Elizabeth Richter has enjoyed a distinguished career as both a performer and teacher. Formerly principal harpist with the Kansas City Philharmonic and the Kansas City Lyric Opera, she has performed as concerto soloist with many orchestras, including the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra in a performance of her edition of Carlos Salzedo’s previously unpublished concerto, The Enchanted Isle.  Conductors with whom she has worked include Sir Colin Davis, Maurice Abravanel, Gerard Schwarz, Maxim Shostakovich, Joseph Silverstein, Christof Perick, Yoel Levi, and Raymond Leppard.  She has performed with world-renowned artists including Dimitri Sitkovetsky, Doriot Anthony Dwyer, Walter Trampler, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Pinchas Zukerman, with whom she played a duet encore following a performance with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.  Her critically acclaimed CD of solo harp music, Looking Glass River, was released on the Beneficence label in 2006, and includes the premiere CD recordings of the Dello Joio Bagatelles and the harp transcription of the Bach Chaconne.  Montage, her recording with flutist Sandra Lunte, was released on the Centaur label in the fall of 2007. 

An enthusiastic player of chamber music, she was a founding member of the Aeolian Trio, the resident flute, viola and harp trio at Ball State University.  Ms. Richter has appeared in recital in the United States and Europe and has been heard on National Public Radio's Performance Today.   She has performed at many regional and national harp conferences, and was a featured concerto soloist at the 2004 American Harp Society National Conference.  She is a past winner of an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Indiana Arts Commission.

Ms. Richter began her musical studies at the age of seven and received a diploma in piano from the Eastman School of Music Preparatory Department. She earned Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in harp performance from Boston University College of Fine Arts, where she was a student of renowned teacher Lucile Lawrence. She pursued further musical studies at the Tanglewood Music Festival, the Music Academy of the West, and the Salzedo Harp School in Camden, Maine.  Professor of Harp at Ball State University since 1982, in 2001 she received the Ball State University College of Fine Arts Dean's Teaching Award, given "in recognition of her superior teaching and dedication to student development."  Her students have been prize-winners in local, regional and national competitions and have established successful careers in the United States, Europe, and South America.  She has conducted master classes at Tanglewood, the Royal Academy of Music in London and at various American universities, and is a frequent judge at competitions, including the American Harp Society Young Professional Competition.  She has served for several years on the National Screening Committee for Fulbright awards in the area of string instruments.

Festivals which she has organized at Ball State University include the 1985 Salzedo Centennial Harp Festival, the 1997 Lucile Lawrence 90th Birthday Tribute and the 2007 Lucile Lawrence Centennial Celebration. She has published articles in the American Harp Journal, the American Harp Society Teacher's Forum and The Harp Column.  She formerly served as First Vice-President of the American Harp Society and as director of the Society's Concert Artist Program and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the American Harp Society Foundation.