LANA’s Mission

The Lyre Association of North America is a non-profit organization whose mission is to initiate, to inspire, and to support the sounding of the modern lyre as a musical instrument in artistic, pedagogical, and therapeutic activities in North America and throughout the world.

Our aims are:

• To foster the experience and recognition of the freed tone as well as the rediscovery and deepening of our capacity to listen.

• To cultivate our community of members and friends through the following services: 

  • Sponsoring conferences, concerts, and regional workshops for adults and children;

  • Publishing a newsletter (Lyre Notes) and journal (Soundings), and to support the publishing of other materials relevant to our work;

  • Providing the opportunity for members to rent or purchase LANA-owned lyres and to advertise used lyres for sale;

  • Offering a music sales service for printed music, books, and journals in paper and digital format, along with lyre accessories;

  • Helping to connect new lyrists with partners or mentors.

• To promote lyre builders whose work aligns with LANA’s mission.

• To collaborate with national and international colleagues to further support the development of our worldwide Movement for Musical Renewal in all of its manifestations, including innovations in anthroposophically inspired instruments as well as the human voice.

Board Members

Nancy Carpenter, President

In January of 1993, Janet McGavin noticed Nancy's long arms and placed her own alto lyre in Nancy's hands. Nancy hasn't stopped playing since. She feels that the lyre was the instrument she had been looking for her whole life. 

Nancy had piano lessons as a child, played the flute in middle and high school and taught herself guitar in college. Choral singing has been a major part of her lifelong love of all kinds of music. She received a BA in elementary education with a minor in music and continued singing in various groups and churches as she earned her master’s degree. Nancy enjoys the harmonies of choirs to this day.  

Now retired from class teaching at the Detroit Waldorf School, Nancy currently plays for the preschool, kindergarten, and first-grade eurythmy classes. She teaches the pentatonic children’s lyre and mood of the fifth songs to the first through third graders and chromatic lyre to the fourth through eighth-graders in the Detroit Waldorf School’s after-school program. She also plays for the Christian Community services, Anthroposophical Branch festivals, weddings, funerals, and whenever anyone asks. The lyre has become a constant friend and teacher over the years and she is very grateful to have LANA and her lyre playing friends in her life. 

Julia Elliott, Secretary

Julia Elliott has been involved with the musical life at the Waldorf School her children attended in Beverly, MA, for nearly twenty years. She has worked as the eurythmy pianist and instrumental accompanist and currently teaches chorus to the upper grades. She never encountered the lyre, however, until attending the Resonare course in Philmont, NY, four years ago. After hearing the tone of the lyre, her understanding of how we experience music deepened dramatically. She now tries to integrate that experience into her work with student singers and instrumentalists, and is grateful for the ways in which the lyre has shaped her capacity for listening. She lives on Boston’s North Shore with her husband and three children.

Margo Ketchum, Treasurer

Margo was first introduced to the lyre in 1984 in Orcas Island, WA, when the Waldorf school eurythmist handed her a lyre and asked Margo to accompany the kindergarten and early grades' classes with lyre (instead of piano). After moving to the East Coast in 1985, she attended her first Lyre Conference and, responding to a request for support by Janet McGavin, began serving as secretary to APLANI (Assoc. for Promoting the Lyre as a New Instrument USA).  She later joined the Board of Directors.  Margo lives in Kimberton, PA.

An encounter with serious illness in her 20s sparked a deep and continuing interest in therapeutic music and sound therapies. When her daughter enrolled in kindergarten at a local Waldorf School, Debra met the work of Rudolf Steiner. While playing recorder and singing for the Winter Garden at her childrens’ Waldorf School, she fell in love with the lyre, but had to wait until several years later for a dear friend to loan her an alto lyre.

Debra studied Waldorf teacher training at Rudolf Steiner Arcturus Teacher Training in Chicago, and later studied therapeutic music at the Dorian School of Music Therapy. She has played lyre for patients in hospital and hospice. Recently she completed an End of Life Doula certificate from the University of Vermont, and will soon begin a practicum to qualify as a Certified Music Practitioner from the Music for Healing and Transition Program.

Saeko Cohn

A native of Nagoya, Japan, Saeko came to North America in her early 20's to study literature at the graduate level. She met anthroposophy through becoming a mother, and soon, the lyre came into her life. She had played the piano since childhood and the flute since age 15, but she had never thought of pursuing music professionally. However, after she bought a 7-string pentatonic lyre for her son's third birthday and began to play it, Saeko decided to devote the rest of her life to promoting music through the modern lyre. Her first lyre teacher was the late Kerry Lee, and after Kerry's passing, she has continued studying the lyre with such experienced teachers as Martin Tobiassen, Christian Giersch, Veronika Roemer, and Hajime Kira. Saeko regularly travels across the Atlantic to attend lyre seminars focused on solo and ensemble performance, repertoire building, accompanying eurythmy with the lyre, and teaching the kinderharp to children. Over the years, she has developed special affinity for planetary (mirrored) scales, the Mood of the Fifth, and the Maria Renold tuning.

