On February 21, 2020, Muriel Powers passed away after a two year-long fight against lung cancer. She died at home, “Surrounded by Love“.
Muriel’s style of playing the autoharp has been described as intense, or dream-like, depending on the song, but always passionate. She took great pride in demonstrating how many different genres of music could be played on the instrument. Other harpists say they were inspired not only by how she played, but what she played. By doing so, she exposed other musicians to various methods to freely explore ways to “play outside the box”.
Muriel Powers was a gem of the Northwest, as a player and an organizer, as a recording artist and as a gentle spirit. She was comfortable playing full-blown rock ‘n roll as she was with meditative music. Muriel recorded as a soloist with a Celtic group in her hometown of Port Townsend, WA, and on a CD of her own compositions very much in a meditative groove. She worked in the field of healing bedside music and played at several festivals, as well as writing the column “Music And Healing” for the Autoharp Quarterly. After a long battle with cancer, Muriel wanted to donate to her favorite charity, the Autoharp Angels.
We will miss her, yet she will live on through her music and wonderful memories. Should anyone wish to donate to Autoharp Angels in memory of Muriel, you may do that by clicking on the donate button at the bottom of this page … please indicate that you’d like the donation to go to the Autoharp Angels when asked if there are any special instructions to the seller.