Ms. Marian Shaffer is Principal Harpist with the Memphis Symphony and Iris Orchestras and is in residence at the Germantown Performing Arts Center. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Stephens College, graduating summa cum laude with a concentration in both harp and piano. She studied both instruments for one year at the Vienna Academy for Music and the Performing arts and then received a Fulbright scholarship to Cologne, Germany for further study. Her principal teachers include Mimi Allen, Marjorie Tyre, Lucile Lawrence, and Hans Joachim Aingel. In 1974 she graduated from Memphis State University with an M.A. in music and German. She has performed with the Memphis Symphony since that time, four seasons as pianist and 31 seasons as Principal Harpest. As a charter member of the Iris Orchestra, Mrs. Shaffer has held the principal harp position since the orchestra’s formation in September 2000. In 1995, Mrs. Shaffer was awarded a Rockefeller cultural exchange grant to collaborate on a harp method book based on the traditional “Sones” of Mexico. In May 0f 2007 she toured China, giving masterclasses and performing at the Shanghai Conservatory and Shanghai Middle School She also performed in the Festival Virtuosi in Recife, Brazil in December 2007. Mrs. Shaffer is on the faculty of Vanderbilt University, University of Memphis, and the Hutchinson School, and she performed and taught at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival from 1979 to 2008.