A Black Harpist’s Story

“Ann Hobson Pilot, the former Boston Symphony principal harpist plays a beautiful work for solo harp by the Argentinian composer, Astor Piazzolla, while sharing some of her challenges as the first African American musician in both the Washington National Symphony and the Boston Symphony in the mid 1960s. Upon her retirement from a 40 year career with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, legendary principal harpist Ann Hobson Pilot retired in 2009 with a tribute concert featuring a Harp Concerto written especially for her by world famous composer John Williams. She performed the concerto at Symphony Hall in Boston as well as Carnegie Hall in NYC and with many orchestras around the country. Ms. Pilot has also been the soloist with international orchestras in Argentina, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada. She has several CD’s available including one called “Escualo” featuring the music of Piazzolla with violinist Lucia Lin and JP Jofre on bandoneon. Her most recent CD is titled “A Dream” and is a compilation of beautiful and meditative music for harp which includes Chiquilin de Bachin” – TedXTalks