Harpist Deborah Henson-Conant grew tired of lugging around a gigantic, temperamental instrument that didn't fully represent her individualistic personality. So she began asking harp builders what might happen if a traditional acoustic harp and an electric guitar were melded together.

"I want their child," Henson-Conant remembers saying. "Build that for me." Finally, French harp-builder Joel Garnier did.

Henson-Conant's custom-made, carbon-fiber harp weighs a sleek 11 pounds. She straps it on to move about the stage as she performs. The unusual love-child is blue, with air-brushed flames. Electronic pick-ups on each string allow its plucked melodies to soar over full orchestrations, or crank out bluesy riffs.

The go-to adjective for harps -- "angelic" -- doesn't do it justice. "It's so much smaller than the harps you are used to seeing, but its sound is huge," said Henson-Conant, a 55-year-old Massachusetts resident who grew up in California.

Utah audiences will have their first introduction to Henson-Conant and her music when she joins the Utah Symphony at Deer Valley Aug. 1, during a concert that also features Tchaikovsky's "1812" Overture -- complete with live cannon fire, as tradition demands.

Though the concert will end with a bang, Henson-Conant doesn't expect to be upstaged. The electric harp can produce a "gorgeous ballad sound," she said, but also excels at Latin music and the blues, and can't be overwhelmed by an orchestra.

That's good, because Henson-Conant, also a composer and orchestrator, doesn't like writing quiet music. "It let's me write what I love," she said. "And I love brass. I love percussion."

Henson-Conant's electric harp is related more closely to the lever harps used in Celtic and Latin music than the pedal harps found in most orchestras. The levers meant to alter pitches by half-steps so that harps can handle sharps and flats allow her to bend and jiggle pitches for effect, as electric guitarists do.

"I know it's odd to hear a harpist say that [my instrument] let's me really rock out," she said. "But the emotional range of the instrument is just spectacular. I love to go from bombast to complete tenderness, because the instrument is so perfect for it."

Melia Tourangeau, CEO of the Utah Symphony | Utah Opera's CEO, knows Henson-Conant from her days directing Michigan's Grand Rapids Symphony. The Grand Rapids orchestra collaborated with Henson-Conant on a DVD and PBS television special called "Invention and Alchemy;" the soundtrack was nominated in 2006 for a Grammy award.

"Deborah is incredibly unique," Tourangeau said. "She plays, she sings, she tells stories, and she performs jazz and blues -- mostly her own compositions. The concert will be like nothing you will have ever seen before."

Another Grand Rapids connection will be in evidence throughout this week's Deer Valley Music Festival events. Conductor David Lockington, music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony, will lead three concerts, including the one featuring Henson-Conant, with whom he developed the "Invention and Alchemy" project.

"David and I have a long history together," Henson-Conant said. "He's a wonderful conductor who is talented and fun, and I love working with him. He knows my pieces better than any conductor in the world -- in some ways, better than I do."

Saturday's program features many of Henson-Conant's own compositions for electric harp and orchestra. Among those are "Cosita Latina," which celebrates the harp's heritage of Latin music, and "Wild Harp," which nods to the instrument's Celtic history. Along the way, listeners will hear lyrical ballads, Henson-Conant's version of Dave Brubeck's "Take Five," and plenty of blues.

She sees the concert as musical journey, and promises to be a lively tour guide who connects with her audience through stories and drama. The evening is a throwback to Medieval days of minstrels and troubadours -- traveling entertainers who often accompanied themselves on portable harps, she said.

"I didn't start out to be in that tradition but in a sense, I'm in it," Henson-Conant said. "The bards were playing music of their own time. They were funny, and full of laughter. That's a tradition I love to be in. But I also really love the blues, and that's always a part of everything I do."