A career professional harpist and harp instructor, Cheryl Ann Fulton shares her inspiring journey of merging artistry with business to earn a higher income. Her path reveals how creative fulfillment and financial reward can coexist, offering valuable lessons for course creators and artists alike.

Dr. Cheryl Ann Fulton is a world-class harpist, expert in historical harps, prolific recording artist, UC Berkeley faculty member, and online course creator.

In this episode, Ari, Abe, and Cheryl discuss:

• Her journey to creating online courses and her initial experiences with Skype teaching
• The process and challenges of developing her first big evergreen course
• Shifting her perspective on business and art through the ACES program
• Details of her successful medieval music online course and its impact
• The importance of understanding what students want and adjusting course content accordingly
• Lessons learned from teaching both individual and group lessons online
• Challenges of teaching instrument techniques in an online group setting
• The evolution from one-on-one lessons to one-to-many group workshops
• Cheryl’s new courses and her approach to promoting through email lists and other channels

“What I did was, I just went for it, because I was also trying to create a legacy.”

— Cheryl Ann Fulton

A world-class artist and leading pioneer of historical harps, Cheryl Ann Fulton has enjoyed a successful performing, recording, teaching, and scholarly research career since 1984. Recognized as a “genuine virtuosa of her instrument,” she performs on and teaches Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque (triple- and single-action pedal), contemporary “Celtic” lever, and pedal harps. She earned her BS (pedal harp), MM, and DM (performance/historical harp/musicology) degrees from the Indiana University Jacob’s School of Music. She received a Fulbright award for research and performance in Lisbon, Portugal, and became principal harpist for the Orchestre Gulbenkian.

A versatile recording artist, Cheryl Ann can be heard on over forty recordings on many major labels, as well as on film scores and video game soundtracks in a broad range of musical styles from medieval, baroque, and classical to contemporary, Celtic, World, and orchestral music. In 2017 she produced the film The Harps in the Trees illustrating the connection between harps, music, and nature. Her 2023 recording with the Silicon Valley girl’s choir iSing, love & light, was put up for a Grammy nomination.

Dr. Fulton is currently on the faculty of UC Berkeley, has a private studio in the San Francisco Bay Area and on Zoom, and offers online courses through her “Harp Secrets” programs. Her music can be heard on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, YouTube, and Magnatune. Besides music, she is a serious student of the Narrative Enneagram and Astrology. When she is not working, she is playing with and training her two Belgian Tervuren dogs or out riding her Arabian horse on the trails in the East Bay hills.

Resources or websites mentioned in this episode:
Mirasee
Ruzuku
Cheryl Ann Fulton’s website
Special gift to podcast listeners:
Download Cheryl Ann Fulton’s performance of Toccata in d minor by J.S. Bach
Teach Your Gift (book)
ACES Business Acceleration Program

Credits:
Hosts: Ari Iny and Abe Crystal
Producer: Michi Lantz
Editor: Andrew Chapman
Executive Producer: Danny Iny
Audio Editor: Marvin del Rosario
Music Soundscape: Chad Michael Snavely
Making our hosts sound great: Home Brew Audio

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Music credits:
Track Title: Bossa BB
Artist Name: Marie
Writer Name: Chelsea McGough
Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

Track Title: Coo Coos
Artist Name: Dresden, The Flamingo
Writer Name: Matthew Wigton
Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

Track Title: Grace
Artist Name: Shimmer
Writer Name: Matthew Wigton
Publisher Name: BOSS SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONS

Track Title: Carousel Lights
Artist Name: Chelsea McGough
Writer Name: Chelsea McGough
Writer Name: Matthew Wigton
Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION
Publisher Name: BOSS SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONS

Special effects credits:

24990513_birds-chirping_by_promission used with permission of the author and under license by AudioJungle/Envato Market.

Episode transcript: From Music Mastery to Teaching Online (Cheryl Ann Fulton).