Information

Joan Ferguson is a freelance harpist who teaches and performs in west central Missouri and east central Kansas, including the Kansas City metropolitan area. From 1986 to 1990 she was on the faculty as instructor of harp in the Department of Music at Humboldt State University in California. She has also taught at the Summer Music Clinic at the University of Wisconsin.

She received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Wisconsin and her Masters and Doctorate in harp performance from the University of Arizona, where she studied with Carrol McLaughlin and Susann McDonald. Joan is an active member of Mu Phi Epsilon Alumna Chapter in Kansas City and the Lyra Harp Chapter of the American Harp Society, also in Kansas City.

In addition to solo and chamber recitals, Dr. Ferguson has performed with the Marshall Philharmonic (Marshall, Missouri), Montana Chamber Orchestra, Missouri Chamber Orchestra/Missouri Symphony Society, Kansas City Camerata, Independence Symphony, Jefferson City Symphony, and Sedalia Symphony, the Lee’s Summit Symphony Orchestra, the Kansas City Symphony, and at the Missouri Governor's Mansion in Jefferson City.

In addition to teaching several private harp students at her home in Warrensburg, MO, Joan continues an active interest in research about the harp and harp music. She revised the "Lyon & Healy" article for the new edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Her article, "Francesco de Lacerda and Claude Debussy's Danses: sacree et profane" was published in the American Harp Journal.

When not playing the harp, Joan is an avid quilter and has had several quilts juried into national and international quilt shows including Paducah, Nashville, Houston and Denver. Some of her quilts have been featured in publications such as: Quilt Art 2002 Desk Calendar and New Quilt from an Old Favorite: Burgoyne Surrounded.

Joan lives in Warrensburg, MO with her husband Michael Bersin.