The American Harp Journal - Winter 2020
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The American Harp Journal
Official Publication of The American Harp Society, Inc.
Vol. 27 No. 2 Winter 2020
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The American Harp Journal
Vol. 27 No. 2
Winter 2020
7 A Third Interview with Henriette Renié (1875-1956) edited by Jaymee Haefner; translated by
Claire Renaud
11 Harp Makers' Collections: From Erard to Camac by Robert Adelson
22 Paul-André Bempéchat Interviews Catherine Michel translated from the French by the author
26 Applying the Alexander Technique to Modern Pedal
Harp Performance and Pedagogy: A Discussion with
Imogen Barford and Marie Leenhardt
by Claire Happel Ashe
52 Recent Publications and Recordings by Suzanne L. Moulton-Gertig
4 From the AHS President
5 From the AHS Executive Director
6 From the Associate Editor
36 In Memoriam: Sam Milligan
38 In Memoriam: Ruth Wickersham Papalia
40 In Memoriam: Louise Trotter
41 In Memoriam: Linda Wellbaum
44 Preview of the 2020 National Conference, Orlando
48 AHS 2019 Annual Membership Meeting
50 AHS Statement of Operations
57 Directory of Teachers
64 Index of Advertisers
Emmanuel Barcet (1870-1940): Little Prodigy,
engraved by the artist from 'L'Assiette Au Beurre,'
pub. July 1907 (litho). Central Saint Martins College
of Art and Design, London/Bridgeman Images.
THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
The Official Publication of the American Harp Society, Inc.
Change of Address Notices
American Harp Society, Inc.
PO Box 260
Bellingham, MA 02019-0260
Or via the AHS Member Portal
Copy Deadlines
Winter Issue: June 15
Summer Issue: November 15
Advertising Deadlines
See harpads.com for
current deadlines
Subscriptions (available to libraries only)
& Back Issue Requests
Circulation Manager:
Linda-Rose Hembreiker
Email: AHJCirc@gmail.com
Two issues per year:
$43 domestic
$65 foreign
Submission guidelines: Please send an abstract of your article or a brief proposal to AHJEditor@harpsociety.org. Submission guidelines are
available at harpsociety.org/publications/journal/submissions.html.
Advertising: Send all correspondence concerning advertising to the Advertising Manager: Stacie Johnston, 2 Charlton Street, Suite 9K,
New York, NY 10014. Email: AdManager@harpsociety.org, website: harpads.com
ADVERTISEMENTS: SPECIFICATIONS AND RATES
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anything additional that is included (ex. case); price; preferred contact information (phone
or email); area of the country or city where you live.
Directory of Teachers
$40 annually in two issues for a basic listing including name, address, telephone, fax, email,
and website. More detailed information also appears on the American Harp Society, Inc.
website. Visit www.harpsociety.org/Resources/TeachersDirectory.asp for more information.
Checks must accompany the order, or order and pay online with a credit card at
harpads.com.
Educational institutions may follow the normal purchasing procedure. All payments must be
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2 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
Vol. 27, No. 2 Winter 2020
AHS MISSION STATEMENT
The mission of the American Harp Society, Inc. is to celebrate our legacy, inspire excellence, and empower the next generation of harpists.
ABOUT THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
The American Harp Journal is a magazine for the membership containing articles and columns designed to inform members and to leave an
accurate record of the activities of the AHS and current issues in the harp world. This material may include (but is not limited to) biographies
of major figures of the past and present, bibliographies, historical studies, listings of publications and recordings, articles of educational
content for students and teachers, and articles concerning construction and maintenance of the harp.
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Emily Laurance
Email: emily.laurance@gmail.com
ADVERTISING MANAGER
Stacie Johnston
2 Charlton Street Suite 9K
New York, NY 10014
Email: AdManager@harpsociety.org
CIRCULATION MANAGER
Linda-Rose Hembreiker
Email: AHJCirc@gmail.com
EDITORIAL BOARD
Sarah Crocker
Sara Cutler
Jennifer Ellis
Jaymee Haefner
Diane Michaels
Kathleen Moon
Angela Schwarzkopf
Jaclyn Wappel
ART DIRECTION/LAYOUT
Some Pig Information Design
PRINTER
Fort Orange Press
The American Harp Journal is published twice yearly in the Summer and
Winter. Copyright ©2020 by The American Harp Society, Inc.
All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the editor. Nonprofit
Standard postage paid at the United States Post Office, Albany,
NY 12288. ISSN: 0002-869X.
Notice: The officers and members of the Board of Directors of the
American Harp Society, Inc., and the editorial staff of The American
Harp Journal assume no responsibility for claims made by advertisers.
Views expressed by writers are their own, and do not necessarily represent
the stated policies of the American Harp Society, Inc.
AMERICAN HARP SOCIETY, INC. WEBSITE
harpsociety.org
Member Portal
https://harpsociety.member365.com
AMERICAN HARP SOCIETY, INC.
Marcel Grandjany, Chairman of the Founding Committee
Kathryn McManus, Executive Director
Barbara Sooklal, Membership Secretary/Bookkeeper
Allison Volk, Marketing & Communications Manager
Connie Hunt, National Event Manager
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Officers:
Lynne Aspnes, President*
Lillian Lau, 1 st Vice-President*
Megan Sesma, 2 nd Vice-President*
Laura Logan Brandenburg, Secretary*
Karen Lindquist, Treasurer*
Chairman of the Board: Elaine Litster*
Regional Directors:
Sarah Crocker, Coordinator*
Nancy Lendrim (Mid Central)
Megan Sesma (Northeastern)*
Mary Ann Flinn (Southeastern)*
Sarah Crocker (Southern)*
Directors-at-Large:
Lynne Aspnes*
Chen-Yu Huang*
Lillian Lau*
Elaine Litster*
Ray Mooers
Jessica Siegel
Anne Sullivan (Mid Atlantic)
Elinor Niemisto (North Central)
Jennifer Ellis (Pacific)
Laura Logan Brandenburg (South Central)*
Chilali Hugo (Western)
Paul Baker
Cindy Horstman
Karen Lindquist*
Charles W. Lynch
Angela Schwarzkopf
Brandee Younger
*All officers and those directors marked with an asterisk are members
of the 2019-2020 Executive Committee.
PAST PRESIDENTS
Lucile Lawrence, 1962–66; Lucien Thomson, 1966–68; Catherine
Gotthoffer, 1968–70; Suzanne Balderston, 1970–72; Catherine Gotthoffer, 1972–76;
Ann Stockton, 1976–80; Pearl Chertok, 1980–81; Patricia Wooster, 1981–86; Sally
Maxwell, 1986–88; John B. Escosa, Sr., 1988–91; Molly E. Hahn, 1991–94; Sally
Maxwell, 1994–98; Lucy Clark Scandrett, 1998–2002; William Lovelace, 2002–06;
Lucy Clark Scandrett, 2006–10; Delaine Leonard Fedson, 2010–14;
Ann Yeung, 2014–16; Cheryl Dungan Cunningham, 2016–18.
PAST BOARD CHAIRS
John Blyth, 1964–68; Ann Stockton, 1968–74; Charles Kleinstuber, 1974–75; Mario
Falcao, 1975–79; Sylvia Meyer, 1979–82; Margaret Ling, 1982–83; Faith Carman,
1983–86; Ruth Papalia, 1986–88; Lynne Wainwright Palmer, 1988–89; Faith Carman,
1989–94; David Kolacny, 1994–95; Barbara Weiger Lepke-Sims, 1995–98; Jan
Bishop, 1998–2002; Linda Wood Rollo, 2002–06; Karen Lindquist, 2006–10; Felice
Pomeranz, 2010–14; Cheryl Dungan Cunningham, 2014–16.
WINTER 2020
3
From the AHS President
by Lynne Aspnes
I was performing one of the war horses of harp and
choral repertoire this past year when an audience
member came to me at the concert intermission to
thank me for performing. In the same breath she
asked, “Why is it that I only hear live harp music in
December?” My academic bent came out in force as
I launched into what was a decidedly one-sided reply
about repertoire, the use of the harp in the orchestra
beginning only in the nineteenth century, and the
nature of the harp as a collaborative instrument, etc.,
etc., etc. Once I realized this lovely woman’s eyes
were well and completely glazed over I stopped talking,
apologized for going off on a rant, thanked her
again for her kind compliment, and went back
to work.
But in the following days I couldn’t stop thinking
about her question. Why is it that there often seems
to be an audience member who is experiencing their
first exposure to live harp music? Or their oncea-year
exposure to live harp music? Because there
does always seem to be—one person. One person for
whom the experience of hearing the harp performed
live is either brand new or exceedingly rare. I think
we can forget when we’re doing the performing just
how special it is for others to hear music performed
live. We prepare in one way to perform, but our audience
has to make a parallel commitment to hearing
us play live: the scheduling, purchasing a ticket,
transportation and definitely, prioritizing the time to
hear live music. In the case of my enthusiastic audience
member that included doing all of this in below
freezing temperatures, just to hear live music! This
lovely woman reminded me that for many audience
members hearing us perform live is a unique and special
experience.
In a world of one click access to a virtual galaxy
of services and entertainment it is too easy to disconnect
from the shared experience, too easy to choose
to listen to what is known, what is familiar, too easy
to dismiss the new, the unexplored, the alternative
experience. Every time we advocate for live perfor-
mances, we create
an opportunity
for someone
else to experience
something
new. We have
a responsibility,
a duty really, to
advocate through
live performances
for what we know
to be true about
music: its power
to engage the
imagination, to spark curiosity, and yes, to transform
both performer and the listener with the visceral
connection to an emotional response. Advocacy can
seem ephemeral, even daunting: the idea of advocating
for something can make us feel vulnerable, require
us to define our beliefs and share those beliefs
with people who may not agree with us. Advocacy
requires that we be prepared for rejection. But advocacy
can also transform: transform both the listener
and the performer.
Maybe playing live music means opening the windows
while we practice. For all we know this could
make all the difference to someone out walking their
dog. For others, playing live means a major hall with
a discerning audience. Whatever the environment,
whatever the experience, I know I am going to make
the effort to get out there more, to perform live
more, and to interact with more audience members
in the coming year. I hope we all think about
advocating for the harp, for hearing music live,
and for supporting each other in the process. Our
advocacy can make a difference in ways we might
not even imagine. The harp deserves all we can do
to make it shine!
4 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
From the AHS Executive Director
by Kathryn McManus
“THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT!”
Dictionary.com defines entertainment as “an agreeable
occupation for the mind; diversion; amusement…”
Wikipedia reports that “entertainment is a
form of activity that holds the attention and interest
of an audience, or gives pleasure and delight.” However,
it continues, “what appears as entertainment
may also be a means of achieving insight or intellectual
growth.”
Those who attend the 2020 National Conference
June 21-24 in Orlando, will delight in “entertainment”
in all its forms. Performances will bring
pleasure, and workshops and panel discussions may
also bring insights and opportunities for growth. We
have had questions about whether this conference
will focus only on popular genres of music, given
our “That’s Entertainment” theme. There will be a
thread reflecting the legacy of popular and jazz harp
music, paying tribute to the trailblazers that opened
up new opportunities for harpists.
But that’s not all. Latin and world music influences,
contemporary and electronic music, improvisation
and arranging are all represented. We will
celebrate our legacy with traditional classical works
and Celtic music. Attendees will be able to grow and
find insights through participatory opportunities in
coached ensemble experiences and interactive Q&A
sessions. Other sessions will address important facets
of our musical lives such as risk management, marketing,
technology, and health. And our mission to
empower the next generation of harpists is reflected
by performances of the American Harp Society
concert artist, national competition finalists, and upand-coming
new talent.
Whether you are a student of any age, harp
aficionado, teacher or professional, and whether a
lever or pedal harpist, there will be something just
for you at this conference. The focus of the host, the
American Harp Society’s Central Florida Chapter, is
to assure that everyone attending enjoys themselves.
Beyond the core conference programming there will
be nightly receptions, a lovely casual networking
hub to meet up with friends new and old, and other
purely fun activities (follow #HarpistsInAPool to
learn more)—all set in a beautiful resort hotel at an
amazing discount price. Located in the heart of the
Orlando entertainment district, the Renaissance at
SeaWorld also offers extended discounted stays for
members to enjoy local first-class dining opportunities
and attractions before and after the Conference.
Please visit www.AHSConference.org to plan now
for an “entertaining” Conference and a Florida vacation
as well.
See you in Orlando!
WINTER 2020
5
From the Associate Editor
by Emily Laurance
One of the pleasures of
serving on the editorial
board and as associate
editor is to meet, work
with, and write about
some of the hardworking
and intellectually gifted
members of our harp community.
Every issue of the
Journal is a result of tightknit
and supportive collaborative
work, involving
the society’s executive
leadership, editorial board members, and crack production
team. Our current issue of the Journal offers
a broad retrospective on our instrument’s tradition as
well as a discussion of innovative approaches to harp
instruction. The issue includes interviews with two
legendary French harpists. One of these is the last
installment of transcripts taken from a series of historical
radio interviews with the twentieth-century
harpist and pedagogue Henriette Renié. The other
focuses on the esteemed career and current work of
Catherine Michel, in particular her foray into film
and musical theater repertoires. We are also presenting
recent work by the musicologist Robert Adelson,
focusing on the musical instrument collections of
harp makers from the eighteenth to the twenty-first
centuries. We’re happy to include as well a thoughtful
overview of the application of Alexander and
related techniques to harp instruction by Claire
Happel Ashe. Finally, this issue includes an exciting
preview of the upcoming American Harp Society
conference in Orlando, to be held June 21-24. We’re
hoping to see all of you there, and to set the record
for number of harpists in a pool!
Concordia University Irvine
Harp Scholarships
The principal harp position for the Concordia Sinfonietta and
Concordia Wind Orchestra is open for Fall 2020. A generous music/
academic scholarship is available for a qualified applicant. Study with
Mindy Ball (Principal Harp – Pacific Symphony and Hollywood Bowl
Orchestra) in the Borland-Manske Center (opened Fall 2019), one of
Southern California’s premium music learning centers. The university
owns two Lyon and Healy harps and has a dedicated harp room in
the new building. Performance venues include Segerstrom Concert
Hall, one of the nation’s greatest concert halls.
If you are interested in learning more about our principal harpist
position, please contact auditions@cui.edu.
To learn more, visit cui.edu/music.
6 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
facebook.com/concordiairvinearts
CUI.EDU
A Third Interview with Henriette Renié (1875-1956)
edited by Jaymee Haefner; translated by Claire Renaud
T
HE following interview is the third of three
that were aired by Radio-Sottens in August
1965 [possibly recorded in September
1955]. The original transcripts in French reside in the
International Harp Archives at Brigham Young University
(Henriette Renié and Françoise des Varennes
papers, MSS 7778). These transcripts were translated
word-for-word by Claire Renaud and edited by Jaymee
Haefner; they are included in Dr. Haefner’s new monograph
on Renié, One Stone to the Building: Henriette
Renié’s Life Through Her Works for Harp. A primary
source for des Varennes’s biography (translated and published
by Susann McDonald as Henriette Renié Living
Harp), these interviews center on Renié’s work, as des
Varennes worked tirelessly to preserve Renié’s legacy in
her own words.
Third Interview:
Introduction: After having spread the love for the
harp worldwide with her prestigious talent as a virtuoso,
with her compositions, and with her teaching,
Henriette Renié now only plays for her friends and
for the students she chooses. She still improves her
teaching, the shape of her works, as well as her transcriptions.
She has agreed to speak with us about this
time, full of experiences.
INTERVIEWER: Henriette Renié, not only have you
enriched the repertoire of the harp with your compositions,
but I believe that you have also published
many transcriptions; is that correct?
RENIÉ: Many, indeed. Already in my first recital, in
1892, I had three in my program. One of these, a
piece by Rameau entitled L’Egyptienne, is still played.
INTERVIEWER: The little classics, created for the
harpsichord, must be charming on the harp.
RENIÉ: They are very good; in these pieces, one finds
the grace and the charm of that period.
INTERVIEWER: Does the purely classical music lend
itself as well to transcription?
RENIÉ: Less than the early music. It’s more difficult.
For these, I can only adapt them to the harp; however,
with the Romantic works, and even some modern
works, I feel less guilty about modifying them.
INTERVIEWER: Could we hear an example of an early
music transcription?
