Her grandfather was a professor of music at Tuskegee University, and was Lionel Richie’s first music teacher (years later, Richie and his assistant helped Calley get settled when she moved to L.A.). Just that simply.” For the Washington, D.C., native, music was a family affair. I loved Disney, and liked how it sounded, so I chose the harp. “When I was four years old I went to a restaurant with my family, and a harpist was there playing Disney songs. “As kids, my brothers and I had to choose both a sport and an instrument,” Calley remembers. With hundreds of thousands of followers and a performance at the 2021 Grammys under her belt, Calley is breaking barriers as a black woman redefining society’s ideas of what a harpist looks like, at a time when, according to one estimate, less than five percent of orchestral musicians in the United States are BIPOC. Then, just as soon as it began, the experience is over … until you click the next video on her Instagram feed and immerse yourself all over again. Soon you’re lost in the music, carried away by waves of nostalgia brought on by Calley’s covers of Brandy, Sade, Bill Withers, and others. Hers is a concert harp, which delivers a warm, well-rounded sound.
Fashionable and toned, with a regal crown of curly hair, Calley plucks the notes out effortlessly. It wasn’t until Calley was watching the Grammys on air date that it fully hit her: She was a part of history.Ĭlicking on almost any video on Calley’s Instagram feed will show her seated in front of Anastasia, as lush, green plants fill the room.
As Ricch began the first lines of “Heartless,” the camera panned to a shot of Calley, then focused on Anastasia’s ornate detailing.
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