Background
As the daughter of Professor Doctor Edwin L. Carstensen, a biomedical engineer in University of Rochester, New York, Dee was influenced by her father and his musical talent on piano and clarinet.
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Dee Carstensen
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Although the program only lasted one year, Dee studied the harp for nine.
Career
At the age of eight, Carstensen was selected as one of five children tapped by the Eastman School of Music"s experimental program to study harp with a classical harpist from the New York Philharmonic. She also developed an interest in singing and songwriting, which eventually caused her to move from the conservatory path to a career as a singer-songwriter. Her debut album Beloved One, released in 1993, included guitar work by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits.
Her second album, Regarding the Soul (1995), integrated her singing, songwriting and harp-playing.
The Map (1998) was a collaboration with Mainieri. Their first child, Ruby Anna, was born on November 19, 2000.
Dee went back into the studio and recorded a solo album,, which was released in 2005. did not include any guitar work. Instead, it featured Dee"s harp and vocals, with backing from the Tosca String Quartet and several woodwind players.
Dee was the first popular singer to participate in the Lyon & Healy Jazz and People’s Harp Festival (1999), sharing the stage with jazz harpists Park Stickney and Deborah Henson-Conant.
Dee plays a Lyon & Healy electric harp in her recordings and live performances. Her incorporation of harp in singer-songwriter and popular music also influenced the new generation of young singer-songwriter-harpists, such as Joanna Newsom and Habiba Doorenbos.
