World music harpist and composer Patrice Fisher has been performing and recording her own compositions since 1980, backed by a New Orleans group called Arpa. A Tulane University music graduate, she has worked as a professional jazz musician in Louisiana since 1975 — then in 1980 a public television special on the music of Brazil changed her direction: she traveled to Brazil, began collecting Brazilian music, and studied Cuban music, and those studies have shaped her composing ever since.
Arpa's repertoire is Latin jazz and original music on the harp, complemented by guest musicians from Brazil, Cuba, Guatemala, and Honduras. Her songs carry the syncopation and rhythmic flavor of Brazil, New Orleans, and Central America — the New Orleans side surfaces in compositions like "Tai Chi Cycling" and "Happy Socks," the title track of her latest CD. Contributions from players like German trumpeter Klaus Lumma and New Orleans pianist Fran Comiskey give the group its cross-cultural character.
Fisher is of Celtic ancestry and studied Celtic music with Irish, Scottish, and Breton harpists, and she directs the New Orleans Celtic Harp Ensemble as a second musical home. She has traveled the world with her harp, performing at the Cancun Jazz Festival, the Jambalaya Jazz Festival in Brazil, the Havana Jazz Festival in Cuba, and the Festival Centro Histórico in Guatemala, and she has appeared for more than 30 years at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.