Jillian Risigari-Gai

Jillian Risigari-Gai is a proud Los Angeles-based musician. She started her musical path at the age of 3. Jillian earned a Master’s in Fine Arts in Harp Performance from California Institute of the Arts and a Bachelor of Music in Performance-Harp from California State University, Long Beach. She is pursuing a DMA in Performance at UCLA under the mentorship of Lou Anne Neill, former principal harpist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Jillian is currently on faculty as Professor of Harp at the University of Redlands. LA Weekly describes Jillian’s versatile style as “one who reaps musical dividends, adding to the story’s magical feeling,” and that her musicianship adds “delicious upstage accompaniment” (Stage and Cinema).

Jillian’s love of live theatre has led to many productions throughout Southern California. Jillian has collaborated with 3-D Theatricals, Good People Theater Company, Hollywood Fringe Festival, Musical Theater West, Encore Southbay, The Lewis Family Playhouse, Independent Shakespeare Company, and the House of Bards. In the spring of 2017, Jillian was featured in a Laugh Than Think production of For Piano and Harpo, a play written by and starring Dan Castellaneta (voice of Homer Simpson on ‘The Simpsons’) about the lifelong friendship of Harpo Marx and Oscar Levant. Since 2022, she has served as music director for the House of Bards Theatre Company. Additionally, Jillian holds principal positions with Redlands Symphony, Dream Orchestra of Los Angeles, Pacific Opera Project, Pasadena Opera, and The Contemporary Performance Collective. She has performed with the Los Angeles Ballet, The Industry Opera Company, the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, the Long Beach Ballet, the Long Beach Opera, the Charleston Symphony, the San Luis Obispo Symphony, the San Luis Obispo Opera, the Modesto Symphony, and the Monterey Symphony.

Jillian has a passion for collecting and learning diverse harp styles from around the globe, and she performs a wide range of musical styles on various harps. She is currently Assistant Director of the Early Music Ensemble at UCLA, where she has directed a vast range of choral, baroque opera, lute consorts, recorder ensembles, crumhorn ensembles, and harp consorts. Her collaborations with UCLA’s Music of Mexico program led her to study the Arpa de Jarocha and Llanera, and she has performed with Mariachi Uclatlán, Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuellar, and Ballet Folklórico de Los Angeles and is currently under the tutelage of harpist Alfredo Rolando Ortiz. She has also performed with several North Indian classical ensembles led by Guruji Aashish Khan. This past year, she explored Southeast Asian music, performing with the UCLA Music of Thailand Ensemble and Sastra Moon, an ensemble influenced by psychedelic Cambodian rock from the 1960s.

Jillian’s lifelong ambition has always been to be part of a music community centered on the artistic process as a building block for the sustainability of classical music’s future, inclusively and comprehensively. She is currently the principal harpist & co-founder of the Los Angeles Chamber Music Company (LACMC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing audiences with exceptional, affordable chamber and collaborative arts concerts that inspire and promote our sense of passion, community, and diversity. Through Jillian’s passion for and love of intimate chamber works, she is currently curating programs that feature an eclectic range of repertoire, showcasing it through livestreams, live music, recordings, music videos, and music education.