RENIÉ: Something typical…the beginning of the La
mélodieuse by Daquin, for example; it’s from the seventeenth
or eighteenth century. [We hear some measures
of La mélodieuse.]
INTERVIEWER: Indeed, we find the quality of the
grace in it which you mentioned. What is the genre
of music which you sometimes had to modify?
RENIÉ: In particular, virtuosic works by Liszt such
as Rêve[s] d’amour and Le rossignol, where I sought
these sonorous effects by modifying the writing in
two passages. In Un sospiro, I just modified the cadenzas.
It is true that this transcription had been
strongly advised by the pianist Philippe 1 (still very
famous in the United States), who said, “but why
1 This pianist was likely Isidor Philippe (1863-1958), a close
friend of Claude Debussy. Philippe studied with one of Franz
Liszt’s students and later taught in New York City. He was
well-respected in Paris and the United States, and associated
with many of Mlle. Renié’s colleagues.
WINTER 2020
7
don’t you transcribe Un sospiro; it is made for the
harp—there are only arpeggios.”
INTERVIEWER: Would it be possible to hear at least
the first measures of this transcription, owed to the
advice of a pianist, which is quite rare!
RENIÉ: It’s a work that I love! The first phrase alone
is magnificent [She played the phrase].
INTERVIEWER: It’s above the earth! After that, words
can’t express anything more! Do your students play
many transcriptions?
RENIÉ: …yes…on the condition that they already
know how to play the harp well. To perform sonorous
effects, legato tones, detached tones, etc., one must
often go against the technical rules written in the
method of the instrument.
INTERVIEWER: Yes, it’s the exception that makes the
rule.
RENIÉ: That’s it, if you’d like. In summary, we are
forced to…“disguise.”
INTERVIEWER: Does the public like transcriptions?
RENIÉ: Yes;…I often have just as much success with
transcriptions as with works written for the harp.
Not only I, but all harpists play the Arabesques by
Debussy, Clair de lune, and other transcribed work…
INTERVIEWER: By you?
RENIÉ: By me.
INTERVIEWER: In a sense, you were the “pioneer” of
the harp!
RENIÉ: Some say so.
INTERVIEWER: But, speaking of Debussy, the [Danse
sacrée et danse profane] 2 were originally written for
the harp, correct?
RENIÉ: For the chromatic harp! But I adapted them,
and I gave their first performance [on pedal harp] in
1910, under the direction of Camille Chevillard.
INTERVIEWER: What was your connection to the
chromatic harp?
RENIÉ: My family had a friendly relationship with the
inventor of the chromatic harp; in a way, I’m even a
bit the cause of his invention.
INTERVIEWER: No?
RENIÉ: But yes. I was asked to play one evening for
some friends, and M. Lyon was there. I was fourteen;
it was the first year in which I played without the
pedal extensions which complicated my task a bit.
I told him: “The difficulty of the harp is mainly the
pedals, without which it would be a lot easier than
the piano, but due to the pedals…” Then he answered,
“I’ll try to invent a harp without pedals for
you,” and I replied: “If you do this, you’ll do something!”
INTERVIEWER: Here is an imprudent wish!
RENIÉ: Ah! And how!
INTERVIEWER: A few years later, you saw the beginning
of this chromatic harp?
RENIÉ: Yes, and worse yet, I even fought against it,
and very seriously and very efficiently. For example,
this happened at the Exhibit of Brussels in 1897,
where Érard had sent me to demonstrate their harp.
I was there in the booth, playing every day, which
bored me. But oh well…I pretended that I looked
like a trained monkey…it didn’t do anything! I
played every day, and of course, when I was there,
the chromatic harp would never dare be heard at the
same time.
INTERVIEWER: Because the chromatic harp had its
booth in front of yours?
RENIÉ: Across, exactly! You see, they weren’t playing
[the chromatic harp] when I started to play! Then,
I played a trick on them: I conspicuously left the
booth which represented Érard; then I secretly came
back from behind without any noise. I had instructed
one of my students, “When you see me come back,
you’ll wait until the chromatic harp has finished a
piece heard and then you’ll ask me to play.”
INTERVIEWER: An elaborate ploy!
RENIÉ: It’s elaborate, isn’t it? Then, I remember
that he played the Le noyer, a small transcription by
Schumann. As soon as it was over, my student asked
8 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
me, “Couldn’t you play something for us?” I went to
my harp and I boomed with all that I had. Everyone
turned around and of course, the poor chromatic
harp was left alone on the spot!
INTERVIEWER: The pedal harp found its champion in
you in many ways since you have codified your experiences
in a method?
RENIÉ: Yes, in 1940 the publisher Alphonse Leduc
asked me to “codify” my method; he used the same
term as you.
INTERVIEWER: This method: is it an important work?
RENIÉ: Yes, as much for the teaching as for the musical
examples that are part of it. The first part teaches
one to play the harp, naturally. The second part
teaches one to know how to adjust the technique to
the new needs of this beautiful instrument.
INTERVIEWER: It’s very interesting, this design in
two volumes which seem to oppose one another, and
which complete each other. If you had written this
method at the beginning of your career, would you
have conceived it in the same way?
RENIÉ: Oh! Not at all! The basis would have been
more or less the same, but I am always improving
and changing. I took my examples from everywhere,
from all existing methods and even sometimes from
the imperfections of my students!
INTERVIEWER: This is intelligent! Did you start your
serious teaching at a young age?
RENIÉ: Yes, I first gave rehearsals to Hasselmans’s
harp class at the age of eleven. At twelve-and-a-half,
I had my first student, a charming young woman who
told me, “I have heard a lot about you and I’d like to
take lessons from you.”
INTERVIEWER: How did you answer?
RENIÉ: I’m going to get my mom.
INTERVIEWER: This was charming and natural.
RENIÉ: This didn’t prevent me from being a very
strict professor right away, probably because I was
afraid to be treated like a child.
INTERVIEWER: Yes, by instinct. Did teaching have a
big presence in your life?
RENIÉ: For me, teaching wasn’t only a career, but it
was also a type of mission as an art. Moreover, I owe
it my greatest affections.
INTERVIEWER: Did you stay in touch with your students
who had become known artists themselves?
RENIÉ: I always have a great affection for them, even
when they live far away, such as Marcel Grandjany,
who remains a very dear friend.
INTERVIEWER: Do they often come back to you?
RENIÉ: A few years ago, a concert reunited three of
my most brilliant students: Odette Le Dentu, Mildred
Dilling and Solange Jean Renié, who have been
around the world, spreading my method and spreading
the love of the harp through their talent. There
are so many more that I’d like to be able to name!
INTERVIEWER: Can harpists assist composers in writing
for the harp?
RENIÉ: I did it many times. Composers came to me
with their manuscripts, some of which even stayed
with me. My old friend Philippe Gaubert, with whom
I had so often worked with as a flutist, had long
worked with me on his Légende. It is dedicated to me,
and it was just performed at the competition of the
Conservatoire.
INTERVIEWER: This year?
RENIÉ: This year. Thanks to the manuscript that I
found again, that I even looked for, I could correct
with certainty a few printing errors after twenty-five
or thirty years!
INTERVIEWER: That’s interesting. Since you’re talking
about the competition, what do you think about
it (if it’s not too indiscreet)?
RENIÉ: There is a star; the Premier Prix revealed her
“hors concours” (out of competition), with a unanimous
decision.
INTERVIEWER: What’s her name?
RENIÉ: A young American, Susann McDonald. She
has exceptional artistic qualities, warmth, and a con-
WINTER 2020
9
tained sensitivity which has already conquered the
Parisian public several times. She is of the virtuosic
class, I dare say, of the great virtuosos.
INTERVIEWER: What class did this brilliant lauréate
come from?
RENIÉ: She came from my friend Lily Laskine. We
are getting along very well, both seeking to serve the
ideal of the harp—and our students!
INTERVIEWER: It’s very beautiful, this union in art.
On an artistic level in particular, do you think that
the artist should take the taste of the usual audience
into consideration in the choice of his or her repertoire?
RENIÉ: It’s not at all my opinion! We are to form and
raise the taste of the public, rather than bending toward
it. Otherwise, it would be the end of art!
[Musical end with the third episode of Pièce
symphonique.]
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jaymee Haefner (BM, MM, DM) is Professor of Harp
at the University of North Texas College of Music, has
premiered new works for harp by multiple composers and
performs internationally, on a regular basis. She has published
two books about Henriette Renié and has released
two CDs with Crimson Duo. Jaymee serves as Treasurer
for the World Harp Congress, and is on the Board of Directors
for the American Harp Society Foundation. V
INTERVIEWER: This seems indeed applicable to all
arts. Is there, in your opinion, a relation other than
the one of Beauty between the arts?
RENIÉ: I am convinced of it: in all the arts, there is
expression of the soul; even artists who do not believe
receive this supernatural release without knowing
it.
INTERVIEWER: Yes, the artist is a messenger, who
sometimes ignores himself. By the way, Henriette Renié,
when you think back on your beautiful and rich
career, what feelings do you have?
RENIÉ: A feeling of amazed gratitude toward Providence,
and prodigious memories, but it is as if they
are detached from my present personality; when I
speak of the past, it seems like it is about another
person. That’s how I can do it in all simplicity.
INTERVIEWER: However, you still bring the same ardor
to your teaching!
RENIÉ: Yes, maybe even more! I not only work for
myself, now. I work for those who are going to continue
after me. For an artist, I believe that the hope
of passing the torch onto other hands, far from saddening
him or her, on the contrary gives peace and
joy to his or her life!
10 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
Harp Makers' Collections: From Erard to Camac
by Robert Adelson
I
NSTRUMENT makers often collect instruments,
but for different reasons. 1 Some actively
seek out rare or valuable objects in order to
exhibit them to the public; if not by themselves, then
by others. Similarly, makers who build reproductions
of historical instruments sometimes acquire instruments
to study or to copy. For other maker-collectors,
acquiring instruments is an unintended and often
unacknowledged consequence of their work, and
the idea of exhibiting these instruments to the public
rarely arises, perhaps only as an afterthought. The
most striking example of this kind of “accidental”
collector is Adolphe Sax (1814–1894), who acquired
instruments throughout most of his adult life, even if
he never seemed to have considered himself to be a
collector per se. His private collection of 467 instruments
remained virtually unknown until 1877, when
he was obliged to sell it at auction to recover from
his third bankruptcy. 2
What motivated an instrument maker such as
Sax to collect? In their study of Sax’s collection, Malou
Haine and Ignace de Keyser have identified four
possible reasons:
1. to preserve organological documentation for
study
1 In this article, I have chosen not to discuss the case of bowed
string instrument makers who often seek out older instruments
that are in great demand by today’s musicians. It is
often difficult to distinguish many luthiers’ “collections” from
simply their stock of instruments for sale. Ignace de Keyser
has documented several examples of Belgian luthiers who
possessed small collections of instruments. See Ignace de
Keyser, “Les collectionneurs belges à la fin du XIXe siècle,”
Musique – Images – Instruments 9 (2007), 74–101 at 80.
2 Malou Haine and Ignace de Keyser, “Le musée instrumental
d’un artiste inventeur: la collection privée d’Adolphe Sax,”
Revue belge de musicologie LXX (2016), 149–64, at 149.
2. to preserve prototype models of his own instruments
3. to preserve instruments with original or curious
features
4. to preserve material that could eventually be
useful in trials for patent infringement. 3
In searching for other examples of this kind of
maker-collector, for whom preserving certain instruments
was an intuitive and integral part of their
work, I was struck by the case of harp makers, who
seem to have collected instruments for reasons similar
to those that motivated Sax. The phenomenon
of harp maker-collectors can in part be explained by
the specific trajectory of mechanical and decorative
innovations in the harp’s history, which inspires a
quasi-museographical attitude to understanding and
appreciating the instrument.
The harp’s long history has often been understood
as having been marked by great transformative inventions
that set it apart from the histories of almost
all other instrument types, whose evolution often
appeared more gradual (with the possible exception
of brasswind instruments, where the invention of
valves is often seen as a visible and significant turning
point). One can summarize this widely-held but
admittedly simplified view of the harp’s history as
follows: what had existed for several thousand years
as a predominantly diatonic folk instrument was
dramatically transformed in 1697 when the luthier
Jacob Hochbrucker (1673–1763) of Donauwörth in
Bavaria added a pedal-operated chromatic mechanism.
A second revolution occurred in 1810, when
Sébastien Erard (1752–1831) invented the double
action, allowing the harpist to use the pedals to play
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in all keys. 4 Because of this clear demarcation of the
phases of the harp’s history, harp makers since Erard
have been singularly aware of their place in the evolution
of this highly mechanized instrument.
Similarly, harp makers have often demonstrated
a keen interest in the decorative history of their
instrument, because the harp is one of the few instruments
that today is still highly decorated. Many
other instrument types that once were frequently
ornate underwent a neutralizing process in the late
nineteenth and twentieth centuries that remains
the norm today. For example, in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries pianos were often just as luxuriously
decorated as were harpsichords, but they are
today invariably plain and black. Concert harps,
however, are still made in quite dramatic decorative
styles featuring gilt columns and elaborately painted
soundboards. As a result, today’s harp makers naturally
find older harps to be much more than simply
pretty objects, and often use them, consciously or
unconsciously, as a source of decorative inspiration.
Many harp makers, including the Pleyel, Lyon &
Healy and Salvi firms, have collected instruments.
In this article, I will explore this historical awareness
on the part of harp maker-collectors of the past and
present by comparing the practices and collections
of the Erard firm in the early nineteenth century and
the Camac firm today.
The Erard collection began with the private collection
of the firm’s founder, Sébastien Erard, and
4 These inventions have usually been held to be more than
mere improvements to the instrument. The harpist and writer
Stéphanie-Félicité de Genlis (1746–1830), for example,
wrote that the invention of the pedal harp transformed a folk
instrument into a concert instrument, or as she put it—it
pulled the harp “out of the German taverns [and] immediately
thrust it into the palaces of kings.” Similarly, the musical
possibilities opened up by the double action gave the harp
the harmonic potential of the piano, inciting the Institut de
France to proclaim that “Mr Erard has placed his new harp
in the first rank of musical instruments.” Stéphanie-Félicité
de Genlis, Nouvelle méthode pour apprendre à jouer de la harpe
en moins de 6 mois de leçons (Paris, 1802), p. 2. Rapport fait le
17 avril 1815. Académie royale des sciences et des beaux-arts,
Gaveau-Erard-Pleyel archives, property of the AXA insurance
group, D.2009.1.1718.
was continued by his nephew Pierre (1794–1855). 5
The Erards always maintained a clear sense of their
place in the history of the harp; in 1821, Pierre Erard
even wrote a book on the subject, rather pompously
entitled The Harp in its Present Improved State Compared
with the Original Pedal Harp (see Fig. 1).
The first characteristic of Erard’s collection is that
it contained prototypes of inventions of which he
was particularly proud. 6 Erard’s biographer Grangier
wrote: “[Erard] was not content with drawings
alone, but made models which were put into actual
practice. Many of these were never adopted, not
from reasons of failure, but from their costliness of
construction; they were placed in his Museum at his
Factory along with the rest of his inventions.” 7 This
collection of Erard’s prototypes was carefully preserved
by subsequent directors of the Erard firm,
and is today part of the Gaveau-Erard-Pleyel collection,
owned by the AXA insurance group and on
long-term loan to the Association Ad Libitum in
Etobon (France).
5 Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the
collection continued to grow, and by the time Erard eventually
merged with the Pleyel and Gaveau firms, the combined
collections consisted of instruments, books, correspondence,
ledgers and account books, patents, royal privileges, engravings,
paintings, photographs, drawings, tools and films.
Sébastien Erard was no stranger to the world of collecting,
and in addition to his musical activities, he was also a passionate
art collector, acquiring precious paintings that are
today considered treasures of the world’s leading museums;
they include Poussin’s Apollo and Daphne (Louvre, Paris)
and Rembrandt’s Portrait of an 83-year old Woman (National
Gallery, London). See Anik Devriès-Lesure, “Sébastien
Erard, un amateur d’art du début du XIXe siècle” in Sébastien
Erard ou la rencontre avec le pianoforte (Luxeuil-les-Bains,
1993), pp. 76–88 and Catalogue des tableaux qui composent la
magnifique galerie de M. le Chevalier Erard. Chez Me. Lacoste,
commissaire-priseur, rue Thérèse, no 2, et chez M. Henry,
commissaire-expert du Musée Royal, rue de Bondy, no 23 (Paris:
Chez Dezauche, Faubourg Montmartre, 1831).
