- Location:
- Chicago, Illinois
- Travel Radius:
- Will travel up to 80 miles from Chicago.
- Pay Range:
-
$250-$600 per event
- Member Since:
- 2009
- Primary Category:
- Harp
- Additional Categories:
- Broadway Harp, Celtic Harp, Classical Harp, Meditational Harp, Pop Harp
- Influences:
- Not Available
Description
Kari Gardner is a talented professional harpist who performs primarily in the greater Chicago, IL and Milwaukee, WI areas. Her amazingly extensive repertoire includes a broad range of styles, for example: classical (from Medieval and Renaissance to French Romantic and Contemporary), Celtic, Christian, Jewish, Chinese, Broadway, and popular (from the Phantom of the Opera to Enya, and from Sinatra to Metallica). She has had the pleasure of arranging music for the harp specifically to suit her client's requests. Some examples include Indian Bollywood movie music, 80's metal, current R&B hits, and Romanian hymns. For December events she can perform a mix of Christmas, Hanukkah, and secular seasonal music in order to be inclusive of all of your attendees, or narrow her repertoire to one category to suit your specific tastes.
Background: Kari began studying music at the age of 2 1/2, starting with violin. By the age of 11 she was also taking harp and piano lessons. She went on to complete both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in harp performance from Northwestern University, where she studied under Elizabeth Cifani, Lyric Opera principal harpist. Other teachers include Minnesota Orchestra Principal Harpists Joan Mainzer (retired) and Kathy Kienzle (current).
Experience: Kari has been freelancing part-time since she was in highschool and full time since obtained her Master's degree in 1996. She has performed as principal harpist for many orchestras, composes and arranges music for harp and various folk harps, and held steady background music gigs. Her longest running background music engagement was as a Sunday brunch harpist at a hotel in Deerfield, IL--every Sunday for six years as well as major holidays. In her work as a musician for weddings she has played for many types of ceremonies, including Christian, Jewish, Islam, Hindi, Zoastrian, multiple faith, non-religious, and various themed weddings. Wedding size has ranged from just the bride and groom, the minister, and Kari (she was even asked to sign as a witness!) to hundreds of people. She has the experience and professionalism necessary to make her part of your event smooth and worry-free.
Song List
Available For:
Anniversaries, Bachelorette Parties, Banquets, Birthday Parties, Children's Birthday Parties, Celebrations, Christenings, Christmas Parties, Church Services, Clubs, Cocktail Parties, Community Events, Conventions, Corporate Functions, Dinner Dances, Festivals, Fund Raisers, Funerals, Graduation Parties, Grand Openings, Picnic, Private Parties, Proms, Restaurants, Reunions, Sweet 16 Parties, Weddings, Wedding Ceremonies, Wedding Cocktail Hours, Wedding Receptions...and more.
Feedback
- We thank Kari for the wonderful performance in our wedding aniverswary, she was very profeswswional, and played so wonderfull, she made our aniversary dream come true. -- Dianira U, Chicago, IL, 11/19/2011
- Kari was extremely professional and very talented. She added a unique and beautiful touch to our wedding ceremony. I have received several positive comments about her musicality and how beautiful her music was. She was extremely easy to work with making planning easy for me. Her website is very interactive and truly respresents her talent.
I would recommend Kari to anyone and wish we would have booked her for a longer time- possibly through the cocktail hour.
Overall- she is talented, easy to work with and added a beautiful unique touch to our wedding. -- Devin D, Burbank, IL, 11/12/2011
- Kari was great!! She made the planning of the ceremony very organized and was thorough. Being the Bride, I was a bit preoccupied but I heard nothing but great feedback from both the wedding party and the guests. Thank you for a beautiful wedding ceremony! -- Keli S, Rockford, IL, 5/15/2010
- We met Kari and were thoroughly impressed with her. She played several songs for us at our meeting. We spent a good amount of time choosing songs from her large selection. She arrived on time for our event. It was an outdoor ceremony with rain coming any time. We completed the ceremony and the rain started 2 minutes later. She was completely calm and got herself and her harp indoors quickly and set up playing without a blink. We were able to have a great variety in music during the 1.5 hours she played. Everyone complimented her on her perfomance. We highly recommend her and are completely satisfied. If another occasion arises, we will surely contact her again. -- Kathleen S, Lake Forest, IL, 9/20/2009
- Kari was wonderful to work with. She is very accomodating to creating the wedding atmosphere I wanted for my wedding. she gave great recommendations for songs and was very helpful when we went to her home to pick out music. It was such a joy working with her and I can't wait to here the final product of her music on my wedding video as I was a little busy during most of her playing! -- Jodie S, Alsip, IL, 6/13/2009
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