Megan Sesma

Instructor of Harp

M.M., New York University
B.M., Eastman School of Music

A versatile performer in orchestral and harp chamber music and as a film session musician, Megan Sesma has performed in venues that range from Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Russia, and the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles to Carnegie Hall and numerous concert halls in South America. Her experience has placed her under the batons of some of music’s greatest luminaries, including conductors ranging from Neeme Jarvi and Yuri Termirkanov to John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith. No less an innovator when it comes to the harp’s expressive and stylistic possibilities, Sesma has also shared the stage with such legends of contemporary and popular music as Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, Diana Krall and Dianne Reeves.

In February 2003 the United States Coast Guard Band added a harp position for the first time since its creation in 1925. Sesma is the first enlisted principal harpist with the United States Coast Guard Band. She also substitutes with the New Haven Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Hartford Symphony, Bridgeport, Manchester, New Britain and Eastern Connecticut Symphonies. Sesma holds a bachelor’s degree in music from the Eastman School of Music and served there as the harp studio teaching assistant, as well as a bachelor of arts degree in economics from the University of Rochester. She started her master’s degree at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California and finished her studies at New York University.

In addition to teaching at UConn, Sesma is harp instructor for Wesleyan University in Middletown. She is also president emeritus of the Shoreline Chapter of the American Harp Society.

An active proponent of chamber and contemporary music, she has performed with the Connecticut Chamber Players, New Horizons Series, Las Vegas Music Festival, Henry Mancini Institute Chamber Series, and the American Russian Youth Orchestra Chamber Recitals.

Recent performances include a July 2007 performance of the Mozart Flute and Harp Concerto with the Coast Guard Band, a March 2007 performance in Merkin Hall of the Mozart Flute and Harp Concerto and the Ravel Introduction and Allegro. March 2006 included the concerto performance of Claude Debussy’s Danses Sacrées et Profane in Merkin Hall in New York City and the world premiere of Hampson Sisler’s new composition for soprano, harp and orchestra, Diurnal Night. In July 2005, Sesma performed at the World Harp Congress in Dublin, Ireland. Other recent performances include a solo recital in Mexico City and Antigua, Guatemala.

Sesma’s interests include teaching aerobics as a certified fitness instructor, composing harp chamber works and teaching harp in Guatemala, where she supports the Guatemala Harp Project through the Harping for Harmony program.