PEOPLE OF INTEREST
The HARPIST
Former journalist Gretchen Cover of
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Vero Beach found her calling when
she resumed playing the harp after
a hiatus of several decades.
Now the owner of three harps and a Kia
van in which she transports them to performance
venues, Cover is in demand to play
in concerts and at two local churches, Christ
by the Sea United Methodist and First
Presbyterian. And last year, she and classical
guitarist Miguel Bonachea recorded and
released a CD, “Sketchbook of a Journey,”
playing original music by composer Anthony
Sidney. The album has aired multiple
times on Classic 24, the syndicated program
produced by Minnesota Public Radio and
carried locally by WQCS, 88.9 FM.
Born at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
in Ohio, Cover was the daughter of one of
the original “right stuff” test pilots.
“My father was also an early pioneer in
the space program, so we lived in the D.C. -
Annapolis area for the first 11 years,”
she said.
The family moved to Brevard County
in 1965 when her father was assigned to
Patrick Air Force Base. After graduating
from Satellite Beach High School in 1970,
Cover enrolled at the University of Florida
in Gainesville, where she majored in journalism.
She had taken seven years of piano
lessons while growing up.
“As a journalism major, you’re required
to have a minor and in talking to
my boyfriend at the time, he mentioned
that he wanted to take harp lessons,” she
said. “That rang a bell with me so I found
out who the harp teacher was at UF and
knocked on her door and said I want to
take harp lessons. The next thing you know,
I had signed up for harp lessons twice a
week.”
After graduation, she spent one unsatisfying
year working for the Daytona Beach
News Journal before moving to Washington,
where she wrote for the legal publications
Commerce Clearing House and The
Daily Bond Buyer/American Banker. She
also did some freelance work and was active
in Washington Independent Writers.
She found time to play a smaller harp,
called a troubadour harp, at various sites
in the D.C. area. Then in the mid-1970s, her
father brought her a concert grand harp
from Italy. The company, Alina, was just >>
BRANDEE ANTHONY
Harpist Gretchen Cover of Vero Beach began her professional music career after many years as a
journalist and as an operations director for a fundraising company.
BY JANIE GOULD