The Team
Who We Are
Karina Kusz
President
My love for music began in Poland, seated at a piano when I was just nine years old. But it was the ethereal sound of the harp that truly captured my heart by the time I turned thirteen and that spark has never faded.
Today, as the founder and creative force behind Harpist Karina, I bring that same sense of wonder and elegance to weddings, corporate, private dinner, and social events across Miami, Lighthouse Point, Palm Beach, and beyond.
With a foundation in classical training and a deep emotional connection to each performance, I create music that feels as personal as it is breathtaking.
Follow Karina on Instagram: @harpist_karina
Melody Stein
Vice President
Melody Stein is recent Doctoral graduate from the University of Miami, Frost School of Music studying Instrumental Performance in Harp with Maestro Schwarz and Professor Johnson. While Melody regularly performs with all of the main orchestral and band ensembles as well as the Henry Mancini Institute, she particularly enjoys working with opera productions and is basing her doctoral studies on operatic excerpts in professional harp auditions. Before arriving at Frost, Melody graduated from San Francisco Conservatory of Music studying with Dr. Jennifer Ellis. She also received her Bachelor’s of Music in Harp with a minor in Performing Arts Management under the tutelage of Joan Raeburn Holland at the University of Michigan, School of Music, Theatre, and Dance.
She has performed in national performance venues that include Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, the White House and the State Department. Internationally, she has toured in Austria and performed at the 2014 World Harp Congress in Sydney, Australia. In her free time, she enjoys being a cat mom, cheering on her alma mater’s sports teams, cooking, and listening to an assortment of podcasts.
Follow her harp adventures on instagram! @melodysteinharpist
Nancy Donohue
Treasurer and Secretary
In Nancy Donohue’s early teens, neighbors moved in next door; she saw a harp in her new friend’s living room and it was love at first sight. In subsequent years, her relationship with the harp was on-again off-again. After her move to California, she was able to study with the harp professor at UCLA. Although her bachelor’s and master’s degrees were in East Asian Studies (Japanese), she continued to play the harp, sometimes in atypical circumstances, including a stint as a band member in a Christian folk-rock band. After one such performance, she received a marriage proposal from an audience member, which she respectfully declined.
Ever the non-professional harpist, Nancy chose to focus more of her efforts in supporting the harp in other ways, especially as an active member of the American Harp Society for over 40 years.
Nancy spent her formative years in and out of hospitals because of repeated life-threatening asthma attacks; it was during a time when there were fewer medical options to manage the illness. In time, she came to realize the power of the mind-body connection. Such a connection is what made it possible for the music of the harp to play a key role in her regeneration and recovery. These days, Nancy enjoys the activities and camaraderie of the members of the South Florida Chapter of the American Harp Society.
