From the Top

Everyone asks us how in the world McKay and I met if his family was in England and I grew up in Michigan.  The short answer we usually give is that it was an arranged marriage by his mother, (which is not that far from the truth), however the real answer is because of the harp.  While studying the harp in Paris, I decided to go to a harp competition in Wales, which I mentioned to someone at church.  This someone, our friend from Singapore, hooked us up with McKay's mom.  McKay's mom then invited us to stay with her and even decided to enter her harpist daughter, Clarissa, into the competition.  

When I stepped off the train from France to England, after living in France for almost a year, the warm embrace and shrieking squeals coming from my future mother-in-law, (a perfect stranger to me at the time), made me feel right at home.  I would have married her son right then and there!  I was so excited to be surrounded by English-speaking, smiling, and yes, loud Americans.  (Can you tell I was a little homesick!)

Clarissa and I, along with both our mothers, rented a small mobile home up in Caernarvon, Wales, where the competition was, and had an absolute ball together.  We cooked meals together, attended harp classes, concerts and competitions, travelled to all the Welsh castles and talked late into the night.  It was the best girl's sleepover that I had ever been to.  During one of those late night girl talks, McKay's mom hinted to me that she wanted me to meet her son, who was at the Air Force Academy.  I told her that I would love to.  However, later in the week, while atop the last Welsh castles we visited, she made her real intentions known to my mother - Clarissa and I were off on our own, running up and down spiral staircases - she declared to my mom that she thought I was the girl for McKay and that we should get married.  As you can imagine, my mom was a little taken aback, but in later conversations admits that she thought McKay's mom was right.

That story really started from the top, which now leads me into the real topic of this post which is From the Top.  As a kid, one of my favorite programs to listen to on the radio (golly, that makes me sound so old!) was a show called From the Top.  The program features young, talented musicians from all over the US.  After performing a piece, they interview the kids about anything, from practice, to future dreams, to wearing mismatched socks, to family matters.  From these simple, yet entertaining interviews, they create personable, down to earth roll models for kids everywhere.  Many alums of the show go on to become great musicians, but many others go on to have successful careers as doctors, lawyers, and other professions.  

From the Top inspired me so much, and in many ways was the reason that I wanted to major in Harp Performance.  When my sister-in-law, Clarissa, was chosen to participate on From the Top, I was jumping out of my skin with excitement.  The even greater joy came when I was asked to accompany her to Texas for the taping, while her parents were on a cruise.  I never thought I would get to see a live From the Top show.  What a dream!  Thanks Clarissa for making a long time dream come true.  

Each of the young musicians came from military families, as the military was the focus of the show.  General Dempsey even came on the show and sang a little number,

and then he listened to all the featured musicians.

The show is distributed by NPR (National Public Radio) to almost 250 public radio stations throughout the US, reaching more than 700,000 loyal listeners each week.  No pressure, right?

While I was up there, I told General Dempsey that my husband is in the Air Force, to which he then handed me his military coin.  Military coins are usually given to groups of military members, however when you become one of the bigwigs, you get your own personal coin for your position.  General Dempsey is Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, so lets just put it this way, if McKay were to display his coins in his office one day, this one would be in the center.  The only one that would be better than this one, would be a military coin from the President of the United States.  Awesome - I think so! 

Professional pianist, Christopher O'Riley, hosts the show and is also the phenomenal accompanist for the young featured guests.  

This was the military band featured.

The experience was incredible for Clarissa, and for me as well.  By the end, my heart was just bursting with pride as I saw the little girl I met in Wales, now all grown up and accomplished in every way.  Congratulations Clarissa and fantastic playing!  I look forward to hearing you play in many more concerts and maybe even on the radio again!

Harping Around

A close soprano friend of mine and I recently formed a musical group called Sharp (Soprano + Harp) and are hoping to perform in some concert series this year.  Our repertoire has ranged from soprano and harp arrangements to reductions of whole orchestral works.  It's been a great experience for me to play these orchestral reductions and has definitely taught me a thing or two about pedaling.  For those non-harpists out there that I have officially confused, let me explain a few things to you about the harp.  There are foot pedals at the base of the harp that control accidentals (sharp, flat and natural).  Each note (A, B, C etc.) has a pedal that can be moved to control the accidentals for that note.  For example, if I want to make all the F's sharp, I move the F pedal down.  To make all the B's flat, I move the B pedal up.  This is all very nice when you have a piece that stays in one key because you can just set the pedals and go; however, when playing a piece written by Mahler or Strauss, like we are doing, it is quite a different story.  Mahler and Strauss' pieces tend to be very chromatic pieces (meaning lots of accidentals, which means lots of pedal changes).  Some passages have upwards of 12 pedal changes per measure! 

Ok, now on to my story.  You all must be wondering why in the world my harp is sideways in this picture and why I have a huge frown on my face.  And maybe even why I just talked so much about harp pedals.  All valid wonders...  So, a week before one of these concert series' auditions, I was stomping away at the pedals while practicing our Strauss piece, when I heard the most terrifying pop sound come from my harp.  It wasn't like a bass wire string pop, which is also terrifying, but rather a deep solid metal popping sound.  My heart sank.  

What had just happened to my precious harp!  

I tried to change the D pedal that I had just moved, but it was immobile.  I just continued trying to change the pedal in disbelief, hoping that somehow it had just gotten stuck and made a random ominous popping sound - Random ominous popping sounds don't usually come from angelic sounding harps.  

Eventually I got my harp on its side, ready for inspection and sure enough, something was wrong.  The D pedal's solid metal spring had snapped in two.  With the audition being only a short 3 days away, I called every local harp vendor.  None of them had the spring.  I soon found out that no harpists in the area had a spare and that not even Lyon & Healy West (my harp company's closest branch) had one!  Out of desperation, I had to purchase the spring straight from the factory in Chicago and have it shipped overnight for a hefty $50 shipping fee.  Luckily, it did get here the next day, and even more luckily, it was the only problem with my harp.

McKay and I, again put the harp on its side in preparation for surgery.  I put the harp under and McKay performed the procedure.  

Mid-surgery.  

Some of you may need to look away if you get queasy from the sight of inner organs.

The surgery took a total of 15 minutes and was a success!  I was so relieved to have my harp back, healthy and ready for more Mahler and Strauss, but maybe not so intense this time.