Mary Lattimore (born September 11, 1980) is an American classically trained harpist based in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. In addition to her solo work and collaborations with fellow

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

musician Jeff Zeigler, she has performed with indie musicians including

Thurston Moore Thurston Joseph Moore (born July 25, 1958) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter best known as a member of the rock band Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running ...

, Kurt Vile, and Steve Gunn.

Biography

Originally from

Asheville, North Carolina Asheville ( ) is a city in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. Located at the confluence of the French Broad River, French Broad and Swannanoa River, Swannanoa rivers, it is the county seat of Buncombe County. It is the most populou ...

, Lattimore was raised in western

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. Her mother was also a harpist, and so Mary learned to play the harp when she was 11 years old. She was not very interested in it at first, but this began to change as she got better at it. She studied at the

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. Established in 1921 by celebrated industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman, it was the ...

where she worked on the college radio. While taking summer classes at UNC, Lattimore also worked briefly at

WXYC WXYC (89.3 FM) is an American radio station broadcasting a college radio format. Licensed to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, the station is non-commercial and run by students of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The ...

in Chapel Hill.

Musical career

One of Lattimore's first musical activities was her contribution to

the Valerie Project The Valerie Project was a Philadelphia-based psychedelic folk band. Their first (self-titled) album, released in 2007, is intended to serve as an alternate soundtrack to the cult Czech New Wave film '' Valerie and Her Week of Wonders''.

, which released its self-titled debut album in 2007. This album was intended to be an alternative soundtrack to the film '' Valerie and Her Week of Wonders''. Lattimore released her first solo effort in 2012, a self-titled cassette, on Fred Thomas' Life Like imprint. The following year, this album was re-released by Desire Path Recordings as ''The Withdrawing Room''. In 2014, Lattimore and Zeigler released ''Slant of Light'' on

Thrill Jockey Thrill Jockey is an American independent record label established by former Atlantic Records A&R representative Bettina Richards and based in Chicago. History Richards started the label in 1992 with $35,000 of family and personal capital, while ...

. Also that year, Lattimore received a Pew Fellowship grant, which she used to travel around

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

; while doing so, she recorded the album ''At the Dam'', which was released on

Ghostly International Ghostly International is an American independent record label founded in 1999 by Samuel Valenti IV and currently headquartered in Brooklyn, New York City with team in Los Angeles, and London. Artists include Matthew Dear, Dabrye (a.k.a. Tadd Mu ...

in 2016. The album's title was taken from an essay about the

Hoover Dam The Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado, Black Canyon of the Colorado River (U.S.), Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. Constructed between 1931 and 1936, d ...

Joan Didion Joan Didion (; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer and journalist. She is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism, along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson, and Tom Wolfe. Didio ...

's 1979 book '' The White Album''. On 18 May 2018, Lattimore released the album '' Hundreds of Days'', which received critical acclaim. Lattimore's harp work is featured in an episode of ''

Atlas Obscura ''Atlas Obscura'' is an United States, American-based travel and exploration company. It was founded in 2009 by author Joshua Foer and documentary filmmaker/author Dylan Thuras. It catalogs unusual and obscure travel destinations via professiona ...

'' released in 2021. On Steve Gunn's album ''Other You'' (Matador, August 30, 2021) she contributed to "Sugar Kiss", an instrumental duet.

Discography

Studio albums * ''The Withdrawing Room'' (Desire Path, 2013) * ''At the Dam'' (

, 2016) * '' Hundreds of Days'' (Ghostly International, 2018) * '' Silver Ladders'' (Ghostly International, 2020) * '' Goodbye, Hotel Arkada'' (Ghostly International, 2023) Collaborative albums * ''Slant of Light'' (with Jeff Zeigler) (

, 2014) * ''Ghost Forests'' (with

Meg Baird Meg Baird is an American musician based in San Francisco, California, United States, who, in addition to her solo career, is known as a founding member, lead vocalist, and drummer for Heron Oblivion, along with members from Assemble Head in Sunb ...

) (Three Lobed Recordings, 2018) * ''New Rain Duets'' (with

Mac McCaughan Ralph Lee "Mac" McCaughan (; born July 12, 1967) is an American musician and record label owner, based in North Carolina. His main musical projects have been Superchunk since 1989 and Portastatic since the early 1990s. In 1989 he founded the ind ...

) (Three Lobed Recordings, 2019) Compilation albums * ''Luciferin Light'' (Kit, 2015) * ''Collected Pieces'' (Ghostly International, 2017) *''Collected Pieces II'' (Ghostly International, 2021)

References

External links

*
Lattimore
on

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

Lattimore discography
at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lattimore, Mary American women harpists 21st-century American composers 21st-century American women musicians 21st-century American women composers Musicians from Asheville, North Carolina Thrill Jockey artists Ghostly International artists The Valerie Project members 1980 births Living people