All three of these pieces are from the collection Graded Recital Pieces, Vol. 1-5, by Susann
McDonald and Linda Wood. Because of the collection’s great popularity among students and teachers,
the works have been used both as training pieces and as competition repertoire. The original
impetus to arrange them for harp and orchestra came from the young harpist, Kate Zirker, who won
the Salt Lake City Young Artist’s Competition with her performance of Two Guitars in 1999. The
Zirker family commissioned Murray Boren, Chairman of the Composition Department of Brigham
Young University in Utah, to arrange Two Guitars as a concerto for harp and orchestra for Kate’s
prize performance with the Utah Symphony Orchestra.