Nancy Brennand, 95, a harpist and a member of Local 802 since 1961, died on May 25, 2026.

Ms. Brennand was born in Baltimore and began her musical training on the organ and piano before focusing on the harp at Northwestern University. While at Northwestern, she sang in the choir and got the chance to perform Brahms’ A German Requiem with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Bruno Walter. That experience transformed her and she especially was captivated by the orchestra’s harps. “The harpists were treated like princes and princesses,” she remembered.

She moved to New York City and studied with the renowned harpist Mildred Dilling. Ms. Brennand’s professional career took off and she quickly won chairs with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the National Orchestral Association at Carnegie Hall, and the Halifax Symphony Orchestra in Nova Scotia, where she served as principal harp and also taught students and arranged weekly radio broadcasts.

After auditioning directly for Leopold Stokowski in his Fifth Avenue apartment, she spent six years playing with the American Symphony Orchestra under his direction.

Ms. Brennand also established herself on Broadway, starting with Jerry Herman’s Milk and Honey (1961) and going on to perform in orchestra pits for major productions like the original five-year run of Pippin (1972–1977), Dream (1997), and subbing on the original run of A Chorus Line.

As a recording artist, she was featured prominently on traditional folk and choral albums, delivering celebrated harp accompaniments for the Robert Shaw Chorale on tracks like “My Gentle Harp,” “The Minstrel Boy,” and “The Croppy Boy” for their Irish Folk Songs release, as well as collaborating with Jean Redpath on Volume 7 of Serge Hovey’s The Songs of Robert Burns series.

Over her career, she played extensively for opera companies in New York and New Jersey, performed with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic and West Point military ensembles, spent four years as a cruise ship entertainer completing two world tours, and maintained long-running chamber ensembles including a 13-year flute-and-harp duo.

After moving to coastal South Carolina to be near her son Joseph, she served as principal harpist for the Long Bay Symphony for 16 years. (After Ms. Brennand retired from the Long Bay Symphony, music director Charles Evans interviewed her and posted a Facebook video in tribute.)

Alongside her musical pursuits, Ms. Brennand cultivated a secondary career as a watercolor artist, a passion sparked by studying Chinese painting at the China Institute in Manhattan that ultimately earned her awards in juried exhibitions across the Carolinas.

On Ms. Brennand’s memory page at Dignity Memorial, her friend Dr. Elizabeth Kaspar wrote, “Nancy and I were most dear friends for more than 75 years. We met as freshmen at Northwestern where we were sorority sisters. Later I was in her wedding in Baltimore. I heard her play in NYC. Still later we took several trips to Europe together. She was a fantastic harpist. We lived many states apart, but we talked frequently; I will miss her tremendously.”

On the same page, her niece Anne wrote, “Nancy filled her life with music, art, adventure, and love for every person she knew or even briefly met. Her colorful character, devotion to family, and worldly insight will be missed.”

Ms. Brennand was surrounded by a musical family. Her late husband James was a former principal bassist with the New York City Opera Orchestra and a member of the NYC Ballet. Her nephew Thomas, also a member of Local 802, played bass in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Mr. Brennand is also survived by her nieces Elizabeth and Mary in addition to her son Joseph.

In her 2021 video interview, Ms. Brennand said, “If I make up my mind, I do it, and sometimes it works out very well.”