6 Holding on to one’s own instruments is not typical behavior
for an instrument maker, whose livelihood depends on the
principle that “the best instrument is a sold instrument.”
Nevertheless, we can find other examples of this practice of
a maker retaining his own instruments that they considered
so unusual or prefect that they could not bear parting with
them; Manfredo Settala (1600–1680) who kept his polyphonic
flute (c. 1650) in his Milanese cabinet of curiosities,
or even Antonio Stradivari (c. 1644–1737), who according
to legend never sold his pristine “Messiah” violin (1716).
7 A. Grangier, A Genius of France: A short sketch of the famous
inventor Sébastien Erard, and the firm he founded in Paris, 1780.
Translated by Jean Fouqueville, 3d ed. (Paris: Maison Erard,
1924), 4n4.
12 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
Fig. 1: Frontispiece to Pierre Erard, The Harp in its Present Improved
State Compared with the Original Pedal Harp (London, 1821).
Fig. 3: Erard harp n° 4962 (Paris, 1977). Camac collection.
Photo © Camac Harps.
Fig. 2 : View of one of the pedal harp galleries of the exhibition of the Camac collection, Château d’Ancenis, France.
Photo © Vincent Jacques.
WINTER 2020
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Among these prototypes is a harp identified by
internal company documents as Sébastien Erard’s
first, made c. 1786–87. 8 This harp was innovative
for both mechanical and decorative reasons: it was
the first harp with the system of forked discs, and the
first to break with the scroll-topped column of the
ancien régime, replacing it with a neoclassical capital.
A second prototype in the collection is Erard’s
first attempt at a double-action harp, which used a
system of rotating tuning pins invented in 1800 and
subsequently abandoned as impractical. 9 Twenty
years later, Pierre Erard remarked that his uncle was
nevertheless proud of this invention and kept the
prototype in his personal collection of instruments:
“There are those, perhaps, who would have produced
this harp to the public, and promoted its sale;
but Mr Sébastien Erard was aware of the defects of
an instrument built upon such a plan, and knew that
it could never be of general use; he therefore, regardless
of the great expense and labour he had incurred,
reserved it as a mere curiosity. Its mechanism is well
worth the attention of the curious, as it contains several
problems in mechanics, difficult to solve.’ 10
The identification of this prototype, bearing no
makers’ marks or inscriptions, is made possible by a
list of the collections of the Erard firm around 1959,
where the instrument is described as “Harp in mahogany,
Grecian decors, with rotating tuning pins, by
Sébastien Erard—Very strange instrument—unique
object.” 11 Curiously, the pedal box of this harp today
resembles that of a single-action harp, not a doubleaction
harp as described by Pierre Erard. The harp
was at some point in its history transformed, perhaps
by Sébastien Erard himself, into a single-action
harp, but still with rotating tuning pins. The upper
8 “Actif immobilier appartenant à la maison Erard,” Gaveau-
Erard-Pleyel archives, D.2009.1.1762. For photos of this
harp, see The History of the Erard Piano and Harp in Letters
and Documents, 1785–1959, eds. Robert Adelson, Alain
Roudier, Jenny Nex, Laure Barthel and Michel Foussard, 2
vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), vol. 1,
25 and vol. 2, 732.
9 For a photo of this harp, see The History of the Erard Piano
and Harp in Letters and Documents, vol. 2, 733.
10 Pierre Erard, The Harp in its Present Improved State Compared
with the Original Pedal Harp (London: Erard, 1821), 9.
11 The identification of the extant instrument was made by
Beat Wolf in 2010.
notch for each pedal has been filled in by a strip of
wood, and the lower notches have been modified.
Perhaps Sébastien Erard, frustrated by the difficulties
inherent in a mechanized rotation of tuning pins,
preferred to keep a single-action harp that functioned
well rather than a double-action harp that
functioned poorly. 12 This harp reminds us of another
feature of makers’ collections: that modifications—
for reasons of preventive conservation or restoration
or other—are often undertaken by the maker himself
or his employees. In a workshop or factory environment,
instruments are rarely left to gather dust, but
neither are they conserved according to the same
deontological procedures as followed by museums.
Another identifiable practice of maker-collectors
is the acquisition of instruments made by others that
served as inspirations for their own innovations.
An example from the Erard collection is the rare
fourteen-pedal harp made by Georges Cousineau
(1733–1800) in 1782. 13 This was the first doubleaction
harp in history; that is, the first harp that
could sound three notes per string, thus allowing the
harpist to use the pedals to play in all keys. Erard
was directly inspired by Cousineau’s invention, and
it became a model for his own double-action harp
patents.
Sébastien Erard, like Adolphe Sax, was a brilliant
inventor who had to be vigilant about protecting his
inventions. On at least two occasions, the Erards
used instruments from their collection as evidence in
patent lawsuits. In 1819 Pierre Erard sued the harp
maker John Charles Schwieso (fl. 1800–1840) for
copying his uncle’s double-action system. As material
evidence he showed the Attorney General what
he referred to as his “ammunition,” a series of three
harps that illustrated his uncle’s achievements: first,
a French harp using the older crotchet mechanism;
second, the prototype of the double-action harp with
rotating tuning pins; and finally, his double-action
12 “Actif immobilier appartenant à la maison Erard,” Gaveau-
Erard-Pleyel collection, D.2009.1.1762.
13 Robert Adelson, Alain Roudier and Francis Duvernay,
“Rediscovering Cousineau’s Fourteen-Pedal Harp,” Galpin
Society Journal, 63 (2010), 159–80.
14 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
harp with forked discs. 14 Similarly, when the Erards
wanted to counter arguments made by their rivals
that the maker Charles Gröll’s (1770–1857) doubleaction
harp patent predated Erard’s own patent, they
proposed showing the judge the Cousineau fourteenpedal
harp in their possession, in order to prove that
this principle of construction dated back to 1782. 15
A more recent example of a harp maker-collector
is Jakez François, president of the Camac firm based
in Mouzeil, France. Like Sax and Erard, François
is more of an “accidental” rather than conscious
collector, preserving and acquiring instruments in
the course of his manufacturing work. As a result,
his collection, currently on display in the Château
d’Ancenis, is anything but systematic—another
characteristic of maker-collectors. 16 It nevertheless
contains fifty-eight harps dating from the 1780s to
the present, representing European, American, African
and Asian harp making traditions (see Fig. 2).
Camac is the first harp maker in France since the
demise of the Erard firm, and the Camac collection
clearly reflects a continuity between these two manufacturers,
in both technical and decorative respects.
Sixteen of the harps (28%) in the Camac collection
were made by Erard, and represent the major periods
of the production of double-action instruments, by
both the Paris and London branches. Two instruments
in particular demonstrate Jakez François’
interest in bridging the gap between the end of the
Erard era and today: harp n° 4962, sold in 1977, was
the fourth-to-last Erard harp made in Paris; and harp
n° 6817 was built in 1910, making it the eighth-tolast
harp by Erard in London (see Figs. 3 and 4). This
latter instrument in particular would be intriguing
for a modern maker like Camac, as its unusually wide
14 Letter of 23 February 1820 from Pierre Erard in London to
Sébastien Erard in Paris. The History of the Erard Piano and
Harp in Letters and Documents, vol. 2, 730.
15 Letter of 13 June 1823 from Pierre Erard in London to Sébastien
Erard in Paris. The History of the Erard Piano and Harp
in Letters and Documents, vol. 2 p. 807. Adelson, Roudier
and Duvernay, “Rediscovering Cousineau’s Fourteen-Pedal
Harp,” pp. 176–77. For more on Gröll’s contribution to the
invention of the double-action harp, see Robert Adelson,
“Originality and Influence: Charles Gröll’s Role in the
Invention of the Double-action Harp,” Muzyka 64/1 (2019),
pp.1–21.
16 Strauchen-Scherer and Myers, “A Manufacturer’s Museum,”
148.
proportions suggest that Erard was anticipating the
sonorous harps that would be built on the other side
of the Atlantic at the beginning of the twentieth
century by Wurlitzer and Lyon & Healy.
Like Erard, the Camac firm has been on the forefront
of technological innovations in harp making.
Camac’s most daring invention was the “memory
harp” invented in 1981 by the firm’s founder Joël
Garnier (1940–2000), who had hoped that the harp
would be adopted by harpist Catherine Michel in the
orchestra of the Paris Opera. This harp is controlled
by a microcomputer linked to a hydraulic mechanism,
allowing the pedal-changes in a piece to be
programmed in advance. Realizing that the cost of
its manufacture was prohibitive, Camac decided the
harp was commercially unfeasible. The prototype
remained in the Camac collection until 2007, when
Jakez François donated it to the Musée de la Musique
in Paris, where it is currently displayed in the
“Instruments of the Twentieth Century” section.
This passion for technological innovation is reflected
in several other instruments in the Camac
collection. One of the earliest is a single-action harp
(serial n° 301) made by Naderman frères 17 in Paris
in the early nineteenth century (see Fig. 5). This
green and gold 43-string harp is a singularly uncharacteristic
example of a Naderman harp, for instead
of Naderman’s typical crochet mechanism it uses the
fourchettes invented by Erard. This harp reminds
us that harp makers were not as ideologically rigid
as we imagine them to be, sometimes experimenting
with the innovations of their competitors. The
Camac collection also includes a number of unusual
mechanical systems, such as François-Joseph Dizi’s
(1780–1847) perpendicular harp, Jacob Erat’s (1768–
1821) harp with adjustable forks, Jacques-Georges
Cousineau’s (1760–1836) harp with rotating tuning
pins n° 506 (Paris, 1814–25) and Pleyel’s chromatic
harp, of which the collection holds three examples
(see Fig. 6). A Wurlitzer double-action harp n° 1465,
17 Following the death of their harp-making father Jean-Henri
Naderman (1734–1799), François-Joseph Naderman (harpist,
teacher and composer, 1781–1835) and Henri Naderman
(harp maker, 1783–1842) continued the family business,
producing many single-action harps over the course of four
decades.
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Fig. 4: Erard harp n° 6817 (London, 1910). Camac collection.
Photo © Camac Harps.
Fig. 5: Naderman frères, single-action harp n° 301(Paris, early
nineteenth century). Camac collection. Photo © Camac Harps.
Fig. 6: View of the chromatic harps in the exhibition of the Camac collection, Château d’Ancenis, France. Photo © Vincent Jacques.
16 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
model GG (Chicago, 1928–32) is an early example of
a harp with an extended soundboard, a feature that
would allow it to produce more sound than the Erard
harps of the same period with straight soundboards.
Camac’s collection also includes recent instruments
by pioneering makers whose experiments influenced
Camac’s own ideas about harp construction. Two
harps made by Didier Budin (1944–) are among
the earliest attempts to use carbon fiber, Kevlar and
other composite materials to eliminate unwanted
noise, reduce the weight of the harp and improve the
resistance of its structure.
Through the Camac collection one can also follow
the evolution of decorative styles, and observe
how Camac’s quest for aesthetic innovation is rooted
in historical traditions. Scroll top single-action harps
by Renault & Chatelain and Naderman are examples
of the typical ancien régime style, a model which
would be replaced by Erard’s neoclassical pillar
culminating in a capital with rams’ heads. Just how
influential Erard’s decorative style was can be seen
by comparing the nearly identical ornaments in the
Erard frères' double-action harp n° 901 (Paris, 1824)
and the Antoine (c. 1750–c. 1800) or Pierre Challiot's
(c. 1775–1839) single-action harp n° 172 (Paris,
c. 1825–1830) (see Figs. 7 and 8). Sébastien Erard’s
neoclassical model reigned supreme until it was replaced
by Pierre Erard’s gothic model in the 1830s,
of which there are seven examples in the Camac collection.
But aesthetic innovation did not end with
Erard, and an Ernst Löffler (1909–76) double-action
harp n° 312 (Wiesbaden, 1958–59) in Bauhaus style
reminds us how harp making continued to evolve
alongside trends in architecture and the decorative
arts (see Fig. 9).
The Camac collection showcases an important
part of the harp’s decorative history in a trio of Erard
harps dating from the late nineteenth century. This
was a period when the then Director of the Erard
firm, Albert Louis Blondel (1849–1935), was committed
to preserving the glory of Erard’s past, a
necessity in the absence of inventive geniuses like
Sébastien and Pierre Erard. Blondel did so by manufacturing
historical and exotic harp models. These
were not intended to be reproductions of actual past
instruments, but rather contemporary harps in past
decorative styles that had come back into fashion for
architecture and interior decoration. For the 1873
Exposition universelle in Vienna, Erard presented
a neo Grecian harp, followed in 1875 by a harp
in Louis XVI style, similar to harp n° 2479 in the
Camac Collection (see Fig. 10). From the 1890s they
built others in Empire style, with rams’ heads and
neoclassical pillars harkening back to the Erard harps
from the beginning of the century. For the 1889
Exposition universelle in Paris, Erard introduced a
highly ornate Japanese-style harp with gilt engravings
and ornaments in ivory and mother-of-pearl, a
model that would become popular throughout the
1890s. The Erard firm was particularly proud of the
Japanese style harp n° 2398 in the Camac Collection,
presenting it at the Expositions universelles
in Antwerp (1894) and Bordeaux (1895) (see Fig.
11). For the Exposition universelle in Paris in 1900,
Erard outdid themselves, presenting a highly ornate
46-string mahogany Empire style harp in burnished
gold color, with chiselled and gilt bronze sculptures
and an added gilt piece on the summit of the pillar
representing cupid kneeling to gather his quiver. The
Erard firm recognized this design as extraordinary
and preserved a preliminary drawing for it in the collection.
Harp n° 3969 from the Camac Collection is
one of the only surviving examples of this Erard harp
and one that had a profound influence on Camac’s
own harps, as Jakez François made precise copies of
the ornaments for Camac’s Elysée model (see Figs.
12 and 13).
Nowhere is the complex interplay between collection
and construction so apparent as in the Camac
collection’s ten Celtic harps. Camac has been at the
forefront of the Celtic harp revival in France since
1972, when the brothers Joël and Gérard Garnier
(1948–) founded the Camac firm to respond to the
demands of musicians in the folk movement. At the
time when they began to build harps from a kit according
to plans from luthier Gildas Jaffrennou, most
“Celtic” harps played in France were built in Japan.
Several years later, Camac increased their production
and quickly became the world’s principal maker of all
models of Celtic harps. In 2013, Celtic harp pioneer
Mariannig Larc’hantec (1947–) wrote that “without
Camac, without Joël Garnier […] the Celtic harp
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Fig. 7: Erard frères double-action harp n°901 (Paris, 1824).
Camac collection. Photo © Camac Harps.
Fig. 8: Antoine or Pierre Challiot, single-action harp n° 172
(Paris, c. 1825-1830). Camac collection. Photo © Camac Harps.
Fig. 9: Ernst Löffler, double-action harp n° 312 (Wiesbaden,
1958-59). Camac collection. Photo © Camac Harps.
Fig. 10: Erard, double-action harp in Louis XVI style n° 2479
(Paris, 1875). Camac collection. Photo © Camac Harps.
18 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
Fig. 11: Erard, double-action harp in Japanese style n° 2398
(Paris, 1894). Camac collection. Photo © Camac Harps.
Fig. 12: Erard, double-action harp in Empire style n° 3969 (Paris,
1914). Camac collection. Photo © Camac Harps.
Fig. 13: Camac’s Elysée model. Camac collection.
Photo © Camac Harps.
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Fig. 14: Camac’s the first bardic style harps (c. 1972). Camac collection. Photo © Camac Harps.
Fig. 15: View of the Celtic harp gallery of the exhibition of the Camac collection, Château d’Ancenis, France. Photo © Vincent Jacques.
