DHC

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DHC ~ COMPOSER CATALOG

Concertos | Orchestral | Solo Harp | Music Theater | Songs | Chamber Music | Song Cycles

NOTE: This page is currently under construction. Check back soon for complete content and working links. If you have questions, please reach out via Ask-a-Question as it goes directly into the Team’s Queue.

Music for me is the embodiment of story and physical expression – the LIFE that explodes when composition releases performers, and performers release the music.

My Grammy nomination is a lifetime highlight, but so is finding a new cover of one of my pieces on YouTube, or hearing my concertos played by anyone from a symphony to a school orchestra. Each week I meet with the DHC Legacy Project team – musicians helping me test and release my catalog, so what began as my idea becomes part of someone else’s voice.

As I publish the works that built my career, I’m coaching the performers taking them on – students and masters alike. And through the Legacy Bridge Project, I connect performers who can’t afford license fees with patrons who sponsor them. Learn more about Legacy Bridge.

Read on for the music – and how to play or sing it yourself.

Harp Concertos

Deborah Henson-Conant’s harp concertos pair virtuosic harp technique with story, rhythm, orchestral color and extended harp techniques. Concerto’s exist for both acoustic-electric concert harp and electric lever harp. They’ve been performed by orchestras and harpists around the world, can be programmed for both alternative concerts and classical programming.

The best-known, the Grammy Nominated “Baroque Flamenco” is now an expanded 3-movement concerto and is currently being adapted for other instruments.

Orchestral Works (other than Concertos)

Harp-centered, these orchestral works blend classical technique with Flamenco, Blues, Latin, and jazz influences, for acoustic-electric pedal harp or the “DHC” Electric Lever harp. Several are drawn from the Grammy-nominated “Invention & Alchemy” collection. Every piece has been performed by orchestras worldwide — including the Pittsburgh Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Boston Pops, and National Symphony Orchestra — as well as in university and educational programs pairing professional soloists with student and community orchestras.

Solo Harp Works (Pedal & Lever Harp)

As a composer for solo harp, Deborah Henson-Conant creates innovative pieces that push the boundaries of the instrument, ranging from intimate, reflective songs to bold, virtuosic works blending classical and contemporary influences. The catalog spans classical, Latin, Flamenco, Blues, and Music Theater styles, for pedal or lever harp, instrumental or vocal, with or without looper technology — suited to solo stages, festivals, or combined with story and dance. Highlights include the 3-movement “Soñando en Español” suite, originally created for German storytelling harpist Verena Jochum and now available for advanced players with or without the storytelling elements. Works not yet in print can often be requested directly from the composer.

Music Theater

Henson-Conant’s original interest as a composer was musical theater — harp works came later, as she developed repertoire for her own performing career. Her theater works explore storytelling across forms, from stage musicals to “Peter and the Wolf”-style narrator/orchestra pieces, inviting audiences into deep emotion, wit, and expanded musical expression.

They include full stage musicals like “The Golden Cage” (available for licensing) and “The Ground Zero Club” (in revision); one-woman musicals like “The Letter,” “Honey, I Shrunk the Harp,” and “Electra’s Lyre”; and narrator/orchestra stories like “The Frog Princess” and “Stress Analysis of a Strapless Evening Gown.”

Songs

The Songbook Includes vocal-piano and vocal-harp pieces – some from DHC’s musicals, and some stand-alone songs.

Many of the songs in the songbook are also arranged for Chamber Ensemble or Harp and Orchestra so they can be performed on stage solo or in larger contexts.

Styles include Latin, Blues, Pop, Jazz, Folk, World Music and Music Theater – and some include addition of stories, and expanded techniques like the use of a looper pedal.

Click here for Audio Samples of the DHC Songbook & Musical Theater soundtracks.

Chamber Music

DHC’s chamber music falls into two camps: adaptations of her harp concertos for 7-piece chamber ensemble, giving harp soloists greater access to the repertoire, and operatic song-cycle works, playable as a complete story-driven evening or alongside other chamber pieces.

Operatic Song Cycle

Early in her career, Deborah Henson-Conant wrote a series of operatic song cycles based on mythic and historical women, composed for soprano Gloria Hodes — each telling the story of a woman’s response to injustice. Updated for Boston University’s “Women’s History Month” performances, they’re available by special request and scheduled for publication in 2025 or 2026, performable separately or together as a solo concert

How to Access the music

How to Access the Music:

  • Purchase or License for Performances – Standard orchestral licensing available for concerto, and purchase of all published materials
  • Download Sheet Music & Scores – Access to sheet music and licensing of scores
  • Browse & Listen – Explore the catalog with audio samples and score previews (coming soon)
  • Sponsor Catalog Completion – Support the massive project of manually notating and publishing three decades of orchestral works, musicals, chamber pieces and educational materials including reconstruction of all files due to the recent discontinuation of the “Finale” software system – helping transfer decades of compositions into published, performable editions.
  • Performance Coaching – Work directly with me to prepare your performances of my pieces

Legacy Bridge Project

Connect with artists who need sponsorship for performance licenses, like the recent performance of “Baroque Flamenco” on Ukrainian National Television.

