Beginning with a degree in early education, Bonnie spent 6 years teaching Head Start, Kindergarten and first grade, including working with emotionally disturbed children. In 1982 Bonnie's innovations on the Autoharp won her the National Autoharp Championship. She then made her first recording, "Autoharpin'", which feautred the Autoharp, cello, guitar, concertina and pennywhistle and wrote Beginning Autoharp Instruction Book. for Alfred Publishing Company. In 1984 Bonnie's group, "The Colorado Folk Ensemble"., toured for Columbia Artist Management for 3 years and made a second recording. In 1987 Bonnie formed, "Bonnie Phipps & The Elastic Band", a group that performs exclusively for family audiences. Since then Bonnie has won several national awards for her recordings for children, "Dinosaur Choir" and "Monster's Holiday", wrote another book/CD for Alfred Publishing called Singing With Young Children. Bonnie received an award for "Best Children's Entertainer" by Colorado Parent magazine's readers poll.
Bonnie toured the Western States for Columbia Artists Management with The Colorado Folk Ensemble and made 2 recordings for adult audiences - Autoharpin & Colorado Folk Ensemble. She now performs exclusively for young audiences as a solo artist and with THE ELASTIC BAND. A few of their performance highlights include concerts for the Tampa Bay Performance Arts Center (FL), the Lincoln Center (CO), the Maui Philharmonic (HI), Bridges Auditorium (CA), the Richmond Children's Festival (VA) and the Guam Association for the Education of Young Children.
Beginning with a degree in early education, Bonnie spent 6 years teaching Head Start, Kindergarten and first grade, including working with emotionally disturbed children. In 1982 Bonnie's innovations on the Autoharp won her the National Autoharp Championship. She then made her first recording, "Autoharpin'", which feautred the Autoharp, cello, guitar, concertina and pennywhistle and wrote Beginning Autoharp Instruction Book. for Alfred Publishing Company. In 1984 Bonnie's group, "The Colorado Folk Ensemble"., toured for Columbia Artist Management for 3 years and made a second recording. In 1987 Bonnie formed, "Bonnie Phipps & The Elastic Band", a group that performs exclusively for family audiences. Since then Bonnie has won several national awards for her recordings for children, "Dinosaur Choir" and "Monster's Holiday", wrote another book/CD for Alfred Publishing called Singing With Young Children. Bonnie received an award for "Best Children's Entertainer" by Colorado Parent magazine's readers poll.