From the age of three, when she began playing by ear on a toy piano, Debra Lew Harder’s career in music has followed an unorthodox path. Her love of learning has led her to earn doctorates in both medicine and music, to become a nationally published essayist, and to pursue a career that is as rewarding as it is unique.

Born in Vermont of Korean parents, Debra began formal piano lessons at six when her family moved to the Midwest. Her first public performance occurred at age seven, and she gave her orchestral debut at twelve, playing the Shostakovich Second Concerto with the Canton Youth Symphony. When she was sixteen, she performed and recorded the Ravel G Major Concerto with the World Youth Symphony, and in the same year, received a scholarship to study at the Peabody Conservatory. She chose instead to pursue a broader education and enrolled in a combined Bachelor of Science/Medical Degree program at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine.

But even in med school, music remained her calling. After classes, she practiced the piano until nine p.m., then studied anatomy until midnight. She continued to perform, most notably in the Si-Yo Young Artists chamber music series. After earning her medical degree and license, she moved to Columbus, Ohio, where she worked in emergency rooms and won the opportunity to study with the legendary American virtuoso Earl Wild, who had recently been appointed as Artist-in-Residence at the Ohio State University. Within a year, she exchanged her white coat for a graduate teaching assistantship in music, and earned her second doctorate, this time in piano performance.

Since then, Debra has performed with orchestras throughout the U.S., and in solo recital at such venues as: Wigmore Hall in London, The Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago, the Xavier University Piano Series in Cincinnati, American University in Washington, D.C., the Colorado Music Fest, the historic Barocksaal in Rostock, Germany, and Haverford College’s Guest Artists Series as well as its Music and Conversation series. She was the founder of the Grand Piano Concert Series in Columbus, Ohio, and has appeared in collaboration with many artists, including Philadelphia Orchestra concertmaster David Kim at the Curtis Institute, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Perelman Theater of the Kimmel Center. Interested in the inventive as well as the interpretive side of music, she transcribes and arranges pieces from the orchestral, jazz, and world music repertoire for solo classical piano.

A devoted music educator, Debra Lew Harder currently teaches at Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges in Pennsylvania. She resides in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, with her husband Tom, their two daughters, and an incorrigible fifteen-pound terrier.