Ashley Jackson

Ashley Jackson serves as principal harpist for the contemporary ensemble NOVUS NY while maintaining an active career as a recitalist. Beyond performance, she has established herself as an educator and researcher deeply invested in expanding access within the arts.

Raised in a home filled with music, she heard her mother accompany services on the organ at a Baptist church and absorbed her father’s passion for jazz. All three sisters began piano lessons early, yet Jackson felt a particular pull toward live performance. At age seven she added both violin and harp to her studies and continued playing all three instruments through her school years. The harp ultimately appealed to her because it opened pathways into orchestral settings, an outlet she continues to pursue.

At Yale University she earned recognition from the Afro-American Cultural Center for distinguished musical contributions, captured first prizes in two concerto competitions, and held the principal harp chair in the Yale Symphony Orchestra. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in 2008 she remained at the university for a master’s degree, awarded in 2009, then completed a doctorate at the Juilliard School in 2014. During this period she joined the faculty of Vassar College as Adjunct Artist, and her doctoral work centered on a dissertation about composer Margaret Bonds. In 2019 she made her first appearance on record, joining the Dessoff Choirs for the Avie release Margaret Bonds: The Ballad of the Brown King & Selected Songs.

Alongside her duties with NOVUS NY, Jackson has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolis Ensemble in New York, and the Qatar Philharmonic. She belongs to the Harlem Chamber Players and has created multiple original programs with the ensemble. As a soloist she has performed at Lincoln Center in New York, the Celebrate! Brooklyn festival, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. She is frequently invited to speak about Bonds and about diversity initiatives in classical music, and she has contributed several articles on these subjects. In 2023 she issued her debut solo album, Ennanga, on the Bright Shiny Things label. She currently holds the position of assistant professor of music at Hunter College in New York.