Mildred Dilling's mother, Rachel Freel, grew up on a farm and once heard travelling musicians play the harp and violin.

[2] At age 13, she started playing for social events, her first fee for a performance being a dozen carnations and a jar of pickles.

Dilling played for the Central Presbyterian Church's services, where she earned money to pay for her and Charlene's musical studies.

Through this job she met other musicians, including soloists from the Metropolitan Opera, and played in special events in the area as well as with the Central Presbyterian Church.

[1] Around this time, she also toured the United States with the quartet the De Reszke singers and the Irish tenor John McCormack.

After appearing on the Bing Crosby radio show, she gave many celebrities a few lessons on the harp, including Sir Laurence Olivier, Deanna Durbin, and Bob Hope and his daughter.

[2] For more than thirty years, Dilling taught Harpo Marx, a self-taught harpist who wanted to learn the proper techniques.

[2] The BBC sent her on a tour of its stations and she performed as a guest artist with broadcasting studio orchestras throughout the UK and Ireland.

She played with NBC's afternoon Chamber Music Series, performing every work then available for harp and string quartet.

She kept her harp that belonged to Evangeline Booth at home because it was too delicate to transport; it now resides in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[3] After Dilling's death in New York on December 30, 1982, Indiana University received part of her collection of 124 harps.

[6][2] In the 1920s, Dilling commissioned Browne & Buckwell to make a non-pedal harp with an "Egan-like mechanism and seven ditals".

[2] Later, around 1980, she revisited the problem of a portable harp, and collaborated with carpenters Shawn Herman, Jody Nishman, and Arsalaan Fay.

[1] Dilling once told a harpist with an infected finger and an upcoming harp concerto to perform: "Read the one hundred and twenty-first Psalm, and go on".