TCNJ

30 SPRING 2017 Nia Pierce still remembers the first time she ever laid eyes on a harp. She was 13 years old, a piano student almost all her life. But one day, when her piano teacher was out, she wandered into the harp room at Cicely L. Tyson Community School of Performing and Fine Arts, in East Orange, New Jersey. And there she glimpsed her future. "I guess it was just the uniqueness of it," she recalls. "I had never seen a harp." "I thought my sophomore year I'd connect with a lot of people, but I actually did that in my freshman year." Pierce began studying under the acclaimed Robbin Gordon-Cartier and, even at a young age, she understood how rare it was for one African-American female to be teaching another to play the harp. Gordon-Cartier's lessons struck deep. "You can tell when someone's there to just work, and when someone's there because they have a passion," Pierce says. "She became like my second mother. Her passion for the instrument rubbed off on me." When it came time to choose a college, Gordon-Cartier recommended TCNJ, in large part because she knew Pierce would be studying with the harpist André Tarantiles, whom the Star-Ledger called a virtuoso. "I love my teacher," says Pierce, referring to Tarantiles. "That's what counts. He's a wonderful professor." Working with Tarantiles, Pierce studies the harp's largely classical canon, but she said she would also like to swing toward contemporary music, even jazz, citing among her idols Brandee Younger — another young, classically trained, African-American harpist — who has transcended musical boundaries to collaborate with the likes of jazz saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and vocalist Lauryn Hill, among many others. For Pierce, adapting to a new harp instructor has been just one of the adjustments she has made in her first year of college. She took advantage of the college's Pride Mentoring Program, within the Center for Student Success, for some guidance on navigating campus life. Normally shy, she surprised herself by joining the Black Student Union and the campus chapter of the NAACP. "It's helping me break out of my comfort zone a little bit," Pierce says. "I wasn't expecting myself to be as open in the community. I thought my sophomore year I'd connect with a lot of people, but I actually did that in my freshman year." As for her future, Pierce sees herself teaching the harp to young people — she's always loved working with kids — in an urban school district, much like her own: "I want to influence other children of color to learn to play this instrument." NIA PIERCE INFLUENCER-IN-TRAINING FOR ONE OF THE WORLD'S OLDEST INSTRUMENTS

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