Alyssa Reit - Lever harp

Alyssa Reit is an independent composer, arranger, performer, teacher, and storyteller. Her main body of work has been creating theatrical-musical settings of myths, classic stories, and fairy tales. Her settings have been performed at such venues as the Caramoor Center for the Arts, and NYU Steinhardt’s storytelling series, as well as throughout the US; five were featured in a critically acclaimed tour at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. ​

Highlights include several commissions of H.C. Andersen fairy tale settings for the New York Scandinavian Summer Music Festival, and a production based on the life and work of Botticelli (The Triumph of Love), for which she wrote, arranged and performed the music at its premiere in Italy. Alyssa’s compositions and arrangements have been played at events sponsored by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Greenwich Symphony, as well as at festivals all over the world, most recently at the Encontro International de Cordas in Brazil and the Ottawa Chamberfest in Canada.

As a harpist, she has performed with institutions ranging from the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Pittsburgh Symphony, and the Metropolitan Opera, to contemporary music groups and Irish bands. In collaboration with flutist Sato Moughalian she arranged and recorded traditional Armenian folk music under the auspices of the Perspectives Ensemble (Oror). She has given concerts with John Cage, toured Europe with the legendary Martha Clarke, and traveled the U.S. playing with the world famous vocal group, Anonymous 4.

Concert Dates

  • May 1, 2026 - Queens New Music Festival - Culture Lab, Long Island City

15 one-minute selections for Alyssa Reit with lever help

  • Song (Music for Harp) (Op 1025) Dedication to Alyssa Reit

    E. Bugra Balci

    Virtuoso Pianist, Composer Composed 1020 Musics Yamaha Grand Pianos Artist Awarded by NASA, IBM, InVision, Yamaha Full bio at www.ebugrabalci.com/biography

    @ebugrabalci - instagram and my website www.ebugrabalci.com

  • MYSTIKOS

    Erik Branch

    Erik Branch is a native of New York City, and received a BA and MA in Music (Composition) from Hunter College. He lives near Orlando, Florida, where he is active as a pianist, musical director, composer/arranger, operatic tenor, and actor on stage and screen.

    The melody’s haunting and circling nature and the harmony’s enigmatic, slightly displaced quality, coupled with the harp’s timelessness, made me think of Debussy and Satie’s musical evocations of an imagined, mystical, ancient Greece of clandestine nocturnal rites. Hence the title, which in Greek means “secret,” “hidden,” and, of course, “mystic.”

  • Rainy Sunday

    Ross James Carey

    Ross James Carey is a composer and a foreign professor in collaborative piano at Sias University, located in China’s Central Plains. Ross has a special interest in quotation, with ‘Rainy Sunday’ being the third piece of his quoting from (or utilizing the quotation-signature of) the work of Erik Satie.

    A gently moving melodic line meets Satie’s ‘Gymnopedie no. 1’ on a rainy Sunday. Composed for Alyssa Reit call for scores to mark both the 15th anniversary of Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame and the 100th anniversary of the death of Erik Satie.

  • Comme une valse

    Francois Couture

    François Couture is a multidisciplinary musician who stands out because of his great versatility and solid experience in the field. François first studied classical and jazz guitar and arrangement at Cégep de Drummondville.Study composition and writing at Conservatoire de musique de Québec, with Pierick Houdy and Pierre Genest.

    https://www.facebook.com/FrancoisCoutureCompositeur/
    Website: www.studiofc.com

  • lostwithiel

    Philip Czaplowski

    Polish Australian composer Philip Czapłowski was born in London. In 2003 Czapłowski was awarded an Australian Postgraduate Scholarship. This enabled him to complete a Doctorate in music composition at Monash University.

    Lostwithiel was composed in June 2025, for Alyssa Reit. For this piece I decided to look back to my Cornish ancestors for inspiration, many of whom came from Lostwithiel in Cornwall.

  • Nocturne

    Joshua Paul Daniels

    Joshua Paul Daniels (he/him/his) is a composer based in Chicago, Il. In 2025 he was commissioned to write The Caged Skylark for CMAC: the University of Chicago Glee Club. He also composed Duo for Drew Hosler with 15 Minutes of Fame, and Impressions for Prepared Piano with Hope Arthur.

    Writing Nocturne, I began searching for a pitch collection that spoke to me. I became frustrated as most collections I thought about using were simply variations of traditional collections. Eventually, I landed on C-D-E-F#-G-Ab-B. Finding this collection particularly haunting, Nocturne was born.

