Elizabeth Etters Asmus received her formal musical training as a student of Susann McDonald at the Juilliard School, where she was awarded the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. She has also studied with Marcel Grandjany and Nancy Allen. After graduation, Elizabeth lived and worked in New York City. She was very active performing as a solo, chamber, and orchestral harpist, as well as playing for three years in the off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks. Now that it has re-opened in the Broadway area, she is an active sub. She has played in some of the world’s greatest concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, and the Academy of Music.

She was principal harpist with the New York Chamber Ensemble and the Virginia Opera Association, in addition to touring and recording thorughout Europe and the United States for several years with the New York Harp Ensemble, a professional harp quartet. Now that she has returned to her roots in central Pennsylvania, Elizabeth performs with the Harrisburg, Lancaster, and Nittany Valley Symphonies, as well as numerous choral and chamber ensembles.

She is the harpist for the renowned Rooke Chapel Choir of Bucknell University, with which she has made five PBS broadcasts and two recordings. In addition to maintaining an active teaching studio in Harrisburg, she is an instructor of harp at Messiah College and Dickinson College.

Elizabeth has performed on artist series recitals throughout the midstate, and continues to arrange repertoire for flute and harp as well as solo harp, and will be publishing some of her arrangements later this Fall. Her interest in educational outreach has resulted in her representing the Harrisburg Symphony and the Cumberland Valley Chamber Players on various programs for children. She has been invited to be a speaker on the French technique at the Somerset Festival, a national convention for harpists. Elizabeth is also a member of the Board of Directors of the State Street Academy, whose major focus is arts and music education for inner-city children of Harrisburg.