20 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
would not be what it is, and it seems to me an uncontested
fact that the pedal harp, which owes its
renaissance to the Celtic harp, would also not have
the stature it has today.” 18
The Camac collection allows one to follow the
history of this twentieth-century Celtic harp revival
that began in Brittany in the 1950s in the works of
the pioneering makers who influenced the Garnier
brothers, including Gildas Jaffrennou (1908–2000),
the brothers Claude (1936–) and Michel Leroux
(1931–2000) and Daniel Paris (1936–2013). The
Camac harps inspired by these makers range from
the first bardic style harps dating from c. 1972 (see
Fig. 14) to the prototype of the first electro-harp
from 1993–94. But the collection also documents
that this was actually a second revival, which followed
an earlier one whose roots date back to 1792,
when a group of harpers gathered in Belfast to try to
preserve their dying tradition. The first significant
harp maker to emerge from this late eighteenth-century
Celtic harp revival was John Egan (c. 1814–after
1841), who is represented in the Camac collection
by a portable Irish harp (Dublin, 1815–20) and a
double-action pedal harp (no 2014). The collection
also includes harps by makers who were influenced
by Egan, such as Joseph George Morley (1847–1921)
in London and Melville Clark (1883–1953) in Syracuse,
New York. As a result of both prototype preservation
and curious collecting, the Camac collection
is able to trace the history of both phases of the
Celtic harp revival over two centuries, giving a depth
and breadth to the subject that is unique among harp
collections (see Fig. 15).
The Camac collection, amassed over the course
of thirty years, is one of the most diverse private harp
collections in the world, covering more than two
centuries of instrument building. And yet, seemingly
unaware of his pivotal role in building the collection,
Jakez François once confessed to me: ‘You know, I
am not a real collector.” I hope that the examples of
Erard and Camac will remind us that in addition to
the deliberate and systematic collectors who are justifiably
famous, we should not forget harp
makers, whose sometimes unintentionally and unsystematically
assembled collections are often just as
rich and fascinating.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert Adelson is professor of music history and organology
at Conservatoire de Nice-Université Côte d'Azur.
He is a specialist on the history of the harp and the piano,
and has also published widely on opera and the sociology
of music. His numerous publications include The
History of the Erard Piano and Harp in Letters and
Documents, 1785–1959 (2 vols., Cambridge University
Press, 2015) and two forthcoming monographs on
the Erard harp and the Erard piano. Between 2005 and
2016, he was curator of France’s second largest collection
of historical musical instruments, housed in the Musée
du Palais Lascaris in Nice. He is also the curator of
the first permanent exhibition of the Camac Collection of
historical harps at the Château d’Ancenis (Loire-Atlantique).
He is a member of the Board of Governors of the
American Musical Instrument Society and has served on
the supervisory committee of the Gaveau-Erard-Pleyel
archives and on the jury for the Thalberg International
Piano Competition. He frequently lectures on the history
of instruments, including at the Bibliothèque nationale de
France in Paris and the Geelvinck Piano Museum in the
Netherlands. In 2019, he was awarded the prestigious
Frances Densmore Prize from the American Musical Instrument
Society. V
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18 Mariannig Larc’hantec, La Harpe, instrument des Celtes
(Kerangwenn: Coop Breizh, 2013), p. 73.
WINTER 2020
21
Paul-André Bempéchat Interviews Catherine Michel
translated from the French by the author
LOYAL American Harp Journal readers will
recall my introductory articles on Jean Cras’
magnificent works for harp back in 1998 and
1999, Deux Impromptus (AHJ 16, no. 3, 1998), Suite
en duo (AHJ 16, no. 4, 1998) and Quintet for Harp,
Flute and Strings (AHJ 17, no. 1, 1999). Naturally,
these were drawn from my then-forthcoming biography
of Jean Cras: Jean Cras, Polymath of Music and
Letters, which was first published in 2009 by Ashgate
(now Routledge); its second edition, revised and
expanded, will be published this year by Peter Lang
Publishing.
To understand Cras’ enthusiasm and affection
for the “Queen of the Orchestra,” academic rigor
and artistic integrity compelled me to seek out the
veteran performers of this repertoire. My French colleagues
all directed me to Catherine Michel, then
principal harp at the Paris Opera, whose perspectives
on these works, grounded in her studies with Pierre
Jamet (for whom they were composed), proved invaluable.
By fortuitous coincidence, our friendship
suddenly renewed last July, through an invitation
from a mutual friend to attend the Musica Mundi
festival outside Brussels, where Mme Michel teaches
during part of the summer months. Our happy reunion
was marked with many lively reminiscences
and discussions of the evolution of the classical music
scene since the 1990s. So, with the near-simultaneous
release of Mme Michel’s new recording, Musique
pour harpe de Debussy à Bernstein (Musica Viva,
October 2019) and the forthcoming second edition
of Jean Cras, Polymath of Music and Letters, I decided
it was time to bring last summer’s discussions to the
attention of the AHJ community.
8
This article must begin by honoring Catherine Michel’s
distinguished career and extraordinary contributions
to the revival of much of the harp literature.
Catherine Michel was born June 25, 1948 in Amiens,
where she began studying harp, piano and solfège
with her mother. Upon her mother’s untimely passing
Pierre Jamet took Catherine under his wing at
the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in
Paris, where she obtained a First Prize in harp at the
age of fifteen, later receiving top honors in competitions
in Israel, the United States, and in Paris. Mme
Michel became harpist for the Irish Radio Symphony,
while also teaching at the Royal Academy of Music
in Dublin. Her time in Ireland would launch an international
performing career that has lasted over a
half century, during which she has also been recognized
as one of the harp’s preeminent pedagogues.
In 1971, Mme Michel was appointed to the
National Orchestra of Radio-France where she performed
under Lorin Maazel, Paul Paray, Jean Martinon,
Karl Böhm, Sergiu Celibedache, Leonard Bernstein,
and Mstislav Rostropovich, among others. Her
tenure at the Paris Opera began in 1978 under the
baton of Pierre Boulez; over the course of her stellar
career with the Opera, she would work with some
of the greatest conductors, singers, choreographers,
dancers, and dramaturgs of the twentieth century.
Mme Michel’s first recordings with Philips, Sony and
Vox brought to the fore concertos by Villa Lobos,
Rodrigo and Castelnuovo-Tedesco with the Orchestra
of Monte Carlo; these were followed by recordings
of concertos by Glière, Reinecke, Pierné and
Saint-Saëns with the Luxembourg Radio Symphony.
In Monaco, she recorded Boieldieu’s harp concerto;
she would go on to record Mozart’s Concerto for
22 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
Flute and Harp three times, including with Benoït
Fromanger—for which she won the Disque d’or. Two
compact discs of concertos for two harps and orchestra
would be recorded with Susanne Mildonian and
the Chamber Orchestra of Toulouse, and with Xavier
de Maistre and the Orchestra of Radio Poland.
Mme Michel has also devoted herself to the harp
world through her publications: to assist young harpists
in their mastery of simpler works she published
her three-volume series Pièces faciles pour harpe. Additionally,
in collaboration with the distinguished
musicologist and noted Debussy scholar François
Lesure, Mme Michel produced an academic study of
the harp repertoire published during the eighteenth
century: Répertoire de la musique pour harpe publiée
du XVIIe au début XIXe siècle (Paris: Aux Auteurs de
Livres International, 1990).
In 1990, in collaboration with Leonard Bernstein,
Mme Michel began to envision adapting the classics
of musical theater and film for solo harp with
orchestra. Following Bernstein’s death she recorded
her first albums with Michel Legrand. Together, they
would record four compact discs for the Naïve and
Universal labels, including Gershwin’s Porgy and
Bess, Bernstein’s West Side Story, and works by Dave
Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson and Jango
Reinhardt. Subsequent albums of Legrand’s film
music—Les parapluies de Cherbourg, Yentl, Un été ’42,
Peau d’âne, and Le messager, among many—complete
the collection. Mme Michel would also accompany
the trumpeter Maurice André in repertoire ranging
from Bach to Stephen Sondheim for the EMI label.
After her early years as a pedagogue in Dublin,
Mme Michel mentored students at the Hochschulen
in Hamburg, Detmold, and Zürich, while continuing
her career as soloist and guest master-teacher.
8
PAB: How would you situate the harp in today’s
world compared with the worlds of yesteryear?
CM: The harp had long been played in places of worship
in Spain and in Portugal. This is evidenced by
the numbers of scores relegated to a lifeless existence
in the libraries of these countries. The resonance of
the chords, the peaceful sonorities of the ancient
harps were in perfect accord with the tenor of the
sacred texts.
In modern times, harpists always composed for
their students and often forgot their forebears. Pierre
Jamet told me that as a young student, his professor
had him study works by Elias Parish Alvars in
order to develop virtuosity, tonal quality, and beautiful
phrasing. Hasselmans had understood that the
high technical level which he imposed would be at
the service of the music of the future. The artistic
explosion generated by [Serge] Diaghilev enabled
numerous students of the period to come closer to
the works of Debussy, Ravel, Caplet, etc. Hasselmans
had, of course, the good fortune to have trained
among the greatest harpists of the twentieth century.
Their virtuosity helped composers reconsider the
harp not as a salon instrument but as a prominent
actor in the development of contemporary music;
such virtuosity remains, today, an axiom in the service
of creativity. This includes, of course, jazz harpists,
whose artistry renders extraordinary service to
our instrument and art.
PAB: On educating this generation of musicians,
what are your thoughts?
CM: These days, people can’t even read a score properly.
People listen to a recording on YouTube, played
more or less well, and copycat without questioning.
Wrong notes, incorrect pacing abound; and interpretations
often removed from the work’s style redound
like infectious diseases, to such a degree that few
teachers can eradicate the consequences. One must
be very prudent when one records today. Respecting
basic rules of assimilation and interpretation must be
prioritized.
It’s also important to consider that students
trained by teachers who have not played in good orchestras,
and under good conductors, very often lack
rhythmic acuity. The colleagues I invite to join me in
competition juries and seminars can be none other
than those who have worked with such conductors
and whose experience naturally projects absolute
fidelity to rhythm, absolute adherence to tempi, and
absolute precision of nuance and timbre, in equal
stance with the excellent practitioners of chamber
music. Today, the great problem is respect for the
composers’ wishes and loyalty to the stylistic traditions
inherent to each era of musical craftsmanship.
WINTER 2020
23
Paradoxically, at a time when cold, hard technology
dominates our lives, the arena of classical music has
returned to the romantic notion of “I play as I feel;
and if I play as I feel, then it must be right, because I
play as I feel.” This is an absolute travesty of all that
was codified as sacred to proper interpretation.
Addressing these issues has become my mandate
and my mantra at the institutions with which I retain
a formal affiliation as Artist-Teacher. Musica
Mundi, of course, in Belgium, and the IESM (Institut
d’Enseignement Supérieur de la Musique–Europe et
Méditerranée) in Aix-en-Provence, are the ones closest
to my home in Paris.
PAB: What do you make of competitions these days?
CM: To paraphrase Queen Victoria: “I am not
amused!” and this applies to competitions in general,
and for all instruments. Let me recount a personal
anecdote: I was in Geneva a few days ago as a jury
member with a colleague whom I greatly admire. We
grew up together and had the good fortune to have
had the same teachers. To quote her: “Seen through
the eyes of true professionals, international competitions
are too numerous and have almost no more dispositive
value than elegant dog shows.” I laughed a
lot and admired her candor. Personally, I deplore the
standardization of the prize-winners. I’m no longer
able to recognize a sound from the first measures of
a piece, as I used to; interpretations have very often
nothing to do with the style, the era, or the wishes of
the composer, but nonetheless, prizes are awarded,
come what may.
Permit me to express, as well, my complete disagreement
with the secretiveness of jury deliberations.
(I’m certain that if one had asked certain
members of the jury to perform the required repertoire,
we would have had a few surprises.) For the
Lily Laskine Competition, I have invited magnificent
and, above all, competent jurors including Nicolas
Thuillez, Xavier De Maistre, Marie-Pierre Langlamet,
Emmanuel Ceysson, Frédérique Cambreling,
Maria Graf, et al. Our deliberations were transparent,
were concluded in record time, and in the most harmonious
spirit. We were all on the same plane and
at the same level. Transparency would avoid the—
nearly perfunctory—useless comments jurors at all
competitions are at times forced to endure.
PAB: What, in your opinion, is the central problem
with launching new solo harp repertoire with orchestra
today?
CM: Chiefly, that in some cases, concertos such as
those by Nino Rota, Jean Françaix and Villa Lobos
are long, roughly 30 minutes in length, and that conductors
don’t study the scores as thoroughly as they
would scores destined for record labels. And then,
administrations want their halls filled, and it’s invariably
famous, commercially-viable singers, pianists,
and violin soloists who will fill the halls. There are
certainly some orchestras who have a policy of presenting
innovative repertoire, but these are few and
far between. It’s rare, and equally rare, or even rarer
among the recording companies. No one wants to
take a financial risk these days.
I recorded Debussy’s Danses for his centenary, but
I would never have done so without the backdrop of
the anniversary. Same with Bernstein. As for works
by other composers, they take on a life of their own,
however the outcome. But to rehash the same material
time and again is useless.
PAB: Please tell us about your new double-album!
CM: The double album is somewhat a reflection of
my early career. After my studies at the Paris Conservatoire
I left for Ireland. The orchestra in which
I played was the Radio Eirann [Irish Radio] Light
Orchestra. I was just sixteen and, after having been
“nourished” by Pierre Jamet with the demands of the
French school and its superb repertoire, I discovered
the vast American standard repertoire, musical comedies,
Irish folklore, etc. When I saw Leonard Bernstein
for the last time, he encouraged me to perform
what he called “accessible music”; he gave me his
“anniversary works” and asked me to perform them
in New York. Unfortunately, he passed away two
weeks before we could meet again.
Several months later, I asked Michel Legrand
if I could perform his piano works on the harp. He
replied that the harp was an instrument “which
played glissandi at the back of the orchestra.” Fi-
24 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
nally, thanks to a concert during which I performed
in the Senate in Paris, the director of SACEM [the
French equivalent of ASCAP] managed to convince
Legrand to give me some of his scores. He was, for
example, convinced that his suite on Yentl, for piano
and orchestra would be unplayable on the harp; it
turned out to be our greatest success at each concert.
Thereafter, we collaborated for twenty years, and
this enabled me to present the harp as a solo instrument
with orchestra to thousands of people who
would otherwise never have imagined such a literature
or would ever have attended such concerts.
It is my sincere hope that the younger generation
will follow this example and work with the composers
of their generation.
8
Mme Michel’s double album Musique pour harpe de
Debussy à Bernstein, released last fall by Musica Viva,
is now widely available through numerous online sites.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Renowned Franco-Canadian pianist and historian
Paul-André Bempéchat is based at Harvard University,
where he is Music Fellow at Cabot House and a research
scholar at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian
Studies. He is a self-styled product of the Manhattan
School of Music and The Juilliard School, where he
worked with the legendary performer-teachers Artur Balsam
and Nadia Reisenberg. His training in musicology at
the Sorbonne sowed the seeds of his principal academic
work, the first biography of the Breton impressionist composer,
Jean Cras, as Jean Cras, Polymath of Music and
Letters (Routledge, 2009); its expanded version is scheduled
for release in 2020 through Peter Lang Editions. Dr.
Bempéchat was knighted Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts
et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Cultural Affairs
in 2017, and later that year was conferred the title
of Honorary Fellow of the Royial Academic Chapel at
Uppsala University, Sweden. V
WINTER 2020
25
Applying the Alexander Technique to Modern Pedal Harp Performance
and Pedagogy: A Discussion with Imogen Barford
and Marie Leenhardt
by Claire Happel Ashe
I
N the late nineteenth century, aspiring Australian
actor Frederick Matthias Alexander
(1869-1955) began losing his voice during
performances. Alexander sought professional medical
help for the condition and was advised to rest his
voice, but when he resumed speaking and performing,
he again lost his ability to speak. Frustrated, he
decided that he must figure out the problem for himself,
and he began observing himself in a mirror. He
noticed that he habitually pulled his head back every
time he spoke, a habit that invariably strained his
larynx. This discovery was the first step in developing
what came to be known as the Alexander Technique—a
method that draws on the observations he
made while attempting to change this habitual pattern.
The Alexander Technique uses a hands-on approach
to increase awareness of how people use their
bodies in activity. Alexander Technique teachers use
the term poise—a state of balanced equilibrium—to
describe their aim, rather than posture, which indicates
a rigidity or fixed position. 1 Many performing
artists in theater, dance, and music—including harpists—seek
out the Alexander Technique to prevent
injury, improve technique, and lessen performance
anxiety; today, it is taught in music conservatories
across the world. 2
The American Harp Journal originally published
two articles on the benefits of Alexander Technique
by harpist Linda-Rose Hembreiker in 2010. Hembreiker
presented concepts she learned as a student
of the Alexander Technique that applied to both her
practice and teaching. In this article, I will discuss
1 Raymond Dart, “The Attainment of Poise,” in Skill and Poise,
ed. Alexander Murray (London: STAT Books, 1996), 111.
