Ted Nichelson earned a Doctor of Arts degree in Harp Performance and Music Education from Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana and a Master of Music degree in Harp from the University of Michigan. Ted also received a Bachelor of Music in Harp from Illinois Wesleyan University and is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, national music honorary society. Currently, he is a freelance harpist in Hollywood, California and serves Los Angeles County and surrounding areas. He also is staff harpist for Forest Lawn Mortuary and Hollywood Forever Funeral Home.

Ted has performed at hundreds of functions throughout Southern California and for events hosted by well-known Hollywood personalities. He appeared as a wedding harpist in the feature film Young, Single and Angry, and on television in Tool Academy (VH1) and The Lazy Environmentalist (Sundance Channel).

He served as a harpist in the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, the Illinois Wesleyan Civic Orchestra, Illinois State University Symphony, the Muncie Symphony Orchestra, and many other orchestras in the Metro-Detroit and Indianapolis areas. His primary teachers include Martha Burwell, Lynne Aspnes, and Elizabeth Richter. Ted has also studied harp with Alice Chalifoux at the Salzedo School (Camden, Maine), Alice Spero Keene of the University of Illinois, and Ruth Myers of Eastern Michigan University. He served as a harp teaching assistant at both the University of Michigan and Ball State University, and taught harp on the faculty of Indiana Wesleyan University. Ted also has numerous solo and guest performances to his credit and played regularly for church services at College Avenue United Methodist Church, Muncie, Indiana. 

Ted earned a graduate degree in Musicology from Illinois State University and a portion of his research was published in the Winter, 2000 issue of The American Harp Journal, a scholarly music periodical. He also teaches piano professionally and maintained large studios in both Ann Arbor, Michigan and Muncie, Indiana. He is a member of the American Harp Society, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America and the National Guild of Piano Teachers.

In addition to his music career, Ted Nichelson is the author of the eagerly anticipated coffee table book Love to Love You Bradys which he co-wrote with Brady Bunch star Susan Olsen. It will be released in September, 2009 by ECW Press.

(photo by Rob Wallace, Los Angeles)