    @joshuapdanielsmusic - instagram
    Website: joshuapdanielsmusic.com

  • The Unbearable Weight of Being

    Ljubica Damčević

    Ljubica Damčević obtained Master's Degree in violin at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. After completing studies, she began theater career as a composer, violinist, singer, performer and actress. She was engaged with various theater groups. In addition to her pedagogical work, she performs classical, tango and contemporary music.

    This composition reflects the luggage we accumulate with age — memories, duties, invisible stones in our pockets. We long to walk freely, yet the weight persists. The harp embodies this paradox: seemingly light, celestial as clouds, yet heavy to carry. It is inspired by luggage and airline weight limits.

    https://www.facebook.com/ljubica.damcevic
    @voglioenonvorrei - instagram

  • Waitomo

    Christopher Everest

    Christopher Everest is a prize winning guitarist and composer from New Zealand. Currently pursuing postgraduate studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, his works have been performed throughout Australasia and draw inspiration from New Zealand scenery and culture.

    A short impression of Waitomo caves in New Zealand, this piece explores the Titiwai (Glowworm's) habitat through a 7/8 dance and colourful harmony.

  • Chiaroscuro

    Ólafur Geir Guðlaugsson

    Ólafur Geir Guðlaugsson is an Icelandic composer born in 1995. Although self-taught for the most part, he briefly studied composition at the Icelandic Academy of the Arts.

    Chiaroscuro is an Italian visual arts term for bold contrasts between light and dark.

  • Moss Soft Gleam

    Holland Hopson

    Holland Hopson is a sound and media artist, composer and improviser. A multi-instrumentalist, he usually performs on clawhammer banjo and electronics. Holland often augments his instruments with custom-designed sensor interfaces and performs with his own highly responsive, interactive computer programs. Holland’s most recent recording is Sky Sparrow Snow.

    Moss Soft Gleam started from a sketch made on the five-string banjo after a rainy afternoon hike in the hills of north Georgia. The piece includes some quirky harmony by taking advantage of the lever harp's polytonal possibilities.

  • Aphorism op. 13 no. 3

    Faruk Mehić

    Faruk Mehić is a composer from Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is currently studying composition at the Academy of Arts of the University of Banja Luka in the class of prof. Tatjana Milošević Mijanović PhD. More info at: https://farukmehic.com/.

    Aphorism op. 13 no. 3 is a composition for a solo lever harp dedicated to Alyssa Reit.

  • Fairies Dance

    Ken Metz

    Ken Metz is a composer who loves music and has devoted his life to it. He teaches music theory and serves as assistant chair of the music department at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas.

    The piece is a fantasy with the title suggesting a dance by fairies while the music is performed.

  • Catch the heart off guard

    Marina Romani

    Marina Romani is an Italian composer and teacher. Her music has been performed in Italy and abroad, at the New Music Symposium (2020 - U.K.), the USA, in the Festival Expresiones Contemporàneas (2020 - Mexico), Argentina, Croatia, in the Festival Osmose (Belgium), Fifteen Minutes of Fame (2023).

    The title is taken from Seamus Heaney's poem "Postscript." The piece expresses surprise, amazement, and openness to beauty. "Catch the heart off guard and blow it open," the full line reads.

    @_marinaromani - instagram

  • Being Yourself Presupposes Glimpsing Who You Are

    Juan Maria Solare

    Juan María Solare (1966, Argentina), works in Germany as composer, pianist, and teaching at the University of Bremen. His music has been performed across five continents, earned 11 composition prizes and garnered over 30 million streams in Spotify. More than 33 CDs by various performers feature his works. https://www.JuanMariaSolare.com

    The piece uses the lever harp’s particular tuning possibilities to create harmonic fields that shift between tonal and non-tonal, evoking a “colored G minor.” The title reflects that, in order to be oneself, one must first know (and accept) oneself—but often we glimpse only a fragment of who we are.

  • diés und dás

    Jane Wang

    Composer/musician Jane Wang has frequently written and performed her own music for theatre and dance. A 2013 Drama Desk Award “Outstanding Music in a Play” Nominee, she was also selected for three 60x60 projects. She continues to compose and perform remotely (being immune compromised). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Wang_(composer_and_musician)

    One minute lever harp sonic thread through circular motifs with brief splashes of percussive colors.