2 e.g. The Juilliard School in New York City and the Royal
College of Music in London.
the principles that Alexander developed and systems
that have grown out of the Alexander Technique—
including Body Mapping, the Dart Procedures, and
the Framework for Integration—and their impact
on harp performance and pedagogy. I have included
the perspectives of harpists Imogen Barford, Head of
Harp at the Guildhall School in London, and Marie
Leenhardt, Principal Harpist of the Hallé Orchestra
and Harp Instructor at Chetham’s School of Music
in Manchester, England, who are both trained in the
Alexander Technique. Their remarks include many
insightful observations about the core principles of
the Alexander Technique—principles for which Alexander
coined his own terminology. These include
“use affects functioning,” “psychophysical unity,”
“faulty sensory awareness,” “inhibition,” “direction,”
“primary control,” and “means-whereby vs. endgaining.”
Each principle is important in applying the
Alexander Technique and will be addressed below.
Use Affects Functioning
When Alexander discovered that he was straining
his larynx whenever he pulled his head back, he
realized that use affects functioning. His own habitual
patterns were causing his vocal problems. Following
this principle, Alexander Technique teachers do
not typically look to faulty joints or structural issues
as the root of the problem and therefore do not put
stock in phrases such as “I have a bad back” or “I
have a bad knee”; instead they look at the way a person
is using his or her body and affecting its structure
in activity. Imogen Barford came to the Alexander
Technique because of a repetitive use injury. “I tried
everything,” she states. “I couldn’t work out what
26 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
was the problem, and the Alexander Technique was
the thing that unlocked it all.” Now that she has
trained in the Alexander Technique, she finds that
it has helped her and her students’ functioning even
beyond injury prevention.
Obviously, injury prevention is a by-product [of the
Alexander Technique]. [But] for me, my interest is
in two things [when applying the Alexander Technique
to harp performance and pedagogy]: virtuosity–enabling
people to let go of things that they
don’t know are happening so they can have that
kind of freedom which looks natural… The other
one is the musical expression because obviously the
tension will hamper that. 3
For Barford, the Alexander Technique not only helps
prevent injury but also helps increase virtuosity and
musical expression at the harp by helping harpists
recognize how they are interfering with their natural
abilities.
Psychophysical Unity
As Alexander observed himself in a mirror, he realized
that his habitual pattern began at his head and
affected his balance and muscular tone all the way to
his feet. He began to see that the faulty pattern was
not just in his neck and throat but throughout his
whole body—even the thought of speaking engaged
the pattern. In order to regain his voice, he had to
alter the pattern that interfered with his natural
balance and poise. This adjustment led him to the
principle of psychophysical unity, a concept proposing
that how one thinks about an activity affects how
one does it and that every action in one part of the
body is supported or interfered with by the rest of the
body.
For harpists, psychophysical unity influences
one’s approach to technique as well as one’s general
mental approach when playing and teaching. A performer’s
attitude impacts the body’s muscle tone,
which cannot be fully changed without observing the
thought patterns that direct the performer’s playing.
Marie Leenhardt finds that the Alexander Technique
3 Imogen Barford, online video conference with author, August
22, 2018.
makes her more patient when a student does not
understand something in a lesson. Moreover, she is
less likely to ignore the psychological aspect of playing
the instrument. When students are overwhelmed
or anxious about succeeding in upcoming juries, for
example, they will use their bodies more efficiently
if they take a step back and notice how they are accomplishing
their goals and where their attention is
placed. Leenhardt explains,
If I want [students] to relax, I have to put them in
a situation where they can be relaxed, not by telling
them to relax… I say things more to distract them
when I see them working too hard: think of your
sitting bones, think of the space around you, think
of your back, or listen out… 4
Leenhardt is describing an environment she and
other Alexander Technique teachers try to create:
one in which students are given a choice beyond unconsciously
engaging their habitual sense of what it
is to be “right.” Alexander Technique teachers seek
to help students find a state in which they are not
interfering with their own coordination.
Psychophysical unity also affects harpists’ physical
approach to the instrument. Imogen Barford
describes her early training at the harp in relation to
the Alexander Technique,
My [harp] teachers would talk about the hands and
the elbows but not at all about what was supporting
them–the whole…and [they did not talk about]
how much the legs can pull you down… In harpists,
the legs get very, very tight–particularly the
insides of the legs, and we don’t take enough notice
of how that can pull on the front and on the
arms…and pull on everything. 5
In the Alexander Technique, teachers do not change
something about hand position or the relationship of
the head and hips and expect it to have an isolated
effect. They look at the whole, and when they look
for changes in one part, they aim to affect the balance
of the whole self.
4 Marie Leenhardt, online video conference with author,
September 25, 2018.
5 Marie Leenhardt, online video conference with author,
September 25, 2018.
WINTER 2020
27
Unreliable Sensory Appreciation
After discovering that the relationship of his head,
neck, and back had caused his strained larynx, Alexander
began trying to change his habit. But when
he began to speak, he saw in the mirror that the
same pattern took hold even though he could not
sense himself pulling his head back. This led him to
realize that what he felt was happening was not what
was actually happening, and he called this phenomenon
unreliable sensory appreciation, or faulty sensory
awareness. Imogen Barford finds that playing in the
high and low registers often causes harpists to lose
their balance without being aware of it. “Even the
use of the words high and low can pull [harpists] off
[their] sitting bones.” 6 On the piano, high and low
registers are associated with shifts side-to-side; on
the harp, however, high and low registers are closer
or further from the head and torso. When a harpist
plays in the high register, typically the head pulls
back and the chest lifts; when the harpist reaches for
the low register, the body collapses down. Often this
response is so habituated that the difference in posture
when playing in the high and low registers is not
felt kinesthetically.
Harold Taylor, author of The Pianist’s Talent: A
New Approach to Piano Playing Based on the Principles
of F. Matthias Alexander and Raymond Thiberge, describes
Thiberge’s realization that his piano teachers’
verbal instructions differed from their actions.
Thiberge, who was blind, put a hand on his teachers
as they played. He wrote, “To my great astonishment,
my hands revealed to me that their technical
procedures were actually in disagreement with the
principles they professed!” 7 Teachers also encounter
faulty sensory awareness when students play a short
passage in a new way following the teacher’s suggestion
but then revert to their typical way when they
play it in the context of the piece and cannot feel
that they are reverting.
Because faulty sensory awareness caused Alexander
Technique students to interpret instructions
differently from the way Alexander intended them,
he found that teaching through hands-on work was
more effective than explaining through verbal instruction.
Barford says that with her harp students,
“I normally stand behind them on the stool and I put
my hands on the shoulders [of the student]. That’s
a very common thing that I do just to get them
onto the chair...and they can find balance, and they
can find the sitting bones, and I can see how much
they’re not on them or on them. For that, I would
have hands on.” 8
Inhibition
Alexander is often quoted as saying, “If you stop doing
the wrong thing, the right thing will do itself.” 9
He found that if he tried to fix his problem by
pushing his head forward or by doing exercises to
strengthen his neck flexors there was no positive
change in the overall pattern. Instead, it created a
new habit of overcorrecting on top of the already
existing one. He found that his head, neck, and back
returned to a poised balance when he simply inhibited,
or stopped, himself from pulling his head back.
Inhibition is a principle of the Alexander Technique
that distinguishes it from other methods that teach
exercises or strategies to “fix” technique or posture
rather than offering strategies to increase awareness
of habitual behaviors. The Alexander Technique is
often referred to as a method of re-education, which
implies that the body is naturally balanced when one
stops interfering with it.
Alexander’s use of the word inhibition relates to
the definition used in physiology that contrasts with
excitation but differs greatly from the definition used
in psychology where it refers to the Freudian sense
6 Imogen Barford, online video conference with author, August
22, 2018.
7 Harold Taylor, The Pianist’s Talent: A New Approach to Piano
Playing Based on the Principles of F. Matthias Alexander and
Raymond Thiberge (London: Kahn and Averill, 2002), 36.
8 Imogen Barford, online video conference with author, August
22, 2018.
9 Judith Kleinman and Peter Buckoke, The Alexander Technique
for Musicians (London: Methuen Publishing, 2014), 223.
28 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
of repression. 10 Researcher and writer on the Alexander
Technique, Frank Pierce Jones (1905-1975),
explained that although “Inhibition is a negative
term . . . it describes a positive process. By refusing to
respond to a stimulus in a habitual way you release a
set of reflexes that lengthen the body and facilitate
movement. The immediate result of Alexandrian
inhibition is a sense of freedom, as if a heavy garment
that has been hampering all of your movements has
been removed.” 11
Inhibition in the Alexander Technique is also
distinct from “relaxing.” Alexander found that the
instruction to relax caused students to both lose the
support of poise and to employ their mal-coordinated
habits, habits that engaged in response to efforts to
improve. Barford explains, “I try to use words like
buoyancy and springiness and elasticity rather than
relaxing. I try to use ‘feel the string’ rather than
‘press the string’ or ‘squeeze the string’ which a lot of
people use, which is my least favorite.” 12
When practicing the principle of inhibition, observation
of interference becomes primary to changing
one’s technique above “fixing” isolated issues.
Marie Leenhardt discusses the problem of constantly
correcting students to the detriment of their use. Her
own training involved
…a lot through correcting, correcting, correcting.
And it can have some good results but it can bring
a lot of neuroses and [result in] never being satisfied
and never feeling that you’re good enough,
never enjoying really because you’re aiming so high,
and I find that sometimes you can get in the way
10 Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) defined inhibition as “the
expression of a restriction of an ego-function. A restriction
of this kind can itself have very different causes.” Sigmund
Freud, “Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety” in The Standard
Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud,
vol. 20 (1925-1926), 75-172, quoted in Nicolas Dissez, “Inhibition,”
in the International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis, ed. by
Alain de Mijolla, vol. 2 (Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference
USA, 2005), 832-833.
11 Frank Pierce Jones, Freedom to Change: The Development and
Science of the Alexander Technique (London: Mouritz Press,
1997), 11.
12 Imogen Barford, online video conference with author, August
22, 2018.
by not allowing [students] to develop in their
own space. 13
Alexander Technique teachers typically aim to have
students discover their habits for themselves as the
teacher gives them an experience outside of their
habitual one. Barford explains, “We quite often have
it in class where someone comes and plays…badly,
and they can see and hear how a few little inhibitory
thoughts can have a massive impact on how easy it
feels, how easy it looks, and how good it sounds. The
quality of the sound is enormously impacted.” 14
Direction and Primary Control
Alexander’s principle of inhibition is directly linked
to his principle of direction. He found that there is
a natural direction of the head upward away from
the ground when poised and that the head is always
balanced in relation to the neck, back, and limbs in
a dynamic relationship. The purpose of Alexander
Technique lessons is to help students find good direction
through learning to inhibit interference with it.
Direction is not a physical movement but a direction
of attention. In Alexander’s own habit, he impeded
the direction of his head forward and up by pulling
it back and down. In order to inhibit this habit, he
thought of the head going forward and up. 15 By directing
himself clearly, he inhibited his habitual response
of pulling the head back and down.
For harpists, the direction of the head, neck, and
back, have a large impact on the use of the arms and
hands at the harp. The various positions traditionally
taught as correct harp hand position can be thought
of as a set of constantly changing, optimal relationships
among the fingers, thumb, wrist, elbow, and
back rather than a static position that must be held.
When directing the whole self, Alexander found
that the relationship of the head, neck, and back was
fundamental to the use of the whole. This reinforces
the principles of psychophysical unity and direction
13 Marie Leenhardt, online video conference with author,
September 25, 2018.
14 Imogen Barford, online video conference with author, August
22, 2018.
15 Alexander used the word “thought” to teach his students to
direct themselves.
WINTER 2020
29
but places the relationship of the head, neck, and
back at the top of the hierarchy of the use of the
body. Alexander found that the direction or relationship
of the head, neck, and back is crucial to poise,
and called it primary control.
The concentration of sensory organs at the head
(eyes, ears, nose, mouth) is part of the hierarchical
design of primary control in which the head
and neck relationship affects the whole self and is
balanced through the sensory organs. Listening is
an important part of this system. Marie Leenhardt
explains, “I think the listening is very important.
The more [students] listen to the sound, immediately
their use changes. So I try to get them away
from doing, doing, doing, and more into listening
and opening.” 16 By bringing attention to the sensory
information in the environment aurally or visually,
often the relationship of the head, neck, and back
lengthens. Sensory feedback from the eyes and ears
about the position of the head, neck, and back can
be used to observe when one is pulling the head off
balance.
Means-Whereby versus End-Gaining
Alexander found that if he solely thought about
speaking, his faulty habit took hold and he was not
able to sense his head pulling back. He discovered
that he had to create a strategy of speaking without
pulling his head back. He did not stop his habitual
pattern by directly thinking of speaking or putting
the head in the right position but through the
indirect procedures of inhibition and direction.
He described this focus on process above results as
“means-whereby versus end-gaining.” Linda-Rose
Hembreiker, in her article on the Alexander Technique
for harpists, offers a useful definition of endgaining:
“the practice of using any means necessary
to reach a goal.” 17
End-gaining often occurs when musicians choose
repertoire that is beyond their musical knowledge
or technical capacity. When students play pieces
beyond their coordination and skill, they may not be
able to keep their attention wide on both their own
use and the musical intent of the piece. Hembreiker
also gives examples of end-gaining in music when
harpists try to “cram” prior to performances or to
play loudly without noticing the effect of that intention
on their whole self. 18 Instead, through inhibiting
the desire to play louder, to play a piece “perfectly,”
or to play quickly at all costs, performers can observe
themselves in the present, play with poise, and perform
at a level commensurate with their own individual
understanding and capacity.
Marie Leenhardt finds that she often applies Alexander’s
means-whereby principle in teaching:
[In teaching younger beginners], I can see how the
first lesson was great and then they haven’t applied
what I told them and I start to be too end-gaining
to get that. And I can see them change–they’re less
lively… This one [student] is full of goodwill, and
I can see her not understanding what I want… I
need to find the means-whereby, and I need to get
her to slowly evolve because I realize she hasn’t got
it, and she needs to grow before she can do it. 19
By inhibiting her desire to tell the student directly
what is wrong (since the student is not ready to act
on it) she patiently figures out the process that the
student needs to gain understanding. Leenhardt also
finds herself end-gaining in her own playing. She
describes:
…when I started [Alexander Technique] lessons,
the discovery was that I saw trying hard as a means
to an end. And it was realizing that I was actually
getting in the way so much. One of the pindropping
moments was when I had an [Alexander
Technique] lesson on the harp – [the teacher]
would come to my house occasionally, and I hadn’t
warmed up that day, and she worked on me for
5-10 minutes and then, not having warmed up, I
started to play the passage that I found difficult. It
was much easier than when I warmed up and I re
16 Marie Leenhardt, online video conference with author,
September 25, 2018.
17 Linda-Rose Hembreiker, “Incorporating the Alexander Technique
into the Daily Practice Session,” The American Harp
Journal 22, no. 4 (Summer 2010): 39.
18 Hembreiker, “Incorporating,” 38.
19 Marie Leenhardt, online video conference with author,
September 25, 2018.
30 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
alize the warming up was putting on a lot of habits
that were actually getting in the way. 20
In another experience, Leenhardt found herself
end-gaining with many concerts to prepare and
little time. She was using the Alexander Technique
in order to play the notes perfectly. When she realized
that she was using it to “get it right” (i.e. endgaining),
a fellow Alexander Technique teacher
suggested that she begin observing her use in an easy
piece as a means-whereby to find a space where the
desire to be perfect lessened. She explains, “sometimes
I just play a bit of [an easy, familiar] piece and
then go back to something else that I was practicing
[for a concert], and it really helps a lot. I think for
me that’s more important than going into the details
of the body.” She also finds that improvising can be
a useful process to inhibit end-gaining tendencies.
She states, “And improvising is the same–I’m not a
great improviser–but if I feel I’m getting stuck with
the harp, I’ll do a game of just making nice sounds
and listening and being more into the resonance of it
rather than the results side of it.” 21 Many Alexander
Technique-trained musicians find improvisation to
be a useful tool in which they play for enjoyment
within their capacity rather than attempting to play
passages that are beyond their abilities at the moment.
