Charlotte Murphy, a 14-year-old rising sophomore at Pine View School, has formed Young at Harp to raise money for children’s hospitals. A harp player, Murphy is teaching the harp to other students who want to join Young at Harp. She’s enlisted Pine View principal Dr. Stephen Covert and the school’s orchestra director, Christopher Mink, as fellow board members. “I’m hoping for a whole ensemble,” she says. “I want to help people through music.” 

“Even when I was 2 or 3 years old, I would tell my parents I wanted to play the harp. They said, ‘How do you even know what it is?’ I started on the piano at age 3, then the violin, and I’ve been playing the harp since I was 7. It’s relaxing, it sounds pretty, and it makes me very happy.”

“So far I’ve played at a few senior homes, at the Harvard alumni club, at The Oaks Club and at my church. My dad’s my roadie. We donated a smaller lever harp to the school, and I helped raise money through the student advisory council to buy a full concert grand harp for the orchestra. I’m trying to buy even smaller Celtic harps so I can tutor the younger kids. I’m getting community service hours for the tutoring.”

“I feel empathy for children in medical need.  I am considering a [career in a] medical field, perhaps in a scientific or engineering aspect. I’m still deciding which hospitals the money will go to; Sarasota Memorial Hospital is one of them.”

To learn more about the nonprofit Young at Harp, email Charlotte Murphy at [email protected].