Photo by Dutch Huff
Have Harp, Will Travel
Samantha grew up in Bethlehem, PA, and started taking piano lessons at age 4 after it became painfully apparent that she had no interest in practicing the lovely little lever harp her mother, harpist Andrea Wittchen, had bought her. Thinking that she wanted to study music in college, but realizing that the competition for a pianist would be fierce due to the sheer number of pianists in the world, Sam finally added harp to her formal musical studies in high school.
In college, she spent two years studying harp performance under Kathleen Bride at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY and then studied with Heidi O’Gara at the University of Virginia while completing a degree in mechanical engineering because she likes to make things hard for herself.
Since returning to Pennsylvania in 2001, Sam has lived in Philadelphia, PA, and stays busy as a freelance harpist in the Philadelphia region. She has performed with numerous regional and university orchestras, and in 2003, she and her mother world-premiered a two-harp concertino with the Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra titled Earth, Wind, Fire by Steven Sametz. She has also performed in studio orchestras for such recording artists as McCoy Tyner, Olivia Newton-John and Connie Francis, as well as orchestras for popular touring shows like Video Games Live and A Salute to Vienna.
Since 2005, she’s taught harp at the University of Pennsylvania, and she also maintains a private studio.
In May 2008, Sam traveled to Michigan to fill the role of parlor harpist at the historic Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, mostly because she wanted to see if staff life at a five-star resort was anything like the movie, Dirty Dancing. It was.
Sam also appeared playing her harp in the 2009 movie, Law Abiding Citizen. She took the gig because she was curious what it was like to be a movie extra. It was a lot of sitting around, but she did briefly get to meet Jamie Foxx, so thumbs up, right?
Tired of being relegated to the back of the orchestra (with the occasional solo appearance), Sam’s started taking the harp to the streets. She plays and sings with a number of bands in the Philly area and has participated in Make Music Philly, a day of free live, outdoor music performances on the summer solstice. Along with her mother, sister and tuba player Dan Nosheny, she makes up one-fourth of The Wittchen Initiative, a two harp, tuba and voice group that performs an eclectic mix of music adapted for this unique instrumentation that runs the gamut from jazz standards to modern radio pop selections to original tunes.
When traveling in Hawaii in 2010, Sam picked up a ukulele at a shop that sold two things–ukuleles and nuts. (Stick with what you know?) It’s pretty much the best thing ever because it’s the first time she’s played an instrument that’s not bigger than she is. She still plays piano, too, but mostly for sustainability-themed talk shows. (Yes, that’s a thing.)