[Learn More About Legacy Bridge] [Browse Catalog (Coming Soon)]

[Contact for Licensing Concertos – Contact for Licensing or Collaborations on “The Golden Cage”]

 CHAMBER MUSIC & CONCERTOS for Harp & Orchestra  

Including

  • Baroque Flamenco for harp & symphony orchestra (or chamber ensemble)
    • Status: Requires full migration to the Dorico platform to avoid obsolescence
  • Soñando en Espagnol for harp & symphony orchestra (or chamber ensemble)
    • Status: Requires full migration to the Dorico platform to avoid obsolescence
  • Stress Analysis of a Strapless Evening Gown for harp, narrator & symphony orchestra (with individual movement for chamber ensemble)
    • Status: Requires migration, completion of soloist’s part for 4 of the 5 movements & preparation for publication
  • Season of Celebration #1 & #2 for harp and string orchestra
    • Status; Requires migration, completion of all soloist’s parts & preparation for publication
  • 996 for harp & symphony orchestra (or chamber ensemble, or harp & cello)
    • Status: Requires migration and preparation for publication

ART SONG & CHAMBER WORKS with VOICE

Including

  • Persephone Lost (part of “Mythic Women” Series) a one-act solo opera for soprano, harp, cello & clarinet
    • Status: Requires migration & preparation for publication
  • Songs of the Pyre (part of “Mythic Women” Series) a dramatic suite for soprano, harp, cello & piano
    • Status: Requires migration & preparation for publication
  • Three Folk Songs for soprano, harp & cello
    • Status: Requires migration, editing & preparation for publication
  • The Letter a solo cabaret musical for soprano & piano
    • Status: Requires migration & preparation for publication

MUSICAL THEATER & WORKS FOR NARRATOR & MUSIC

Including

WORKS FOR SOLO HARP or HARP & VOICE

Including

  • Soñando en Español for Solo Harp: 3-Movement “Trilogy” Solo harp concert work
    • Status: 2 movements currently in publication, 3rd movement nearing completion
  • Solo Harp concert works like The Phoenix, Anna Bella, Brubecker, Quixota and many dozens more
    • Status: All require migration. Nataliana, Merceditas and New Blues are complete and in circulation – all others require completion of scores & preparation for publication
  • Voice & harp works like The Nightingale, Way You Are Blues, You Have a Voice, and many dozens more.
    • Status: All require migration. The Nightingale is complete and in circulation – all others require completion of scores & preparation for publication
  • The DHC Songbook – with or without harp
    • Status: All require migration. Songs included in “The Letter” are complete; the rest are in sketch form

STORIES & BOOKS

Including

  • Martha and the Little Aeroplane – a story of musical adventure to save the rhythm of time
    • Status: Requires editing and publication 
  • Big Bad Bug Bud – a book and song about a little bug who wanted to be big and bad
    • Status: Requires editing, recording and prepartion for publication 
  • Strings of Passion – the 7 principles of Creative Resonance that develop creative expression from Impulse to Lift-Off
    • Status: Requires editing & preparation for publiction
  • The Frog Princess – a Amphibious Allegory about Amphibia, the daughter of the Frog Prince and the girl who kissed him.
    • Status: Audiobook requires preparation for Audible. Graphic book requires completion of illustrations and preparation for publication.

THE DHC METHOD & Additional Educational Materials

  • Complete Academy training materials – including audio, video and manuscripts 
    • Status: All materials require migration, organization and preparation for publication
  • Modulating Warmups – 3 books of Warmups created specifically to train a combination of classically-based technique and jazz-based harmonic relationships
    • Status: Set One Migrated, edited and published in 2025 
  • Fakebook Improv System – a series of simplified Fake Books in C Tuning to help harpists develop the ability to improvise from lead sheet with simplified folk and classical melodies as preparation for jazz studies
    • Status: “Holiday” Fake Book released in 2025 (Classical & Folk books scheduled for 2026)
  • The DHC Snippet Library – a series of improv prompts to help harpists (and others) develop the ability to expand the music they already play with improvisation, as preparation for more expanded improv studies.
    • Status: Scheduled for 2026

"5-DAY Harp IMPROV Challenge" 

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from  Deborah Henson-Conant

 

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