediate level. She recently taught a beginning harp workshop, and performed two solo harp selections at the 2007 National Trail Dulcimer Festival in Springfield, Ohio.

She has had four books of original harp music published; "The Open Door," "Quiet Stars In Endless Night," "Unknown Paths," and "A Long Way Home (From Where I Am)"; and one book of vocal/harp arrangements of traditional Celtic tunes, "A Harper's Celtic Folk Song Book." Three of her compositions, "Wishing," "Planxty Fuzzy Britches" and "The Gentle Rain" have also appeared in HarpLight Journal for Small Harps. Her music has been featured in the International Society of Folk Harpers and Craftsmen Folk Harp Journal as well. She is currently working on a CD of her music (a somewhat extended process).

Performing at the 2007 National Trail Dulcimer Festival

Performing in the St. Cecilia Consort's 2004 Summer Solstice concert.

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