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But associating classical music with boredom and advanced age makes about as much sense as associating harp players with fluffy white clouds and angel wings. Just ask Lily Neill, one of Strathmore’s Artists in Residence and a musician who’s had a hankering to be a harpist since she was a toddler.

‘‘When I was about 3, I told my parents I thought I was going to play the harp,” says Neill. ‘‘But I don’t know what brought this passion on.”

The key word is passion: as in, Neill is passionate about the harp. She’s also pretty, funny, charming, smart — and young. Young enough to be a little alarmed when I ask her age.

‘‘Anything I accomplish is because of my playing,” she explains. ‘‘Not because of my youth.”

OK, she doesn’t want to be perceived as some kind of prodigy, although she did win the prestigious Fleadh Ceoil in New York City at age 12. (That was the first time; she has won two more times since.) And she did end up playing at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall — twice — with the late Derek Bell and the Chieftains, a band she first listened to in third grade, and listened to so intently her mom decided it was, indeed, time to rent a harp.

(‘‘It was a ‘record,’” she says, nodding her head and moving her hands around by way of explanation. That’s how young she is.)

What can she tell you about her instrument that you don’t already know?

‘‘People have this conception of the harp,” she admits. ‘‘It’s hard for them to see — or to hear — beyond the stereotypical image.

‘‘But the instrument is actually very versatile.”

So versatile that a young harp player with a passion for rock and roll can even slip one of her favorite songs into the program when it suits her.

‘‘I do the Rolling Stones sometimes, ‘Paint it Black,’” she says, grinning sweetly. ‘‘Maybe it’s a cheeky streak I have — I just put it in between reels.”

Most of the reels Neill performs these days are traditional Irish music; she’s finishing a bachelor’s degree in Irish music and dance at the University of Limerick, studying under Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin. Last year she did an exchange program, studying at Sibelius Conservatory in Helsinki, Finland — and making her own rock and roll debut.

‘‘I had the opportunity to play so many different kinds of music,” she says. ‘‘And I had a wonderful experience — this Finnish rock band called Carmen Gray just signed a record deal with Sony.”

She recorded with them in the studio and loved it.

‘‘It colored my music,” she says. ‘‘Every new thing that you try does that.”

Neill says she’s one of those people who ‘‘gets bored very easily,” although it’s difficult to imagine her bored. She appears so poised and graceful — more like a ballerina than a musician — but she bubbles with chat, ideas and funny stories. She touches on her embarrassing experience of America and Ireland being, as Shaw said, divided by a common language. (Remember: When in Ireland, never ask anyone for ‘‘a ride.”) She talks about lugging her harp around the streets of Limerick, and getting drenched — ‘‘Completely drenched” — by sudden Irish showers. She knows that when she’s in the check-in line at the airport, people suspect she’s carting a coffin around with her.

‘‘It’s a great conversation starter,” she laughs.

But the conversations she really wants to start are about traditional harp music — and non-traditional harp music, too. As an artist-in-residence at Strathmore, Neill has done concerts with guitarist Zan McLeod and tap dancer Cartier Williams; next Wednesday, she’ll perform \ with Claudia Erland, who plays the Japanese koto.

‘‘I want to be able to show off the harp in a lot of different lights,” she says. ‘‘The instrument is capable of so many different things, and at these concerts, people are going to see the harp in a lot of different ways.”

Neill says that after a show, she often hears the same thing: people telling her how surprised they are at the harp’s versatility — and at how much they enjoyed the music.

‘‘People hear it and say, ‘Wow! I didn’t know the harp could sound like that,” she says.

‘‘You’ve really shaped someone’s perception. That’s a great feeling.”

Strathmore’s Artists in Residence program presents harpist Lily Neill at the Mansion at Strathmore, 10701 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 28. Tickets are $10. Call 301-581-5100.