Detroit Harpist Cheryl Losey Feder has earned distinction as one of America’s leading young harpists, receiving national and international awards, and performing in diverse settings around the world. Top prizes she has received include the Alice Rosner Prize at the Munich International Competition, one of the world’s most prestigious music contests; First Prize and Grandjany Prize in the American Harp Society’s National Solo Competition; and First Prize in the American String Teacher’s Association National Solo Competition. Ms. Feder was also awarded John Ringling Towers Performing Artist Award from the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County in support of her debut solo album, A Story. While studying at the Cleveland Institute of Music, she was honored to receive the Presser Scholarship, the Institute’s highest award for undergraduates; the Jim Hall Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Achievement; and three times receive the Alice Chalifoux Harp Prize. In May 2008, she was appointed Principal Harp of the Sarasota Orchestra, a position she held until 2016 when she resigned to pursue a performance career. Ms. Feder is married to the newly appointed Assistant Principal Cello of the Detroit Symphony, Abraham Feder, and is thrilled to be joining the Detroit musical community.

Ms. Feder’s love of sharing music has led to performances in eighteen countries and six continents, in venues from the Sydney Opera House and Carnegie Hall, to the townships of Soweto, South Africa and orphanages of Kingston, Jamaica. Festival performances include the Pacific Music Festival in Japan; with Tanglewood, Spoleto, and Aspen Music Festivals; with the Sun Valley Symphony and with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas throughout South America. As concerto soloist, she has appeared with the New England Symphonic Ensemble, National Repertory Orchestra under conductor Stefan Sanderling, the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra under Andrew Grams, and the Sarasota Orchestra under Phillip Mann. As an orchestral harpist, she has performed with ensembles such as the Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Dallas Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Houston Symphony, and the New World Symphony under conductors including Michael Tilson-Thomas, Valery Gergiev, Gustavo Dudamel, and Franz Welser-Most. Ms. Feder has been a featured artist on the classical music station WCLV Cleveland, WUSF Florida, and in the PBS documentary Harp Dreams.

A passionate advocate of music education, Ms. Feder teaches harp students both young and young at heart in Detroit, Michigan. In 2011, she founded the Gulf Coast Harp Festival, for harpists of all ages to receive intensive summer training in Sarasota, Florida. Additionally, she had led the harp department of the Luzerne Music Center and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. In Fall of 2015, Ms. Feder was honored to be interim head of the Harp Department of Arizona State University.

Ms. Feder received her Bachelors and Masters Degrees at the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of soloist and recording artist Yolanda Kondonassis. Summer study includes international artists Xavier de Maistre, June Han, and Nancy Allen. She is a native of Harpswell, Maine where she began study of the harp at age five with Jara Goodrich.