Leenhardt has another process or means-whereby
that allows her to notice if she is interfering with
her natural poise. It involves a phrase she learned
from an Alexander Technique teacher-musician, and
she uses it to broaden her awareness and bring attention
to her balance through her sit bones before
important solos and orchestral entrances. She asks
herself, “Am I breathing? Am I aware of the space
around me? Am I balanced?” 22 These questions offer
a chance to gain awareness and bring about change
indirectly by bringing attention to various aspects of
one’s use: holding one’s breath; narrowing one’s focus;
or lacking balance on one’s sit-bones. Leenhardt
describes her use of it in the context of orchestral
playing,
It’s always the moments when you have so long to
wait until you play, and more and more the way I
deal with it is to try not to separate what I do from
the rest. So I really listen beforehand so that what I
do is part of [it. And] I really listen after because I
notice I overthink it, so I try not to do that and try
to stay in the sound–basically [I try] to take myself
out of it more and be part of the whole, and what’s
past is past. As soon as I finish, I keep listening to
what’s going on, but these three questions also really
help me to be present. I think they give you a lot
of presence, even in solo recitals. 23
She finds a similar re-directing of attention useful for
her students.
A student once told me – ‘Oh, those two lines, I
can’t do them.’ It was Pierné’s Impromptu-Caprice in
the pedals bit, and I said ‘Okay, do it this time and
think about your sitting bones and think about the
space around your head.” She tended to clench her
jaw a lot, so I did it again, and I said, “Blow a feather.
Just imagine you’re blowing a feather while you
play.” And she did it again, and every time I asked
her [to think of] something…that was not about
playing the notes…she was playing it. And I looked
at her and said, ‘how can you do this?’ 24
Leenhardt also describes a practice method she uses
from a well-known introductory Alexander Technique
book for musicians, Indirect Procedures by Pedro
de Alcantara:
When something is difficult, I don’t necessarily
practice it slowly, but, for instance, I repeat passages
or repeat each bar so that you can sight-read
it and keep going. Or I make a pause. In a 4/4 bar,
you make a pause for one or two beats in which you
think your [Alexander Technique] directions again
and then you continue. For anything that’s repetitive
and tiring, to do that has really transformed it
for me. In things that I struggled with for years, I
20 Marie Leenhardt, online video conference with author,
September 25, 2018.
21 Marie Leenhardt, online video conference with author,
September 25, 2018.
22 Marie Leenhardt, online video conference with author,
September 25, 2018.
23 Marie Leenhardt, online video conference with author,
September 25, 2018.
24 Marie Leenhardt, online video conference with author,
September 25, 2018.
WINTER 2020
31
did that, and it solved it. I also use that a lot with
my pupils. 25
Body Mapping
There are several systems that are used by Alexander
Technique teachers and musicians which stem from
the Alexander Technique. One is Barbara Conable’s
Body Mapping, which seeks to provide clear and
practical information about anatomy and movement
for musicians. 26 Imogen Barford uses it as an important
part of teaching the Alexander Technique to her
students. She feels that Body Mapping helps students
have a clear idea of their structure and states, “Body
Mapping is the address, and Alexander Technique is
the message.” The aspects of Body Mapping that relate
most to harpists from her point of view are,
…the structure of the hands–that it turns at the elbow
rather than the wrists. The nature of the fingers.
I like to make a distinction between the bit of
myself that I can have a conversation with and negotiate
with, which are the soft tissue[s]—the muscles
I can talk to, and the bits that I can’t talk to,
which are the bones. Then I understand what I can
let go of and what I can have a conversation with.
And that’s what I find useful about Body Mapping—[to
understand that] there’s not one great
big thing [pointing to her shoulder], but we have
these areas that really respond to direction, which
are the muscles, and [we have] the bones, which
don’t. 27
She also describes the shoulder joint in more detail:
So what does that joint like? The meeting of these
three things they call the collar bone, the shoulder
blade, and humerus… It’s a very delicate and small
affair really…! It’s just that little dainty joint, and
everything else [around it] I can talk to and let go
of… We can think of things like shoulders be-
25 Marie Leenhardt, online video conference with author,
September 25, 2018.
26 William Conable, "Origins and Theory of Body Mapping," in
The Third International Alexander Congress Papers, Engleberg,
Switzerland (Bondi, Australia: Direction, 1991), quoted in
Jennifer Johnson, What Every Violinist Needs to Know About
the Body (Chicago, GIA Publications, Inc., 2009), 185-189.
27 Imogen Barford, online video conference with author, August
22, 2018.
ing very opaque and dense and like a big thing that
tends to hold lots of tension. 28
Dart Procedures
The Dart Procedures are a set of movements and
“postures” from early childhood development that
are based on the ideas and articles of neuroanatomist
and anthropologist Raymond Dart (1893-1988).
Dart discovered connections between the Alexander
Technique and his own knowledge of anatomy
and development and believed that developmental
movement patterns underlie ease, balance, and poise
in skill. Former London Symphony Principal Flutist
Alex Murray and his wife Joan Murray (both trained
in the Alexander Technique) put Dart’s movements
and positions together in a sequence that progresses
from fetal to crawling to standing upright and began
using the patterns in their Alexander Technique
teaching. Today, many Alexander Technique teachers
trained under the Murrays find the Dart Procedures
useful in finding coordination in movement.
Dart drew a distinction between an Alexander
Technique approach to his developmental movement
patterns and other approaches:
This training is not so much a training to do good
movements as a restraining of the individual from
performing improper and inappropriate movements
by means of manipulative and personal inhibition.
A sharp distinction should therefore be drawn between
the inhibitional manipulative education for
the body in respect of symmetry and poise [the AT]
and the procedures carried out by naturopaths, chiropractors,
osteopaths, bonesetters, and others who
manipulate body parts on one or more occasions for
the purpose of relieving pain. 29
Thus, observation and awareness of habits is integral
both to the Alexander Technique and the Dart Procedures.
It is a different approach from traditional
methods that teach new techniques or voluntary
movement to students. The Dart Procedures always:
28 Imogen Barford, online video conference with author, August
22, 2018.
29 Raymond Dart, “The Postural Aspect of Malocclusion,” in
Skill and Poise, ed. Alexander Murray (London, STAT Books,
1996), 98.
32 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
1) begin with the intention to see, hear, smell, taste,
or touch something rather than the intention to
create a position or movement (i.e. voluntary movement);
2) occur in all humans with a healthy development
(e.g. fetal, crawling, creeping, walking); 3)
are patterns that coordinate the whole self; and 4)
involve movement and direction rather than positions.
There are developmental movement patterns that
underlie harp technique. By understanding and moving
through developmental movement patterns of
grasping and reaching, harpists can use these procedures
to find coordination and sense what is interfering
with ease, strength, or facility at the instrument.
Framework for Integration
Another system that evolved from the Alexander
Technique and the Dart Procedures is the Framework
for Integration. It was developed by dance professors
and Alexander Technique teachers Rebecca
Nettl-Fiol and Luc Vanier as part of their efforts to
apply the subtlety of the Alexander Technique to the
dynamic, large-scale movements of dance. By creating
a framework for understanding the patterns of
the Dart Procedures, they rely less on the hands-on
work of the Alexander Technique and more on guiding
students through movement patterns and pointing
out the nature of those patterns.
Nettl-Fiol and Vanier have found that their point
of view on coordination can be applied more broadly
to all skills. While some of the movements and patterns
involve a large range of motion, applications to
playing the harp occur at a subtler level. One application
is that the fetal pattern provides a push in the
limbs which aids strength in the thumbs in relation
to the back. The opposing pattern of pulling forward
along the floor, colloquially known as “tummy time,”
creates a pull in the limbs which aids the opposing
fingers in relation to the back. Both the push and
pull of these patterns create a balance in the hand
that provides strength and freedom in harp playing.
Because Nettl-Fiol and Vanier approach their
work from a developmental point of view, they accept
each student’s individual level and do not try
to force a higher level of skill for which the student
is not ready. As teachers, they observe students’
patterns through the framework and help students
discover how they might be interfering with the
underlying developmental pattern that supports the
movement. Their method becomes especially useful
when applying the Alexander Technique to skills
that require virtuosity because when a high level of
skill is needed, the direction to “think head up” may
not provide the full range of tools needed to play a
difficult passage.
Many musicians know intellectually that performance
on their instrument involves the whole of
themselves, that the use of their arms is related to
their backs, and that distortion of the spine is not
useful, but they lack procedures to observe themselves
and change unconscious habits. The Alexander
Technique, Dart Procedures, and Framework for
Integration provide that.
The Alexander Technique and all systems related
to it provide an alternate lens through which
to see harp performance and teaching. While some
students thrive under traditional instruction, the
innovative systems presented in this article are intended
for students who feel they could benefit from
an approach that goes beyond the traditional models.
Both professional and student harpists suffer many
occupational hazards, from tendonitis, tightness, and
joint pain to psychological stress. For all those that
do, the methods discussed here might allow them to
play with more freedom and ease and prevent injury.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chicago-based harpist Claire Happel Ashe performs
with ensembles throughout the Midwest including the
Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony
Orchestra, and Newberry Consort. She was a 2007-08
Fulbright Scholar under Jana Boušková in Prague and
holds degrees from Yale University and the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she also received
a BFA in Dance. In 2016, she completed training at the
Alexander Technique Centre Urbana with Joan and Alex
Murray and currently teaches harp, movement, and the
Alexander Technique at the Music Institute of Chicago,
Valparaiso University, Olivet Nazarene University, and
in the Homewood Public Schools. V
WINTER 2020
33
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In Memoriam: Sam Milligan
1932-2019
by Leslie Shortlidge
T
HE harp world lost a good friend when Samuel
Milligan left us. Not only was Sam a friend
to the harp world, but he was a friend to music and
musicians. He touched the lives of so many people
with his generosity, good humor, passion for teaching,
and his love of the harp. His passing leaves behind
an empty space that will take time to fill, but we’re
glad he was here and that we could benefit from his
friendship. Here are some heartfelt tributes from
those who knew him best:
From Gordon Johnston:
Today the harp world lost one of its great ones, Samuel
Milligan (1932-2019). He passed at 4:12 pm on
Tuesday, August 27 in Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
from esophageal cancer and respiratory complications.
The final week of his life he was calm, lucid,
often witty, and, as always, generous to a fault. He
was surrounded by friends from Alcoholics Anonymous,
his nephew, and adoring musicians and harpists
(who played many of his own arrangements for
him). He was beloved and admired.
Known as a meticulous harp technician, he was
also a respected arranger of harp music. He was the
founding editor of The American Harp Journal, and
served on the boards of the American Harp Society
and the Historical Harp Society. Generations of
harpists learned to play using Milligan’s Fun From
the First and Medieval to Modern books, published by
Lyon & Healy. Sam’s enthusiasm and his method and
repertoire books are credited with helping to inspire
a renaissance in American harp playing.
Asked recently which of his arrangements for
harp pleased him most, he mentioned his “Bourées
d’Auvergne” suite, by Joseph Canteloube, which is
found in Medieval to Modern, vol. III. Sam was creatively
active until his final days. His numerous published
arrangements also include: “Der Jolly Huntsman
und der Kuckoo” (for piccolo, harp and shotgun
[slapstick]) “Vox Angelica” (four pieces for harp and
organ), “Vox Coelestis” (for harp and organ), “Black
and White Rag”by George Botsford, “Kol Nidrei” by
Max Bruch (for cello, harp and organ), “Campanas
de Belén / Bells of Bethlehem” (for choir, and harp),
and his more recent Five Medieval Dances, Seven Medieval
Songs, Nine Sephardic Songs and the forthcoming
Songs My Father Taught Me (by Thomas Moore),
all arranged for small or lever harp, voice, and optional
instruments.
Sam was predeceased by his life partner, Jesús
Castellón. Per his request, Sam’s ashes will be scattered
in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, in the Quaker
Cemetery. A memorial celebration will be held May
30, 2020.
From Emily Mitchell:
I’ve known Sam since I was a teenager. He regaled us
all with his colorful life’s tales. What an amazing influence
he had on the harp world. Rest in Peace and
Truth, dear Sam.
36 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
From Lucy Scandrett:
Sam, you have given the harp world a treasure of
wisdom, wonderful arrangements, incredible and witty
stories, vision and encouragement for harpists, and
unforgettable times with you! When I talked with
you several weeks ago, you still told me you were
fine! Oh, my friend, we will miss you! Thank you for
your amazing life!
From Robbin Gordon-Cartier:
I’ve known Mr. Milligan since I was nine years old!
It’s been only a few years that he finally got me to
call him Sam!! I’m so grateful that I got to see and
play for him. We love him here in East Orange! His
Burmese harp sits in my classroom. We will play his
music and keep him with us always. Rest well, Mr.
Milligan.
From Diane Michaels:
With each year that Sam took care of my harps, the
regulation appointments grew longer and longer. At
the end of his career as a regulator, we were taking
9-10 hour days to regulate two healthy harps that
didn’t require restringing. We simply had too much
to say to each other. Our conversations spanned
from highbrow down to lowbrow and, with his wicked
sense of humor, going low was too irresistible. In
recent years, we’d sit together at harp events, mostly
paying homage to his latest acquisition in the harp
department and all the amazing historical knowledge
surrounding his stable of instruments.
I’ll miss being asked, “How is himself?” during
each meeting or phone conversation. Sam and my
husband struck up not only a friendship but also a
professional relationship. Kevin played bass in Sam’s
band, accompanying him at engagements that included
the 2012 AHS conference and Sam’s eightieth
birthday fest.
I’d say there are no words to describe the hole in
our hearts today, but truthfully, given the decades of
scintillating conversations we’ve had together, I have
nothing but long, delicious stories in my memory to
keep Sam alive.
From Barbara Weiger Lepke-Sims:
Sam was such a dear person and so nice to me when
we served on the AHS board together. He will be
missed.
From Ann Yeung:
RIP Samuel Milligan —Fun from the First to Last.
8
Here at the American Harp Society, we are especially
sad because Sam was the first editor of The
American Harp Journal, but we are also grateful for
his leadership and innovation.
The first issue of the AHJ, published in the spring
of 1967, includes Sam’s message to the readership
about the fledgling publication. He began with an
appreciation of Harp News that focused on the increased
connection among harpists made possible by
that early publication . Then Sam detailed what the
new AHJ could do: longer stories, larger font sizes,
a focus on significant composers, musical scores—
more space for more potential.
That first issue also included a feature from Sam
that championed the importance of the Celtic harp,
an apparently niche topic in 1967. Sam also wrote
lovingly about the history of the harp and was of
course famous for his extensive collection, a topic he
returned to many times.
Sam wrote a wonderful article for the Summer
2017 issue, “A Reminiscence.” It’s an engaging and
intimate portrait of a man who loved the harp “like
e-coli loves warm potato salad at a Texas picnic in
July,” and who felt that his mission on earth was
to bring the harp to the heathen, like a missionary
spreading the good news. In the article, Sam wove a
tapestry of his life in music, telling tales of the harps
he’s known and the people he’s played with. And
while he confessed to missing the old days (the subway
in New York City was $.15!), he was heartened
by how much easier it is for a beginning harpist to
own an instrument today than when he began his
musical career.
Sam, thank you for everything. V
WINTER 2020
37
In Memoriam: Ruth Wickersham Papalia
1935-2019
by Lucy Scandrett and Jan Bishop
RUTH Wickersham Papalia died peacefully surrounded
by her family on October 8 at Aster
Retirement Community Home in Cottage Grove,
Wisconsin. She lived for six years with Parkinson’s
Disease without complaint.
Whether we were playing trios together, working
together in our administrative roles for the American
Harp Society, or enjoying social events with our families,
it was always a pleasure for us to be with Ruth.
Everyone who knew Ruth commented on her
kindness. She listened to everyone’s viewpoint, was
detailed and thorough in her work, and had a great
wit. She was always a source of information for past
AHS history and often had historical records to
share. She was co-founder of the Central New York
Chapter of the AHS. Ruth served at the national
level with the AHS as the New York Regional Director
(1980-1984), Rules Committee Chair (1983),
Treasurer (1983-1984), Chairman of the Board
(1986-1988), Secretary (1998-2002) and on other
national committees. She arranged the AHS Harp
Insurance Policies with the George B. Bailey Agency
and was on the founding committee of the AHS
Foundation, serving as the first Treasurer. Ruth received
the AHS Lifetime Achievement Award in
2008 for her service to the AHS at the National
Conference in Dearborn, Michigan.
