Described by the Philadelphia Inquirer as an “exceptionally fine” player, Helen Gerhold is a seasoned international performer who has played solos at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, the Stars of Tomorrow Concert at the USA International Harp Competition, and the Focus on Youth Concert at the 2011 World Harp Congress. She has been a featured soloist at the Lyon & Healy Summer Concert Series, the Philadelphia Harp Music Festival, on National Public Radio’s From the Top, with the Lower Merion Symphony Orchestra, and with the Philadelphia Young Artists Orchestra. Among her accolades are the 2013 U.S. International Lyon & Healy Awards and third prize in the Young Professional division of the American Harp Society’s National Competition. She went on the 2017 Philadelphia Orchestra Asia Tour as substitute Second Harp, and was a 2017 Tanglewood Music Center Harp Fellow. Most recently, she has given both masterclasses and recitals for the Philadelphia Harp Chapter of the American Harp Society and for the Baltimore Chapter of the American Harp Society.

Helen has been playing with The Philadelphia Orchestra as a regular substitute since age 17 and was also Principal Harp of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra for five seasons. She has been featured in the Harp Column Magazine and on Philadelphia’s 6abc Action News.

In 2001, Helen Gerhold received a harp from her aunt, harpist Yi Liu, and her first lesson with Miss Lucile Lawrence. She is the youngest student of Miss Lucile Lawrence’s. Gerhold continued her harp training with Ms. Lawrence, Virginia Flanagan, Dewey Owens, Judy Loman, and recently graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music, having studied with Elizabeth Hainen as the recipient of the Marilyn Costello Fellowship. In September 2019, she was named Executive Director for The Lyra Society, a non-profit organization.