Erin Hill, Harpist
New York City, New York, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2014
Music
Press
"This redhead... delivers a much-needed dose of marvelous pop ditties with her simply beautiful and honest voice, witty lyrics, and excellent musicianship."
- Alice Martin
"Erin Hill lights up the stage..." - David Hinckley, "Erin Hill lights up the stage..."
"Erin Hill, as a giddy, harp-playing Trekker, stands out.... The best and funniest scene in the film is Ms. Hill’s, a first date that looks promising until the conversation turns to the relative merits of “Star Trek Voyager.”
"The best part of the show was the moment when... Erin Hill, a fine harpist, raised her voice in solo..." "Erin Hill is lovely..." - Mike Hale/Ann Midgette
Hill is a songwriting angel, carved from the mold of greats like Joni Mitchell. With electric harp as the main instrument, the Kentucky-born, New York-based Hill and her band produce tracks that fascinate and mesmerize an audience, falling somewhere in between indie rock and psychedelic pop... Her lyrical sensibility is unique, bolstered by her fascination with science fiction... - Farrah Johnson, Dennis O'Neil
"Hill is a standout... and dauntingly versatile..."
"Erin Hill is lovely... and then there's the delicious sound of that harp!"
"'Reckless,' penned by Erin Hill, is memorable... (it is) delivered by her character, Etta, a sci-fi soundtrack-session harpist and one of the film's few solidly intriguing personalities." - Jeremy Gerard/Steven Suskin/John Anderson
"Beautiful! Voice exquisite; the words telling tales everyone wants to hear. The instrumental material melds into its required whole with quirky, painted details highlighting the surface. The totality makes a noise that cloaks the soul. Lovely... Crank it right up!" - Rob Worby
"Hill hits the heights with great songs" (Headline)
"Hill let the songs speak for themselves... Her voice is lovely, fluid, and expressive... These original songs herald a major musical talent." - Neil Novelli
"Erin Hill may be indie pop's renaissance grrl... Hill offers up a pop palette from a quirky/bluesy Aimee Mann... to a more grounded/less ethereal Kate Bush... to a pop-gilded Chrissie Hynde... Hill's success is the result of her ability to balance her pop sweetness with a tart sonic aftertaste by means of her edgy arranging skills or her brittle lyrical insights." - Brian Baker
"Erin Hill... is not only a wonderfully engaging performer but versatile as well, playing five instruments..." - Michael Kilian
"The best performances are turned in by the versatile Erin Hill..." - Ken Schlager
"The invincible Hill... breaks into a fiery physical abandon when she's at the mike."
"Erin is enormously talented -- an exceptional singer, a fantastic musician, and... she has the beauty to go with it." (Marni Nixon/New York Newsday) - Gordon Cox
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Bio
Erin Hill is a harpist & singer with a #1 album on the Billboard world chart. She has played & sung with Enya, Kanye West, moby, Cyndi Lauper, a-ha, Levon Helm, Randy Newman, Sinead O’Connor, Jewel, and has played solo at The Royal Albert Hall. She is also known as The Pretty White Girl from Comedy Central’s Chappelle’s Show.
Erin is known at the Ritz-Carlton on Central Park South in NYC for her rock ‘n’ roll arrangements on solo harp, playing and singing everything from David Bowie, The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, and Neil Young to Aerosmith, ABBA, The Police, Prince and Lady Gaga. Another specialty of hers is Celtic music; her Celtic albumFour Leaf Clover hit #1 on the Billboard World chart in 2009.
Erin plays for all types of events in the New York City area and beyond: weddings, corporate functions, cocktail hours, concerts, house concerts, parties, etc. She can play either Solo Harp or she can sing and play, whichever is preferred. She can also perform as a duo, trio, or group with other instruments. She does all styles of music (including classical, of course), but she specializes in celtic, jazz, opera, and pop (50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s on up to Lady Gaga). She also performs her own original songs as well. Her concert harp is electric, and she has a small amp she can bring so that the sound can be adjusted to as loud or soft as needed.
Erin has played harp at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and she also played harp for the 2014 US Open Tennis Championships. She was featured in an HBO “Game of Thrones” 2013 promo, playing the “Game of Thrones” theme on her harp, and she is the voice & harp of Tafne for the 2014 Android video game “The Legacy of Barubash.” USA Today premiered Erin’s music video “Lookout, Science” as an exclusive, and she won a 2013 Independent Music Award for her album “Girl Inventor.” Erin did Original Music and Sound Design for the 2013 Drama Desk Award-nominated “That Play: a Solo Macbeth.”
Erin toured with the Lincoln Center South Pacific as harpist and pianist, and is the harpist on the new soundtrack for The Fantasticks, on Martha Wainwright’s self-titled debut album, on various commercials (Dunkin’ Donuts, etc.) and on MTV2’s Wonder Showzen. She’s a singer, songwriter and musician on the Dream Jam Band’s major label debut on EMI. As a voice-over artist she’s been heard on commercials from Coca-Cola, Comcast, and Match.com to Play-Doh, Walmart and Dunkin’ Donuts.
In the film Clear Blue Tuesday, she is a composer, screenwriter, and actor. The New York Times said: “Erin Hill, as a giddy, harp-playing Trekker, is a standout… The best and funniest scene in the film is Ms. Hill’s, a first date that looks promising until the conversation turns to the relative merits of Star Trek: Voyager…..” Erin was also in the Tim Robbins film Cradle Will Rock (and appears on the soundtrack alongside Eddie Vedder & PJ Harvey); HBO’s The Chris Rock Show; Comedy Central’s Chappelle’s Show;and PBS’s American Masters.
Erin’s band was a Dragon*Con house band in 2012, playing her original pop music at the world’s largest Science Fiction & Fantasy convention. Both of her sci-fi music videos, “Giant Mushrooms” and “Lookout, Science,” were part of the Dragon*Con Independent Film Festival 2012.
As a stage actor, she was in the original Broadway casts of Titanic, Sam Mendes’ Cabaret, and Urinetown and has twice been part of the Sundance Theater Lab in Utah, originating the role of Ilse in Spring Awakening with Duncan Sheik, and as musical director for Lil’s 90th (also at the Long Wharf Theater) with Jo Bonney. She was seen most recently in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Classic Stage Company in NYC alongside Bebe Neuwirth and Christina Ricci (Newsday called her “the dangerously enjoyable Erin Hill”).
Erin toured with and opened for a-ha in 2008 in Europe and London, where she played solo at the Royal Albert Hall (see the a-ha.com interview with Erin on a-ha’s official site). Erin is also a huge Beatles fan, and performs regularly with Jimmy Vivino (of Conan O’Brien) and Will Lee (of Letterman) in The Fab Faux. And lastly, she also juggles and is an expert at walking on her hands (one of which can be seen in the film Clear Blue Tuesday, and the other on The Rosie O’Donnell Show, the 52nd Annual Tony Awards, and Late Night with David Letterman).
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