Catherine Read

Catherine Read has been playing lyre since 2008 as part of teaching the Waldorf Curriculum at home (from Kindergarten through Grade Eleven, described in The Genius of Home, SteinerBooks).  She has attended Lyre Summer Conferences and played for Advent Garden festivals.  Catherine was previously on the Board of the Lyre Association of North America from 2002-2009, and was on the Faculty of the Dorion School of Music Therapy from 2005-2009.  She was a founding member of Resonare, a music foundation course out of Anthroposophy, and was the founding editor of Soundings.  Catherine is currently liaising with the Tir-Anna lyre workshop to support an internship in lyre building of the Derscheid Legacy lyres.

Sarah Stosiek

From the moment her fingers first touched the strings at the early age of 6, the unique sound of the lyre has captivated Sarah. She has studied with Channa Seidenburg, Diane Barnes and Christina Porkert.

Participation in various international lyre conferences provided her with inspiration and a greater appreciation for this special instrument. She has played for events in community settings as well as more formal performances in ensemble and as soloist, both at home in New York and internationally.

When the opportunity arose in 2018 to work with Jan Braunstein, Sarah began playing the whole tone lyre, and was introduced to free improvisation, which has become a deep interest. With the lyre, Sarah is always excited to experience moments when music consciously comes alive in new and exciting ways.

Sarah currently resides in Hillsdale NY on her family's farm. 

Sally Willig

Sally’s musical past, including a Bachelor of Arts in piano from the University of Wisconsin, along with her love of anthroposophy led to a meeting with Christof-Andreas Lindenberg in 2000. Thereafter, she became part of the first Dorion School of Music Therapy training, where she was introduced to the lyre. She later went on to receive a master’s degree in music therapy from Immaculata University as a bridge toward bringing both the conventional and anthroposophical aspects to her music therapy practice.

Still wishing to deepen her experience of music, Sally participated in the Resonare course, which re-enlivened her love and respect for the lyre tone. In 2013, while under the mentorship of Channa Seidenberg in early childhood music, Sally brought music in the mood of the fifth and the pentatonic children’s lyre to the Clover Hill Early Childhood Waldorf Center in Connecticut. She also taught the mood of the fifth and children’s lyre at the Sunbridge Institute Summer Program over four summers.

Currently, Sally lives in Northern New Jersey where she regularly brings music to the Threefold Community, including leading the Deep Peace Singers Threshold Group, singing and playing lyre for the Festival Puppetry Troop, and bringing choir or lyre music to the services of The Christian Community. She also works therapeutically with clients at the Fellowship Community. In addition, she is a founding member of NAAMTA, the North American Anthroposophic Music Therapy Association.

Christof-Andreas Lindenberg, Board Member Emeritus

Christof-Andreas Lindenberg is one of LANA’s founding members and was president of the LANA board for many years.

Christof-Andreas Lindenberg was born 20th August 1932 in Berlin. He grew up in Munich during the Nazi era with anthroposophical parents who opposed the regime. His father, a priest in the Christian Community, had a doctorate in Music, and Christof-Andreas enjoyed a very musical upbringing, learning all the basics in a somewhat playful manner.

Christof-Andreas began composing in early childhood and intended to study music. However, after leaving school, it was suggested he should study curative education with Dr. Karl  König. This became his life's vocation, within the Camphill Community. There he is composing and playing the lyre. Initially courses with the late Prof. H Pfrogner (Munich), E. Pracht (Arlesheim) and Dr. H. H. Engel (Glencraig, Northern Ireland) supplemented the special pedagogical training, and he became a music therapist and instructor and co-founder in the Independent Music School in Europe.

In 2001 he and his wife Norma, with two colleagues, founded the Dorian School of Music Therapy in North America, still lecturing as well in Europe.

Christof-Andreas composed mainly choral settings for festivals and music for Lyre and Ensemble work, and published music (including two song books) also various articles on music therapy.

The above biographical information was shared by Upper Esk Music where some of Christoph-Andreas’s music is available for purchase.

Colleen Shetland, Board Member Emeritus

In the long-distant past, Colleen Shetland taught public speaking on the college level, and later was a Waldorf teacher. She first heard a group of lyrists playing together in 1994, and had no doubt she was hearing “the music of the angels.” She resolved to learn to play the lyre. For many years she played the lyre at local hospitals and hospices in the DC area. Colleen now lives in the Syracuse, NY area, and continues to be dedicated to promoting the freed tone of the lyre; to supporting renewed capacities for listening; and to making materials about and for the lyre accessible to a wider public.