Ruth was born February 5, 1935 in Quakertown,
Pennsylvania, and began harp lessons at age nine
with Mildred Johnson. She used her older sister Esther’s
harp at the beginning of her studies. Ruth then
began her lessons with Edna Phillips. She entered
the Oberlin Conservatory of Music at age seventeen,
studying with Lucy Lewis, and received a degree in
Harp Performance. During the summers she studied
with Carlos Salzedo at his harp colony in Camden,
Maine. She toured the United States and Canada in
the 1950s at the invitation of Salzedo with The Angelaires,
a quintet of professional harpists under the
management of Columbia Artists. Ruth performed
for forty years with the College Community Orchestra
at the State University of New York in Cortland,
New York and was a soloist with symphony orchestras
in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
In 2004 the two of us joined Ruth to form a harp
trio and commissioned two pieces from the British
composer Simon Proctor. The name of our trio
was the title of the first piece he wrote for us: The
Three of Harps. We performed concerts in the Eastern
United States, at AHS Conferences, and at the
Royal Academy of Music, London with the composer
present. Ruth always enjoyed telling us that she met
Simon in the stage curtains after she performed the
Mozart with the College Community Orchestra. She
was coming off the stage, and he was coming onstage
to speak about his piece that was next on the
program. Ruth would smile and say his writing for us
was meant to be!
Ruth met Dr. Anthony S. Papalia, her husband of
sixty-three years, at Oberlin. They often presented
wonderful workshops together on “Dealing with
Performance Tension and Anxiety” at AHS National
Conferences beginning in 1982. Tony is a psychologist
who served as Director of Counseling at the
State University of New York College at Cortland
and as an industrial consultant to Smith-Corona-
Marchant Corp. Tony and Ruth have four daughters
and five granddaughters. Ruth was a marvelous hostess
and always remembered everyone’s birthday.
Tony and Ruth enjoyed reminiscing about visiting
Camden to see Salzedo after they were married. Salzedo
told Tony that if you ever stop her from playing,
I will…you! They always laughed about that meeting.
Tony always supported Ruth in whatever she did.
We feel honored to have played with Ruth as The
Three of Harps. We miss Ruth immensely, and we will
be forever inspired by her! V
38 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
Jan Bishop, Lucy Scandrett, Ruth Papalia (seated).
DEGREE OPTIONS
Bachelor of Music Degrees
in Music Education, Performance,
Composition, Music Theory, Music History,
with an emphasis in Music Business
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Master of Music Degrees
in Music Education
and Performance
Harp students at Crane study with Dr. Jessica Suchy-Pilalis, Professor of Harp & Music Theory
1.877.POTSDAM • admissions@potsdam.edu • www.potsdam.edu/crane
WINTER 2020
39
In Memoriam: Louise Trotter
1923-2019
by Tracy Thornton
LOUISE L. Trotter, aged ninety-six, of Houston,
Texas passed away October 17, 2019 with her
loving family by her side. She was born in Port Arthur,
Texas on September 4, 1923 to Oren and Grace
Lantz. Her dad was known as “Pop” Lantz and was
the band director at Thomas Jefferson High School
for forty years. Louise, lovingly called “Weezie,” graduated
from the same school in 1941 and attended
Texas State College for Women (TSCW) in Denton
where she studied music. Her father couldn’t afford
to buy her a harp when she was twelve, so he visited
a harp factory and figured out how to BUILD one for
her!
Louise married George P. Trotter in 1942 and
they enjoyed a few short months together before he
deployed to the army during World War II. When
the war was over, he went to work for the Gulf Oil
Company for forty years. The Trotters lived happily
in Port Arthur, Puerto Rico, Baytown, and Houston
until George’s death in 1979. They had three children:
Gary, Caryl and Tracy; seven grandchildren:
Jessica, Ryan, Ariane, Katie, Stephanie, Carly and
Joshua; and five great-grandchildren, all of whom
she adored. Louise’s family meant more to her than
anything and she kept in close touch with everyone
until the end. “One thing about Mother,” says Gary,
“if I ever got in a word edgewise in our weekly phone
conversations, it was a total surprise!” Louise was a
storyteller and loved to spell out all of the details.
Louise learned the art of performing and entertaining
at a very early age, but her career really took
off after she landed a professional gig playing nightly
at the Brownstone Restaurant and the Adam’s Mark
Hotel in Houston. During her career she performed
with the Baytown Symphony orchestra, and for hundreds
of church events, weddings and programs, but
was perhaps best-known for her concerts at annual
pop and folk harp workshops across the globe. She
became an internationally renowned harpist in a
career that spanned over seventy years. Friends and
colleagues from around the country continue to reminisce
about her famous performances highlighting
her country and western arrangements of Steel Guitar
Rag, Don’t It Make Your Brown Eyes Blue and Chattanooga
Choo Choo. They loved her amusing Willie
Nelson impersonation while her family especially
enjoyed her versions of Harvest Moon, Summertime
and various boogie-woogie compositions. She was
honored with a cover story in The American Harp
Journal just a few years before her passing and regularly
kept in touch with her many friends in the harp
community. After producing fourteen compact discs
and selling hundreds of harp arrangements online,
she retired at age ninety-five but continued playing
the piano for the other residents at her home until a
week before her death. V
40 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
In Memoriam: Linda Wellbaum
1922-2019
by Lisa Geber
LINDA (née Iacobucci) Wellbaum, aged ninetyseven,
died peacefully on July 15, 2019, surrounded
by her children.
Linda was an accomplished pianist and harpist
who performed extensively with the Cincinnati
Symphony Orchestra, the Dayton Philharmonic, and
many other ensembles. A graduate of the University
of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, she
was a member of Mu Phi Epsilon, Matinee Musicale,
and the American Harp Society.
Linda was a loving wife, mother, and grandmother
who devoted her life to her family and to music. She
was the wife of the late Jack Wellbaum for sixty-five
years. She leaves behind daughter Lisa Geber and
her husband Stephen; son Ray Wellbaum and his
wife Karen; daughter Laura Kalaitzoglou; six grandchildren
(Stephanie, Lauren, Leah, Alex, Erik and
Emma); and two great grandchildren.
Lisa Geber shares, “My mother wasn’t just my
mother. She was my very first harp teacher, giving me
lessons starting when I was nine years old. When I
was fifteen, she sent me to Camden, Maine, to study
with Alice Chalifoux. My mother followed my career
throughout the years. When I was awarded the principal
harp position with the Cleveland Orchestra, my
dream came true and so did hers!
“Mother started playing the harp later in life than
most of us. She was a piano major at the Cincinnati
College Conservatory of Music. She needed a minor,
so she began studying the harp at that time. Obviously,
she was quite talented. She became the second
harpist of the Cincinnati Symphony and she shared
many concerts and tours with my father, Jack Wellbaum.
Dad played piccolo and was the personnel
manager for many years.
“Mother and I took several trips together. Our
favorite venture was driving to Roundhill, Virginia to
visit Alice Chalifoux. Alice was not well but her humor
and many stories had us laughing for hours!
“Thank you,
mom, for all of your
knowledge and love!
Your spirit will live
on in the hearts of
so many people who
loved you.”
Donations in Linda’s
memory may be made to Hospice of Cincinnati (hospiceofcincinnati.org;
513-865-1616), and the Cincinnati
Symphony Orchestra (1241 Elm Street, Cincinnati,
OH 45202).
Our thanks to Harp Column for this obituary, and
to its author, Lisa Geber, for the additional memories of
her mother. V
WINTER 2020
41
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AHS MEMBERSHIP:
MORE THAN A MAGAZINE
The mission of the American
Harp Society, Inc. is to celebrate
our legacy, inspire excellence,
and empower the next generation
of harpists.
JAM SESSIONS
WORKSHOPS
FIELD TRIP
CONCERTS
SEMINARS
Join Online at the AHS Website:
harpsociety.org/Membership/JoinRenew.asp
HistoricA lHA rpSociety.org
WINTER 2020
43
Preview of the 2020 National Conference, Orlando
T
HE American Harp Society’s forty-fourth national
conference in Orlando, Florida is shaping
up to be an exciting event. “That’s Entertainment”
is the theme and there will be plenty of educational
and entertaining performances, workshops,
lectures, and interactive panels to appeal to a broad
range of interests.
The conference planning committee has chosen
to focus on the legacy of outstanding pop and jazz
artists from the last century; dynamic and groundbreaking
current artists; jazz harp traditions of Latin
America; concerts by inspiring classical artists;
concerts highlighting the diverse talent of Florida
harpists; and workshops and panels about technology
and business practices, arranging for the harp, commissioning
and composing for the harp, and enhancing
physical wellness. There will also be yoga classes
each morning, so don’t forget to bring your mat!
We will survey the history of pop and jazz harp
through lectures and extensive exhibits, complemented
by performances by international jazz harp
stars (including Nikolaz Cadoret, Ben Creighton
Griffiths, Scott Marischen, Charles Overton, Felice
Pomeranz and Brandee Younger), and popular harp
ensembles (including Cindy Horstman and the Dallas
Jazz Harp Ensemble). In addition to performing,
many artists will give workshops about their area of
expertise (such as arranging, jazz theory, and electronics),
as well as work with the participatory harp
ensembles. Make sure to sign-up to play when you
register and to bring your harps!
This year’s conference will also include sessions
on the harp in Latin America. Venezuelan jazz harpists
Eduardo Betancourt and Leonard Jacome will
discuss their country’s harp-rich musical heritage
as well as perform at the conference. Also on tap
are lectures about Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-
Lobos’s Harp Concerto and Nicanor Zabaleta’s experiences
in Columbia.
Several offerings will touch on the harp’s role in
American film music and in the work of film music
composers. Ann Hobson Pilot will be reflecting on
her long-time work with composer John Williams
in a moderated discussion. David Ice will share his
recently updated “Hooray for Harpywood” presentation,
which explores on-screen harp playing in the
movies, and Molly O’Roarke will give a lecture about
Harpo Marx’s legacy.
On the classical front, international harp superstar,
Anneleen Lenaerts, will be giving an evening
solo concert, and Anne-Marie O’Farrell and I will
discuss playing and transcribing J.S. Bach’s music for
both lever and pedal harps.
As the conference is in Florida this year, prominent
symphony and university harpists from the area
will perform, as well as several of the harpists who
play at nearby Disney World. For the first time, harp
alumni from the New World Symphony, (based in
Miami Beach) will perform and discuss their experiences
with this unique training orchestra.
On the wellness front, Dr. Don Greene, the wizard
of performance preparation and success, will
present two workshops on how to develop optimal
learning and performance skills. He will be available
for customized private consultations. Additionally,
MELT master instructor Meegan Descheneaux will
44 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
give two classes in this unique self-care technique
that uses specialized balls and soft body rollers to
kick-start the body’s natural healing mechanisms to
decrease pain and increase mobility. Meegan will also
be available for customized private consultations.
On a lighter note, the conference committee has
scheduled a photo shoot at the hotel’s pool, with the
hope of setting a record for the largest number of
harpists in a pool. Whether pool-side or in the water,
wearing a bathing suit or conference attire, we hope
you will join us for this fun event.
For the latest details about programming, concerts
and special events, and to register for the conference,
and book a hotel room, please see the new
AHS Conference website, www.ahsconference.org.
We invite you to follow us on Facebook, Instagram,
and Twitter @harpsociety and to make abundant
use of our new, official hashtags:
#harpistsinapool
#sunshineharps
#OrlandoHarpening
Help us set a record for the most harpists in a pool. Photo shoot
details coming soon. (photo: Florida harpists Deborah Fleisher
and Laura Sherman.)
The conference committee and I hope to see you
next June in Orlando!
All the best,
Laura Sherman
Explore the PEABODY CONSERVATORY,
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Our world-class harp faculty include
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peabody.jhu.edu
667-208-6600
WINTER 2020
45
2020 National Conference, Orlando — Join Us!
2
1
3
4
6
46 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
5
8
7
9
10
1 Eduardo Betancourt
2 Ben Creighton-Griffiths
3 Brandee Younger
4 Anne-Marie O'Farrell
5 Charles Overton
6 Grace Browning
7 Don Greene
8 The Spencer Brothers
9 Kontra Duo
10 Haley Rhodeside
WINTER 2020
47
2019 ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING
June 19, 2019, 2:00 PM EST
Eisenburg Social Hall, Hanes Student Commons
Universitiy of North Carolina School of the Arts
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
WELCOME & CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by President Lynne
Aspnes at 2:15 PM EST. President Aspnes welcomed
every American Harp Society, Inc. member and conducted
a Call of Regions, recognizing those members
attending from each region of the AHS.
I. Items for Action
A. Approval of the minutes of the June 27, 2018
annual membership meeting as published in The
American Harp Journal, Winter 2019.
Delaine Leonard moved to approve the minutes of the
June 27, 2018 annual membership meeting. The
motion carried.
II. Items for Information
A. Report of the Treasurer
Treasurer Karen Lindquist Speyer reported the
Operating fund of the AHS closed the third quarter
with an account value of $380,324. The AHS
Endowment Fund closed at $338,078. Cash on
Hand amounts stand at $25,673.99 in PayPal and
$142,982.41 in TIAA.
B. Keynote Address
A keynote address was delivered by 2017-2019 AHS
Concert Artist Abigail Kent, following her final
Concert Artist performance on June 19, 2019 at the
2019 AHS Summer Institute. In her role as AHS
Concert Artist, Ms. Kent has presented twenty-five
(25) recitals and eighteen (18) masterclasses all over
the United States. Ms. Kent thanked the American
Harp Society leadership for the many opportunities
afforded her by the Concert Artist program and
expressed her congratulations to the incoming AHS
Concert Artist for 2019-2021, Caroline Wilkins.
C. Introductions and recognition of national
leadership
Chairman of the Board Elaine Pack Litster recognized
outgoing board members Catherine Case,
Cheryl Dungan Cunningham, Cheryl Ann Fulton,
Julia Kay Jamieson, Diane Michaels, Kela Walton,
and Erin Wood and thanked them for their tremendous
service to the American Harp Society and the
cause of the harp.
New members joining the board this year are
Pacific Regional Director Jennifer Ellis, Western Regional
Director Chilali Hugo, Mid Atlantic Regional
Director Anne Sullivan, and Directors at Large
Cindy Horstman, Charles W. Lynch III, and Angela
Schwarzkopf.
D. 2019 Summer Institute and Camp Innovation
2019 AHS Summer Institute Co-Chair Grace
Wepner Ludtke reported on the success of the inaugural
AHS Camp Innovation, as part of the Summer
Institute, and introduced Camp Innovation campers
in attendance at the membership meeting.
E. Membership and chapter report
Executive Director Kathryn McManus reported that
current AHS membership stands at three thousand
fifty-eight (3058) total members. The Society has
seventy-eight (78) chapters. New chapters chartered
within the past year are the Alabama Chapter and
Western New York Chapter. Reinstated chapters are
the Tulsa, Oklahoma, Central Gulf Coast (Florida),
and Bayou (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) Chapters. Requests
for dissolution were approved for the Redding,
California and Columbus, Ohio chapters. Reinstatement
of the Oklahoma City Chapter is in process.
F. AHS Foundation Report
AHS Foundation Board member Jaymee Haefner
gave a report on behalf of AHS Foundation President
Carrie Kourkemelis. Foundation funds are stable
and remain strong. The Foundation has plans to
conduct active fundraising to support further growth.
The Foundation hopes to work with the Society to
strategically advance shared missions. The AHS
Foundation would like to give official recognition
to founders and emerita members Ruth Papalia and
Wenonah Govea.
48 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
G. 2018-2019 Board of Directors actions – President
Lynne Aspnes
1. Code of Ethics/Code of Conduct
The Board of Directors of the American Harp Society
voted to approve a Code of Ethics at its February
29, 2019 board meeting as stated:
The American Harp Society, Inc., is committed
to promoting honesty, integrity, and transparency.
The AHS asks its members, when engaged in Society
activities and/or when representing the Society
in the community at large, to maintain the highest
standards of professional conduct; to treat everyone
with courtesy, fairness, and respect; to be accountable
for their actions; and to strive for the highest
levels of service, performance, and social responsibility
in pursuit of the goals and the objectives of
the Society. This Code is part of a broader set of organizational
policies and compliance procedures. This
Code is not intended to supersede or materially alter
current organizational policies and procedures.
