Biography
Elizabeth Nicholson is a Portland, Oregon-based Celtic harpist and vocalist. Known for her gutsy, dynamic approach to the harp, she is counted among America’s foremost interpreters of traditional Celtic and American dance music – genres whose lightning-paced tempos and intricate ornamentation are most often displayed on single-voiced melody instruments, rather than a polyphonic, finger-wrestler like the harp. Elizabeth's harp studies have also included classical, baroque, renaissance, medieval, and Latin music, and with a deft knack for improvisation, she's stretched the traditional boundaries of the instrument into rock, bluegrass, and blues. She has also been recognized as a vocalist who “sings beautifully...her singing is delicate and pure without being over-precious,” (David Kidman, netrhythms.uk, October 2006).
A life-long musician, Elizabeth grew up studying Celtic and pedal harp in Chicago under Northwestern University Conservatory professor Liz Cifani, a renowned classical player and prominent pioneer in the 70s and 80s-era renaissance of the traditional Irish harp. This early mentorship, along with a whirlwind adolescent summer spent hiking and song-collecting with friends through the West Coast of Ireland, firmly affixed Celtic music (and its Anglo and American cousins) at the center of Elizabeth's artistic world. Moving to Portland in the nineties, she pursued harp and vocal studies through Reed College, eventually graduating with a comparative religion major, a music minor, and (lacking the charisma to found a religious cult) exactly one marketable skill: playing the harp. She threw herself into Portland's verdant hothouse of traditional music -- learning Irish back-up guitar and entertaining brief but meaningful flirtations with a host of other traditional instruments along the way.
Elizabeth has worked as a full-time musician in the Portland area for many years, and has performed in broad range of settings: She has appeared at many folk festivals, sharing stages with some truly great artists, including collaborating with legendary fiddler Kevin Burke. Under her own name she has toured domestically and internationally, ranging as far afield as Europe and New Zealand. She has released a number of recordings on the Barbarrick and Waterbug folk labels that have received widespread critical praise and international airplay (back when charting on the radio was a thing!). She has appeared live on nationally syndicated radio and many times on regional radio and television, and has played for countless weddings, funerals, and other private functions, as well as house concerts, pubs, ceili and contra dances, and stage productions. She has held harpist-in-residence positions at the Benson Hotel (playing classical harp) and The Oregon Renaissance Faire (wearing elf ears!). Less traditional performances have included giving interactive Celtic harp workshops at public schools and senior centers, playing therapeutic music for hospice and acupuncture patients, and a brief but memorable stint playing lead (metallic blue) electric harp in a heavy metal band.
Most recently, in the summer of 2026 Elizabeth began releasing a daily series of traditional Irish session tunes on an obscure little social media platform called Youtube, where she performs on a wide variety of sizes and styles of lever harp. She currently teaches a full roster of both local and international harp students, while also running a by-appointment harp shop called The Portland Folk Harp Sanctuary. She also performs frequently around the Pacific Northwest with her band The Heartbleeders, as well as assorted other projects. When she is not playing or teaching music, she can generally be found trying to mind-meld with horses, going on long, ambling walks with her husband JC, or sitting very still beneath a couple of extremely entitled (but darn cute) tuxedo cats.