Lucille Reilly is regarded by colleagues as a “true musical talent,” and “a musician’s musician,” with “music drip[ping] from her fingers,” accolades that performance venues like The Academy of Music, Philadelphia; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC; City Stages, Birmingham, AL; Denver (CO) Center for the Performing Arts; the Philadelphia Folk Festival and the signature autoharp events all bear up.  2022 marks Lucille’s sixth featured appearance at the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering.

 

Music has been central throughout Lucille’s life, inspiring a music-education degree (Westminster Choir College) and studies in Body Mapping/Alexander Technique.  As a teacher, she brings a wealth of ingenuity and practical wisdom to the autoharp, be it at home, on webcam, at venues like the Phoenix Autoharp Retreat, John C. Campbell Folk School, Sore Fingers Summer School (UK), and personalized “B&B” lessons.  She wants every autoharpist to sound good.

 

Lucille never intended to play the autoharp, being a die-hard hammered dulcimer player and a National Champion on that instrument.  However, the late George Orthey’s good work changed her mind.  She played her hands off and eventually wound up as 3x Mountain Laurel Autoharp Champion (1995/2010/2015) and 3x International Autoharp Champion (1995/2003/2010).  In 2019, Lucille was inducted into the Autoharp Hall of Fame.  (Ah, never say “never”!)

 

Lucille has three recordings to her credit.  She is the author of Chords Aplenty (an autoharp-chords reference), a diatonic monograph series, and presented “The Diatonic Corner” in Autoharp Quarterly from August 2002 through AQ’s closure in 2021.  In 2016, the history and configuration of the GD diatonic autoharp caught Lucille’s attention, prompting a forthcoming book.

 

A New Jersey native, Lucille lives in Colorado with her husband, eight diatonic autoharps, three hammered dulcimers, food processor and yarn stash.