A life for music...

Uschi Laar's musical activity as a composer and harpist is diverse and crosses many cultural boundaries. For the past twenty years, she has performed internationally with musicians from around the world.

Her roots in a family of musicians, years of training as a classical harpist, numerous journeys for educational and performance purposes in Germany and abroad form the basis of Uschi Laar's artistic oeuvre. Decades of immersion in a dialogue with the most widely diverse musical cultures have inspired her to evolve her own unique and extraordinarily sensitive style.

Her compositions reveal influences from the Orient, the Balkans, South America, and Africa. Other formative impulses are derived from jazz and contemporary music. Intensity, differentiated expressive forms, driving rhythms and delicate melodic lines combine to characterize her playing, which propels the music of the harp into unprecedented sonic dimensions. In addition to four CDs of her own, she has also performed as a guest musician on many other recordings, where she can be heard playing with artists such as Dario Domingues, Rüdiger Oppermann, Asita Hamidi, Ensemble Oriental, the jazz singer Susanne Schönwiese, Estampie Medieval music ensemble, Ramesh Shotham, and many others.

Uschi Laar was twice awarded first prize at composition competitions in France and Holland. She has composed music for four films and written numerous pieces for solo harp, as well as compositions for duo, trio, and quartet arrangements.

At workshops throughout Europe, Uschi Laar conveys her individual approach to the world of sound to professional musicians and interested amateurs. The founder and artistic director of the South German Harp Festival, she is the author of a series of books of harp instruction which explain and exemplify her didactic method.

For many years, Uschi Laar has engaged in an ongoing dialogue with various healers and shamans to collaboratively explore the healing power of music and sound. She shares this knowledge with interested people who attend her seminars.