Christina Tourin
Harpist ~ Performer ~ Composer ~ Author ~ Educator ~ Mystic
Internationally renowned harp educator Christina Tourin is one of the most accomplished harpists of her generation, delighting audiences with her performances worldwide, since the age of eight.
About Christina Tourin and her work
Christina Tourin is praised for bringing thousands of people to the harp through her workshop organizational skills; for introducing the modes into harp education/performance in the early 1970’s; and instrumental in developing the small interactive small therapy harp into the harp building world with Harold Westover.
As one of the foremost leading educators of the harp, she excels in her ability to combine harp history, culture, science and spirituality into her teaching and has educated multitudes of harp students through her signature programs, Creative Harping©, Rainbow of Sound™ and Color My World© plus private teaching for the past 50 years!
Christina is a Therapeutic Musician (TMus) and Music Therapist (MT) having studied under the tutelage of Barbara Crowe at Arizona State University. Her main focus is CONVERGENCE – bringing together all those who use music, sound and the arts for enrichment and well-being.
Author of the respected and comprehensive book, A Cradle of Sound-Harp Therapy Manual, she is the founder and director of the International Harp Therapy Program. She has 15 recordings distributed internationally and has performed extensively worldwide.
One who kisses the joy as it flies, lives in Eternity’s sunrise.
Christina is a second generation harpist
She began playing harp at the age of four. She received Music and Education degrees from the University of Vermont and also studied harp at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria and at McGill University in Montreal.
After her studies in Counseling/Psychology at the University of Vermont and training in Resonant Kinesiology under the tutelage of Susan Borg, she continued on to receive her Music Therapy training at Arizona State University under the directorship of Barbara Crowe.
As an International recording and touring artist, she has concertized extensively. She is an active workshop organizer and has been instrumental in the revival of the folk harp since the early 1970″s. In 1982 she founded the Scottish Harp Society of America and is the Founder and Director of theInternational Harp Therapy Program established in 1994. Healing with sound, working in hospitals and hospices, the labyrinth, composing, teaching, and writing books round out her full life.
Historical Background
Her mother, Ruth Hersey Cooper, studied music with Marcel Grandjany, the grand master of the harp at the Juilliard School of Music in New York before settling in Maine.
It was not long before little “Tina” would sit on her highchair and start playing tunes of her own. Her life was full of Ravel and Debussy and she danced to the beautiful melodies that her mother played. Sounds rang forth also from her grandmother’s piano playing and the students that came for lessons.By age 8, Christina was performing frequently on YOUTH CAVALCADE, a television show in Portland, Maine.
At age 11, her father, Donald MacKay Cooper, changed jobs and the family, (Tina with her two younger brothers), moved to Branford, Connecticut. During her teenage years she and her mother were active in the American Harp Society and performed at numerous recitals throughout the Southern Connecticut area.After leaving Connecticut she enrolled in the University of Vermont, studied Elementary and Music Education and received her B.S. degrees in 1982. In 1974 she was chosen to attend the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria for study under Marianne Oberascher. Upon returning to Vermont, she became the harpist with the Vermont Symphony, the Vermont Philharmonic and continued her harp studies by traveling to McGill University each weekend.
Meeting early music instrument maker, Peter Tourin, she soon became proficient and knowledgeable in the art of harp building and crafted 75 Celtic and Renaissance harps.
Mischa spent a year teaching English in Japan and is an avid rock climber. They both enjoying making music with stringed instruments. Four generations of a musical family are now becoming five – from Christina”s grandmother, to mother, to her, to her sons and now to her grandchildren! Picture are: Jude Koa Tourin, Mischa Tourin, Jaime Tourin, Christina with Mischa and Jaime with son, Jude!
Mischa Tourin
Jaime Tourin
Christina and Mischa
Jaime and Jude Koa
Her second album, Starlight, features the group Aletris, flautist Karen Kevra, and cellist Judith Hitt.
Discover all 15 of Christina’s CDs/mp3-albums
The von Trapps, Maria and Rosemarie,collaborated on the recording, Folk Harp Music of Austria.
Harp Therapy
Thus, the International Harp Therapy Program was born. The program is based in San Diego with many hospital and hospice affiliations. Over the decade the Int”l Harp Therapy Program has developed training programs in many countries including Australia, Holland, UK, Japan, Brazil, Asia and at many locations across the US and Canada. Her vision currently is being implemented on 5 continents with graduates from 22 countries!
Find out More About Harp Therapy
Her outreach project – A Rainbow of Sound Facilitators Career Package for people wanting to learn how to play harp and how to teach, combined with the exciting revolutionary Harp Circle program is bringing music-making to the hearts of those in a multitude of various facilities – schools, community groups, healthcare facilities and support groups!
The Dream for the Future
Christina continues to create teaching programs online to expand the quality of harp playing. Her activities now include developing educational programs and bringing the Rainbow of Sound™ program for learning to play the harp in children’s hospitals, the Color My World program to adults in a variety of community-music making gatherings and developing harp centers for the visually-impaired.
