Phillips, Edna (1907-2003) | University of Illinois Archives

Edna Phillips (January 7, 1907 - December 2, 2003) was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, and became first woman to occupy a principal position within a major American symphony when she joined the Philadelphia Orchestra as first harp in 1930. In 1924, at the age of seventeen, she began studying harp with Florence Wightman. Three years later, she enrolled as a piano and harp student at the Curtis Institute of Music. In 1928, she began her private studies with Wightman's own teacher, Carlos Salzedo, who taught harp at Curtis. Shortly after graduating from the Curtis Institute, Phillips joined the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Phillips began teaching harp at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music in 1933, remaining with that institution until 1972 when she retired. Phillips married Samuel Rosenbaum, a prominent attorney and board member of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1933. Concerned with the meagerness of solo music repertoire for harp, she commissioned numerious works for harp from such composers as Harl McDonald, Paul White, Alberto Ginastera, Nicolai Berezowsky, Ernst Krenek, and Erno von Dohnanyi. Her most famous commission was Ginastera's Concerto for Harp which was premiered by Nicanor Zabaleta and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1965.

Obituary. The Philadelphia Inquirer. December 3, 2003.

Mary Sue Welsh. One Woman in a Hundred: Edna Phillips and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2013.