Edna Phillips was born on January 7, 1907, in Reading, Pennsylvania, where she learned to play the piano and the violin. At the age of seventeen she began harp study with Florence Wightman. Miss Wightman was a student of Carlos Salzedo at the recently established Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. She was his teaching assistant as well. When Edna moved to Philadelphia two years later, she continued her private lessons with Miss Wightman, and audited lessons and harp classes at Curtis. When Miss Wightman was hired by Manhattan's famous Roxy Theater to play in their orchestra, she took Edna along to be her second harpist. However, Edna grew so uncomfortable with the racy theatrical atmosphere and the routine music that she returned to Philadelphia after six weeks.
