Based in Little Rock, Arkansas, harpist Anna Joy Cooney has enjoyed a performance career including solo, orchestral, and ensemble work in Arkansas, Texas, and Northern Virginia. Anna holds a Master’s of Music in harp performance from Shenandoah University Conservatory, a Bachelor of Arts in harp performance from The College at Southwestern, and a Diploma in harp performing from the Associated Boards of the Royal Schools of Music, United Kingdom.

Her harp instructors include Bridgett Stuckey of Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia; Dr. Jaymee Haefner, head of the harp department at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas; Lawrence Odom, now of Fort Smith, Arkansas; and Carol McClure of Nashville, Tennessee.

Not only a harpist, Anna is also trained in piano, violin, and voice. As a pianist, Anna has accompanied choral groups and functioned as a worship service pianist for churches in Arkansas and Texas. Violin was Anna’s first instrument, and she now enjoys teaching beginning and intermediate violinists. Anna finds great joy in singing solo, small ensemble, and choral works and enjoyed the vocal coaching of Lynda Poston-Smith when living in Fort Worth, Texas. While in Texas, Anna performed regularly with Scot R. Cameron and his ensemble “One Voice,” and she toured the United Kingdom as a soprano section leader for the choir of Dallas’s Park Cities Presbyterian Church.

Anna is a gifted music educator, with experience in private instruction and at the classroom level. Her students (and students’ parents) often remark on Anna’s ability to communicate music concepts and technique in ways which connect with her students’ varied personalities and learning styles. She loves sharing the gift of music and helping students experience music in personal ways.