Grace Harteming: Portrait of a Brazilian Handpan Player

Have you recently heard one of the talented Grace Harteming’s compositions, played beautifully on the handpan with nothing but her hands? Are you wondering who she is and what her journey has been like? What musical and artistic projects has she taken on?

I discovered this percussionist last year while casually watching videos on YouTube, and I immediately connected with her work. So I did some research on Grace Harteming to understand where the inspiration behind her melodies comes from. Today, I’ll share what I discovered during that research.

With this article, you’ll learn:

• Who Grace Harteming really is and where she comes from
• How she discovered the Hang drum
• More about her already substantial discography

By the end, you’ll feel closer to this artist by understanding what drives her. You’ll also learn about the future projects she is preparing for her listeners.

Now, let’s take a closer look at Grace Harteming’s story.

Who is behind the name Grace Harteming, and how did she discover the handpan?

Behind the stage name Grace Harteming is actually Grace Bender Azambuja, a Brazilian musician born in 1983 or 1984 in Pelotas, a city in the southeastern part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, about 250 km (155 miles) from Porto Alegre. While the pseudonym “Harteming” might suggest European roots, that is not the case. However, she is currently considering applying for Italian citizenship to make future tours in Europe easier. Grace Harteming currently lives in Florianópolis, another city in southern Brazil, with her partner Francine Stringuini, who is also a musician and regularly accompanies her in the performances she shares across her social media channels.

To understand how Grace Harteming began playing the handpan, we need to go back to her childhood. Her parents, Lissi Bender, a columnist for Gazeta do Sul, and José Carlos Azambuja, were neighbours and friends with a couple of classical orchestra musicians, Mauro Buss and Maria Angela Peter da Fonseca. The couple became young Grace’s godparents, giving her an early introduction to music. At seven, she asked her parents to let her learn guitar. A year later, she began taking lessons from Professor Killy Freitas at Colégio Mauá, the school she attended. Her progress was so impressive that by age nine, the same teacher recommended she join the school’s instrumental ensemble. She remained there until the end of her studies, performing regularly with the group. From that musical foundation, Grace Harteming went on to teach herself several instruments throughout her life.

Starting in 2011, she turned toward another side of music: sound therapy with Tibetan singing bowls. She also travelled extensively and discovered many healing practices and rituals connected to complementary and alternative medicine. In 2014, she met an Argentine musician who introduced her for the very first time to the PANArt Hang, which could be considered the ancestor of the modern handpan. The connection was immediate. The problem was that at the time, the handpan was still rare in Brazil, extremely expensive, and made almost exclusively abroad. She would have to wait eight long years to buy one, until 2022, when handpan production had become more accessible around the world.

When the instrument finally arrived in her hands, she began playing every day, without taking lessons. “I’ve always been self-taught,” she explains. “I learned to play several instruments on my own, and the handpan was no exception. I developed my own language through it.” Today, she mainly posts videos on her YouTube channel on a regular basis. She has about 7,000 subscribers, and her videos usually run for about an hour, during which she plays the handpan instinctively to soothe and relax her audience. You’ll find a perfect example of her compositions in the video below:

What is this handpan player’s discography?

Starting in 2023, Grace Harteming began releasing tracks on a regular basis. That year, she released her first single, titled Vessel of Light. Several tracks followed the next year, notably Shaping Destiny, a collaboration with beatmaker Bobay Beats, which became her most-streamed track with nearly 78,000 total streams on Spotify. The track is also featured on Bobay Beats’ album Mixtape 2 and was remixed, with the remix available on SoundCloud. That same year saw the release of Serenity (Live Version), followed by Handpan Duo (Live at S. J. Batista Cathedral), a duet recorded on February 25, 2024, at São João Batista Cathedral with Marcus Simon, another handpan player.

In 2025, new releases arrived, including Remember to Remember, Suave como el Mar, and As Soft as the Sea, a featured track on a song by the artist Sealskin that has now surpassed 43,000 streams. Then, in 2026, came Where the Roses Lead, in collaboration with Zitrovision and Koné, and especially Volcanica, released on April 3, 2026, on the Medsin label.

What other musical activities does this Brazilian percussionist have?

Alongside her discography, Grace Harteming quickly gained momentum on the festival circuit. As early as 2023, she could be seen at the Handpan Brasil Festival in Atibaia, in the state of São Paulo. This is a major event in Brazil for the entire handpan community, founded by Alexandre Lora, another internationally known player of the instrument. That same year, in October, she performed at the Sampan Handpan & World Music Festival, held in the Serra da Cantareira, also in the state of São Paulo. Her international breakthrough came in 2024 with an invitation to the Griasdi Handpan & World Music Gathering and Festival, which takes place every year in Stadt Haag, Austria.

In parallel, Grace Harteming also offers regular sessions called “Sons Que Curam,” meaning “Healing Sounds.” These sessions blend music, relaxation, and deep unwinding for a small audience looking for a unique experience. She also offers online and in-person classes that can be booked through her official website, as well as 12-week personal development seminars.

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Grace Harteming embodies the kind of path that 21st-century music makes possible: starting in a small city in southern Brazil, meeting an Argentine by chance on a beach in Florianópolis, waiting eight years before buying her first instrument, and then finding herself performing in Austria on one of Europe’s most prestigious stages for the genre. With this complete article, you now know much more about Grace Harteming.

Still, while this artist’s breakthrough happened with a handpan in her hands, the same could very well happen to you. For that, I strongly recommend exploring the high-quality instruments sold by the Instruments du Monde store. Dozens of handpans with incredible acoustics are waiting for you, including this model tuned to A, an easy-to-play instrument that can take you on a true musical journey.

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To discover the greatest handpan duo of all time, check out my other article about Hang Massive. Made up of Danny Cudd and Markus Offbeat, this group helped pioneer the popularization of this percussion instrument. Or take a look at the list of all the famous handpan players around the world. You’ll discover an impressive range of talent.