Eve Watters

Eve Watters, 75, a world-class harpist, storyteller, and artist passed peacefully at the University of Virginia Hospital ICU on October 25, 2024. after a brief illness. She was surrounded by her husband, her sister, and her closest friends, who were playing the music that her heart loved. 

Eve grew up in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, and was surrounded by music and the arts since early childhood. The household was full of classical music with speakers mounted throughout the home and music a near-constant presence. Eve was influenced by the truth of music very young.

When she was 11, Eve’s father was awarded a Ford Foundation Grant to run an educational publishing company in Rangoon, Burma (Yangon, Myanmar). While the family traveled to Burma, they took time to explore other countries, and for the very first trip that introduced Eve to England, they went via the Queen Mary from New York to London.

Eve started her musical career learning to play the clarinet. Eve always had a specific musical path and a very strong inner direction for what she liked. Soon Eve began to explore folk music and taught herself several stringed instruments to include the guitar, banjo, and dulcimer.  

At age 15, Eve attended Stockbridge School, a private co-ed boarding in Massachusetts. The academic environment did not suit her, and she returned home at age 16 and soon moved to Manhattan to take an au pair job. Her employers were avant-garde film-makers, and the rich, creative environment was comfortable to Eve. For almost a year, Eve took care of two young children and managed to save enough money to move to London at age 17.

Eve had always been drawn to the British Isles. Additionally, she felt spiritual kinship with the Celtic traditions and instinctually felt this move would move her closer to her calling.

Eve lived in England for about 13 years. There she met her first husband, Bill Watters, and they had two children. Eve’s firstborn was her son, Heron, and less than one year later — on Eve’s birthday — Hannah, her daughter, was born. Sadly, Heron passed when he was only five years old. Eve and Bill separated soon thereafter. Eve’s sister, Ruth, traveled to Derby, England, from California to help Eve and Hannah during Heron’s illness and remained with them after his passing. Then in 1979, the three of them packed up Eve’s life in England and came to Virginia where their mother was just settling into her own new life in Charlottesville after a 30-year marriage. Eve, Hannah, and Ruth, came to stay with her in Charlottesville and chose to remain in the area.

How meaningful it was for Eve and Ruth to have crossed the Atlantic to Great Britain together (on the Queen Mary) at the start of one new phase of their lives and then to come together for another crossing, in the opposite direction, to start a new phase in Virginia. Soon Eve found her way into the blossoming arts and music scene that Charlottesville offered and made it her home. It was in that new environment that Eve fully reclaimed the original vision and direction she had had for her life (which she felt she had lost touch with for a while during her first marriage) and began the style of storytelling that led to her discovering her affinity to Celtic harp and becoming a student of it. Through those reclamations, she developed the other projects and directions she pursued for the rest of her life.

In May of 1992, on a Saturday night, Eve met her beloved Ian at Charlottesville's Prism Coffee House. Their meeting was extraordinary: Normally Eve would be playing music at a regular gig she had at a bed-and-breakfast off of Route 250, but that night, the venue was booked for a wedding, and Eve was free. Ian, who is an Australian citizen, was in town for tax season, and his landlady encouraged him to join her for an evening out to the Prism. It turned out that Ian's landlady and Eve knew each through story-telling, and so the three of them spent the evening together, and Eve and Ian became fast friends. Eve and Ian also discovered that they lived just a few houses apart from each other in the Fry's Spring area. The next evening, Ian invited Eve to join him for a walk in the neighborhood, and their relationship blossomed.  Soon after this meeting, Ian went to England and Germany for a bicycle trip that took him away for several months. They remained in contact through letters, and upon his return, immigration told him he only had 10 days left in the U.S. before he had to return to Australia. Their friendship continued to grow through their letters. When Ian returned for tax season in 1993, his room in Charlottesville had been rented, and Eve invited him to stay with her.  During this visit, they decided to drive to Canada so that Ian could pursue a work visa, but that was unsuccessful and upon their return to the U.S., Ian learned once again he had only 10 days before he had to go back to Australia. When Ian returned for tax season in 1994, Eve and Ian began looking for a house together. They purchased their home in Crozet in August of 1994 and married in 1999. In 1995, Eve and Ian went to Australia to meet Ian's family, and for the first time, she saw kangaroos, emus, and wombats in the wild.

Eve shared her vast repertoire of tales and music from all over the world with audiences of all ages, traveling throughout Virginia and performing in at least 17 states, plus Britain and Australia. Eve was hailed as a modern-day bard and was a Virginia Commission of the Arts Touring Artist for nine years and a featured artist for the 1997 grand opening of the Virginia Harp Center.

Having had an intense experience of the numinous as a young woman, Eve enjoyed a rich inner life. She played a key role in establishing the Céile Dé tradition in the U.S. and had a particular love for this Celtic spiritual path’s sacred chants in various Gaelic languages. She made many pilgrimages to sacred sites, especially the holy island of Iona, and was much beloved on both sides of the Atlantic as an elder in her spiritual community. 

Eve had an abiding interest in the connection between music and healing and was one of the early Certified Music Practitioners through the Music for Healing and Transition Program (MHTP). She initiated and coordinated the MHTP classes at the University of Virginia Medical Center and helped found the Musicians in Residence Program there more than 20 years ago, enthusiastically mentoring many aspiring therapeutic musicians. In addition to playing live, therapeutic music at UVa, Eve was an active musician for the Music by the Bedside Program for the Hospice of the Piedmont. The sounds of her sensitive, gorgeous harp playing accompanied many people to the other side. For Eve, playing at the bedside was a true spiritual practice. Accordingly, there is now an MHTP scholarship fund in Eve's name. Donation details appear at the end of this bio. 

Eve described herself as making art for all the senses. Like her music and storytelling, her visual artworks were multi-layered and multi-cultural, weaving many different media and often including words to inspire and nourish. She generously shared her techniques with her fellow artists through various publications such as Somerset Studio. 

Left to cherish her memory are her devoted husband, Ian Henry, her loving sister, Ruth Turner, many dear and close friends, several cousins, and extended family. Eve was predeceased by her son, Heron, and her daughter, Hannah, who died in 2015 at age 42.

Eve was laid to rest at Panorama Natural Burial Ground on November 1, on what would have been her 76th birthday. Honoring the Celtic traditions that she loved, a memorial cèilidh — a community gathering for sharing stories, music, and remembrances — will be held at the Unity Church, 2825 Hydraulic Circle, Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, April 26, 2025 at 2:00 pm.

Donations will be accepted at the cèilidh for the MHTP scholarship fund established in Eve's name. You can also donate online at http://www.mhtp.org/donate or write a check (payable to MHTP and indicate in the subject line that it is in Eve's honor); and send it to Mindy Cutcher, MHTP, 1305 Church Rd, Oreland, PA 19075.