Holiday Harp with Family and Friends

RICHMOND, Va. - Dec. 12, 2018 - PRLog -- As we go full swing into celebrating the holidays with family and friends, Local Harpist and Richmond Native, Shelley Greene offers her musical gifts to complement the sounds of the season and to give back to the local education community.

On Sunday, December 23^rd, at the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, Harpist Shelley Greene will be joined by Jaia Greene-Flute, Lafonda Greene-Soprano, Thomas Epps-Baritone, and Glenda Jackson Eaddy-Handbells in performing classical, traditional and holiday music.

These Virginia-born musicians, all family members, share a long legacy of musicianship. In their early years as budding musicians, Shelley and her cousins were encouraged by their parents and extended family to not only use their talents for personal gain, but for the benefit of others.  When Shelley envisioned this concert, she saw it as a means to keep this family legacy alive and fulfill her responsibility to give back to the educational community which provided her with a solid musical foundation.

$15 individual tickets to the event are available for purchase at the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia and online at Eventbrite: https://goo.gl/s5khyz.  A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales will benefit Turnaround Arts: Richmond, a program housed in Richmond Public Schools, which brings arts education resources into Priority- and Focus-designated schools as a strategic tool for targeting larger school challenges and opportunities.  Turnaround Arts, the brainchild of Former First Lady Michelle Obama, operates nationally in 81 schools, 43 districts, 17 states and the District of Columbia.  The three Turnaround Arts: Richmond Schools are:  Woodville Elementary, Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle, and Binford Middle.

"Arts education isn't something we add on after we've achieved other priorities like raising test scores and getting kids into college. It's actually critical for achieving those priorities in the first place. That's what the Turnaround Arts program is all about."  -Michelle Obama, First Lady (2008-2016)

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Shelley Greene has been playing the harp professionally for more than 25 years.  After graduation from Richmond Public Schools, earned a Bachelor of Music Degree in Harp Performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music/Johns Hopkins University and was the first African American to do so at this institution.  She later enrolled in graduate studies in Orchestral Repertoire at Rice University in Houston, TX where she served as Symphony Fellow with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, and as Principal Harpist with the Scott Joplin Orchestra.