BIOGRAPHY

An internationally award-winning harpist, Margaret Anne Gunter is driven by curiosity and enthusiasm. She is currently in her fourth year of harp performance study at the University of North Texas (Denton, Texas) and studies with Dr. Jaymee Haefner, Professor of Harp at UNT, and Judy Sullivan Hicks, Principal Harpist of the Alabama Symphony. Margaret Anne is a firm believer that music is for serving others, and she enjoys a multi-faceted approach to honing her gifts so that she is best prepared for not only a career in performance, but also in teaching, administration, and service.

Margaret Anne represents one of only four Americans chosen as performers for the World Harp Congress’s Focus on Youth 2024 Program. As an up-and-coming soloist, she won first prize in the Advanced Division of the American Harp Society 25th National Competition and has given concerti performances as a winner of both the 2023 UNT Concerto Competition and the 2022 Jacqueline Avent Concerto Competition at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival (Tennessee). Equally at home behind the orchestra as she is in front, Margaret Anne has served as principal harpist for the renowned North Texas Wind Symphony and the Lone Star Wind Orchestra (Dallas, Texas), both under the baton of Professor Eugene Migliaro Corporon. She has performed at the Midwest Clinic (Chicago, IL) and Texas Music Educators Association Convention (San Antonio, TX). A champion of new music, she was awarded a feature spot in the World Harp Congress’s Spectrum Platform in March 2024 for her performance of Kati Agóc’s Every Lover is a Warrior. At UNT she enjoys volunteering to assist composers in learning to write for harp and has taken part in a dozen premiers and readings by students and faculty, including the 2024 world premiere of Dr. Kirsten Soriano’s Canticles for SATB Choir and Orchestra.

Margaret Anne garners inspiration that aids in her performance from the work that she does off the stage and outside of the classroom. She is from Opelika, Alabama (USA) and frequently returns to her musical roots while fulfilling her desire for service through local volunteer concerts. She enjoys bringing harp into high-need campuses within Dallas Independent School District by teaching through UNT’s Virtual Private Music Lessons Program. With three years of experience as the student representative for the UNT College of Music Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and as a current official College of Music Ambassador, Margaret Anne hopes to one day use her professional skills, performance training, and passion for service as a harpist in the US Armed Forces.

In her free time Margaret Anne can be found supporting her peers at UNT music concerts, visiting museums with friends, serving as UNT HarpBeats social media manager, studying jazz voice, and playing tennis with her three older siblings.

For an official curriculum vitae, click here.