Harpist Angelica Hairston is one of four recipients of From the Top’s Arts Leadership Grant, which launched in early 2017. Hairston will receive a grant of up to $5,000 to support her music-centric project “Challenge the Stats” that lays out a practicable path to positive change. The grants are funded by the Howard and Geraldine Polinger Family Foundation, with additional support from the Karma for Cara Foundation.
Hairston is an alumnus of NPR’s From the Top radio program that showcases talented young musicians. She currently serves as a Harp Teaching Artist with the Urban Youth Harp Ensemble, a nonprofit organization that provides free harp instruction to over 80 students in Atlanta’s inner-city. She holds a Master of Music Industry Leadership from Northeastern University. Hairston studied with Judy Loman at The Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, where she received a Harp Performance Diploma, in addition to a Bachelor of Music from Thompson River University.  Hairston’s interest in creating platforms that celebrate underrepresented segments of society in the performing arts led her to launch “Challenge the Stats,” a concert series celebrating high caliber artists of color and shedding light on the underrepresentation of minorities in the performing arts.
You can read more about Hairston and the grant program on NPR’s website.