2. Chapter Ambassador Awards program
The Board of Directors included $15,000 in the
2019 fiscal year budget to award up to thirty (30)
$500 matching grants to chapters to designate student
chapter members as Chapter Ambassador
award recipients. Twelve (12) Chapter Ambassadors
were named from six (6) chapters: Dallas,
Georgia, Metropolitan New York, Western Michigan,
Chicago, and Connecticut. Chapter Ambassadors
participated in Institute events and Camp
Innovation and received mentorship while in residency
at the Institute. The 2019 Chapter Ambassadors
will receive further guidance from chapter and
national mentors, as they pursue community engagement
projects.
3. Five-year strategic planning
Vice President and Strategic Planning Committee
(SPC) member Megan Sesma gave an update to the
membership on the board’s continuing work in developing
a (5) year strategic plan for the AHS. The
goals and objectives of the strategic plan are closely
linked to the mission statement of the AHS: To celebrate
our legacy, inspire excellence, and empower the
next generation of harpists.
The five (5) strategic goals are to:
• Continue examining strategic organizational
growth
• Cultivate accessible technology, communications,
and publications
• Mentor and strengthen connections to AHS
chapters
• Empower the harp community with educational
initiatives
• Engage a diverse and inclusive membership
4. Chapter of the Year
Chapter Committee member Erin Wood reported
that applications for Chapter of the Year were received
from four (4) chapters this year. The Executive
Committee reviewed all the materials and
voted by secret ballot. The Georgia Chapter, Ellen
Foster, President, was named as Chapter of the Year
and will receive a $300 acknowledgement award.
The award was accepted by Ms. Foster, Southeastern
Regional Director and chapter member Mary
Ann Flinn, and other chapter members in attendance.
The Georgia Chapter sponsored three (3)
Chapter Ambassador awards winners and will be
celebrating their chapter’s fiftieth (50 th ) anniversary
in 2020.
H. Additional reports
Additional reports on the programs and initiatives of
the Society are available through Member365. The
general membership is encouraged to browse the
materials there, to follow announcements regarding
programs available for chapter sponsorship through
the monthly e-newsletters, and to access support
for chapter and individual member opportunities
through communications with regional directors,
committee chairs and liaisons, and chapter officers
and members.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned by President Aspnes at
3:00 PM EST.
The meeting was followed by a cupcake reception
honoring outgoing AHS Concert Artist Abigail
Kent.
Submitted by,
Laura L. Brandenburg, Secretary V
WINTER 2020
49
American Harp Society, Inc.
Statement of Operations: 2018–2019
REVENUE
Membership dues 164,470
Event income 49,731
Contributions 12,081
Publication income 24,995
Investment income 43,810
Other income 596
Total revenues: 294,683
EXPENSES
Program Services
Member programs 76,824
Publication of American Harp Journal 69,016
Summer Institute, Competition and other 123,297
Total program services: 269,137
General & Administrative 47,831
Total expenses: 316,968
Change in net assets (22,285)
Net assets, beginning of year 817,660
Net assets, end of year 795,375
Assets
Cash 229,209
Investment 573,444
Total assets: 802,653
Liabilities & Net Assets
Accounts payable 7,278
Total liabilities: 7,278
Net Assets
Without donor restrictions:
Board-designated endowment 293,432
Undesignated cash reserve 416,160
With donor restrictions
Escosa, Grandjany Centennial, Palmer,
85,783
Salzedo funds
Total Net Assets 795,375
Total Liabilities & Assets 802,653
IT
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Recent Publications and Recordings
compiled by Dr. Suzanne L. Moulton-Gertig
PLEASE NOTE ADDRESS CHANGE: Send copies of music and recordings to Dr. Suzanne L. Moulton-Gertig, 19
Farmington Drive, Dover, NH 03820. A photocopy of the recto and verso of the title page and the first page of
music, together with a page count; or photocopies of the accompanying packaging for recordings (as well as a photocopy
of the CD or cassette itself) may be submitted in lieu of a review copy, if necessary. Corrections from readers
are welcomed, since it has not been possible in every case to see a copy of the publication.
As a general principle, all printed music, audio and video recordings issued within the past three years are eligible
to be listed here; foreign imprints and recording labels that have only recently been released for distribution
in the United States may also be included, although they may bear earlier dates.
BOOKS
Haefner, Jaymee, 1976-
One stone to the building: Henriette Renié’s life through
her works for harp.
Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse,
ISBN 978-1-5246-8513-3, ©2017. 222p.
Kondonassis, Yolanda, 1963-
The composer’s guide to writing well for the modern
harp.
New York: Carl Fischer,
ISBN 978-1-4911-5691-9, ©2019. 128p.
Méndez, Marcela.
Mirella Vita: The indefatigable seeker.
Bologna: Ut Orpheus Edizioni,
ISBN 978-88-8109-517-9, ©2019. 96p.
CHAMBER
Agócs, Kati, 1975-
Devotion.
For horn, harp, and string quintet.
Needham, MA: Kati Agócs Music, ©2019.
Score (20p) and parts (5p, 12p, 3x5p).
Albert, Adrienne, 1941-
Fanta*Z.
For harp, flute, clarinet, two violins, viola, cello,
and bass.
Los Angeles: Kenter Canyon Music, ©2019.
Score (12p) and 8 parts (5p, 7x2p).
Arismendi, Diana, 1962-
Cantos III.
For flute and harp.
Minot, ND: Latin American Frontiers International
Pub., ©2019. Score (11p) and part (3p).
Bhatti, Ketan, 1981-
Insel vor Tounisbuurg.
For alto flute, bass clarinet, harp, piano, drum set,
and cello.
London: Bosworth, ©2019. Score, 4p.
Bhatti, Ketan, 1981-
Laughter leading.
For alto flute, bass clarinet, harp, piano, synthesizer,
cello, percussion (marimba and vibraphone), and
drum kit.
London: Bosworth, ©2019. Study score, 23p.
Bond, Victoria, 1945-
Sacred sisters.
For violin and harp.
New York: Protone Music, ©2019.
Score (23p) and parts (8p, 23p).
Bonis, Mel(Anie), 1858-1937.
Chant nuptial.
For violin and harp (or piano), organ, and cello
(ad libitum).
Paris: Lemoine, ©2019. Score (6p) and part (4p).
52 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
Caramiello, Giovanni, 1838-1938.
3 fantasias on themes by Bellini for harp and piano.
Edited by Letizia Belmondo.
Contents: Fantasia sulla “Sonnambula” del Bellini, Ricordo
variato dell’opera “Norma” di Bellini, and Duetto
sulla “Casta diva” del Bellini.
Bologna: Ut Orpheus Editioni, 2019.
Score (64p) and parts (24p, 24p).
Caramiello, Giovanni, 1838-1938.
2 fantasias on themes by Rossini and Donizetti for harp
and piano.
Edited by Letizia Belmondo.
Contents: “Il barbiere di Siviglia” di Rossini and Fantasia
concertante sull’opera “Poliuto” di Donizetti.
Bologna: Ut Orpheus Editioni, 2019.
Score (44p) and parts (20p, 20p).
Caramiello, Giovanni, 1838-1938.
2 fantasias on themes by Verdi for harp and piano.
Edited by Letizia Belmondo.
Contents: Divertimento brillante sulla “Traviata” di G.
Verdi and Duetto sulla “Forza del destino” di G. Verdi.
Bologna: Ut Orpheus Editioni, 2019.
Score (32p) and parts (12p, 12p).
Cone, Edward T., 1917-2004.
Duo.
For violin and harp.
Verona, NJ: Estate of Edward Cone, ©2019.
Score (32p) and part (13p).
Daughtrey, Nathan, 1975-
Labyrinth of light.
For harp and marimba.
Greensboro, NC: C. Alan Publications, ©2018.
Score (21p) and parts (11p, 12p).
Delise, Louis Anthony, 21stc.
Giocara.
For flute and harp.
Note: This edition also includes an appendix of parts
for lever harp.
Seattle: Alry Publications, ©2019.
Score (21p) and part (5p).
Diaz-Jerez, Gustavo, 1970-
Nous V.
For flute and harp.
Oxfordshire, Eng.: Composers Edition, ©2020.
Score (8p) and part (3p).
Dubugnon, Richard, 1968-
Hermes & Apollo, op. 79.
For harp and piano.
London: C. F. Peters, ©2018.
Score (34p) and part (33p).
Falconieri, Andrea, 1585-1656.
La suave melodia.
For violin, cello, harp, and clavichord.
Edited by Vincenzo Bianco.
Osaka: Da Vinci Edition, ©2019.
Score (5p) and parts (2p, 2p, 1p, 1p).
Freidlin, Jan, 1944-
Enigma.
For bass trombone and harp.
Lagny Sur Marne, Paris, FR: Musik Fabrik, ©2018.
Score (9p) and part (3p).
Hölscher, Rieteke, 1969-
Earcatcher–Digitalis.
For flute, viola, and harp.
Note: Spiral binding.
Rijswijk, Neth.: Donemus, ©2020.
Score (15p) and part (7p).
Izarra, Adina, 1959-
Oratorio profane.
For mezzo soprano, baritone, flute, guitar, harp, and
percussion.
Note: Score also available separately.
Minot, ND: Latin American Frontiers International
Pub., ©2019.
Score (34p) and parts (13p, 7p, 6p, 4p).
Kaca, Aleksandra, 1991-
Shadow lines.
For harp, piano, and cello.
Krakow: Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne, ©2018.
Set of 2 scores (15p, 15p) and part (8p).
WINTER 2020
53
Leone, Gustavo, 1956-
Red quintet.
For harp and string quartet.
Chicago, IL: One-L, ©2020.
Score (34p) and parts (8p, 5p, 5p, 5p, 5p).
Locklair, Dan, 1949-
Sonata for flute and harp.
Verona, NJ: Subito Music Corporation, ©2018.
Score (19p) and part (8p).
Milstein, Silvina, 1956-
Cristales y susurrus.
For flute/piccolo, clarinet/bass clarinet, harp, violin,
viola, violoncello, and double bass.
Oxfordshire: Composers Edition, ©2019. Score, 26p.
Milstein, Silvina, 1956-
Ochre, umber and burnt sienna.
For flute (alto flute), harp, three violins, and two
double basses.
Oxfordshire: Composers Edition, ©2019. Score, 59p.
Murail, Tristan, 1947-
L’attente.
For flute, clarinet, harp, two violins, viola, and cello.
Paris: Lemoine, ©2019. Score, 69p.
Nicholson, George, 1949-
La dame à la licorne.
For flute (doubling piccolo), harp, and string quartet.
Note: Spiral binding.
York: Univ. of York Music Press, ©2019. Score, 76p.
Polin, Claire, 1926-1995.
Felina, Felina.
For violin and harp.
Note: Printed from manuscript.
Verona, NJ: Seesaw Music Corporation, ©2019.
Set of 2 scores (7p, 7p).
Richardson, Dana Dimitri, 1953-
Mysterium.
For vibraphone, harp, and cello.
Verona, NJ: Dana Richardson Publishing, ©2020.
Score (11p) and parts (5p, 3p, 3p).
Sierra, Arlene, 1970-
Studies in choreography.
For flute, viola, and harp.
London: Cecilian Music, ©2019.
Score (16p) and parts (5p, 5p).
Staud, Johannes Maria, 1974-
Vielleicht zunächst wirklich nur.
For soprano, alto/bass flute, trumpet, percussion,
harp, viola, and double bass.
Note: Printed from manuscript. Custom
print edition.
Vienna: Universal Edition, ©2019. Study score, 27p.
Young, Nina C., 1984-
Fleeting musings and restless pause—a pocket concerto.
For bassoon, flute, harp, viola, and bass.
Note: A chamber work that features bassoon.
New York: Peermusic Classical, ©2019.
Score (12p) and parts (5p, 3p, 3p, 3p, 3p).
CONCERTOS/HARP AND ORCHESTRA
Guo, Wenjing, 1956-
Concerto, op. 36.
For harp, lyric soprano, and chamber orchestra.
Milano: Ricordi, ©2019. Full score, 78p.
Harty, Hamilton, 1879-1941.
In Ireland.
For flute, harp, and small orchestra.
Note: Printed from the manuscript.
München: Musikproduktion Juergen Hoeflich,
©2019. Study score, 36p.
Leone, Gustavo, 1956-
Como un sueño.
For harp and chamber orchestra.
Chicago, IL: One-L, ©2020. Study score, 60p.
VOICE AND HARP
Holliger, Heinz, 1939-
Lieder aus 50 jahren.
For soprano and harp.
Mainz: Schott, ©2019. Score, 24p.
54 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
SOLO
Agócs, Kati, 1975-
Every lover is a warrior.
Edited by Bridget Kibbey.
Needham, MA: Kati Agócs Music, ©2019. 18p.
Agócs, Kati, 1975-
Northern lights.
Needham, MA: Kati Agócs Music, ©2019. 19p.
Dzubay, David, 1964-
Lullaby.
Bloomington, IN: Pro Nova Music, ©2019. 2p.
Faure, Gabriel, 1845-1924.
Two masterpieces for solo harp.
Edited by Carl Swanson.
Contents: Impromptu, op. 86 and Une chatelaine en sa
tour…, op. 110.
New York: Carl Fischer, ©2019. 28p.
Caramiello, Giovanni, 1838-1938.
4 fantasias on themes by Bellini and Verdi for solo harp.
Contents: Fantasia sul finale della “Norma” del Bellini,
Rimembranze dell’opera “Un ballo in maschera” di Verdi,
Divertimento sull’opera “Don Carlo” di G. Verdi, and
Fantasia sull’opera “Aida” di Verdi.
Edited by Letizia Belmondo.
Bologna: Ut Orpheus Editioni, 2019. 52p.
Caramiello, Giovanni, 1838-1938.
Le serenate del Vesuvio. 6 melodie popolari trascritte e
variate in forma di studi op. 12 for solo harp.
Edited by Letizia Belmondo.
Bologna: Ut Orpheus Editioni, 2019. 44p.
Caramiello, Giovanni, 1838-1938.
Variations and fantasias on celebrated melodies for solo
harp.
Edited by Letizia Belmondo.
Contents: Celebre siciliana di Pergolesi, “Che farò senza
Euridice!” Aria di Gluck, “Delizia” celebre melodia di
Beethoven, Fantasia brillante sullar romanza della “Fornarina”
del Maestro Michele Ruta, and Piccolo divertimento
sulla “Palummella” di T. Cottrau.
Bologna: Ut Orpheus Editioni, 2019. 44p.
Lim, Liza, 1966-
Rug music.
Note: Printed from manuscript.
Berlin: Ricordi, ©2019. 4p.
Lipten, David, 1961-
Double clutch.
Verona, NJ: Subito Music, ©2019. 8p.
Patterson, Robert, 1970-
Glitch.
Bill Holab Music, www.billholabmusic.com,
©2019. 11p.
Snell, David, 1936-
Bizarre waltz.
For pedal or lever harp.
Enfield, England: Modus Music, ©2019. 7p.
Stork, Diana
Harp crossings: From North to South America and
back again.
For Latin, lever, and pedal harps.
Note: Trad. Latin American works, solo, and
two-harp duos, arranged and/or composed by
Diana Stork.
Berkeley, CA: dianastork@harpdancer.com,
©2019. 61p.
RECODINGS
American rapture.
Yolanda Kondonassis, harp; Rochester Philharmonic
Orchestra, Ward Stare, cond.
Contents: Harp concerto by Jennifer Higdon; Symphony
no. 1 by Barber; and Rapture by Patrick Harlin.
Azica Records, ©2019.
WINTER 2020
55
Beau soir.
Dariusz Skoraczewski, cello; Jacqueline Pollauf, harp.
Note: Transcriptions by Dariusz Skoraczewski and
Jacqueline Pollauf.
Contents: Beau soir and Claire de lune by Debussy;
Après un rêve and Romance, op. 69 by Fauré; Pièce
en forme de habanera by Ravel; Fratres and Spiegel
im spiegel by Pärt; Six studies in English folk song by
Vaughan Williams; Sicilienne by M.T. von Paradis;
“Meditation” from Thaïs by Massenet; Romanian folk
dances by Bartok; and “Le cygne” from Le carnaval
des animaux by Saint Saëns.
Baltimore, MD: Monument Music,
www.jpharp.com, ©2019.
The bounds of spring.
JOLO Duo: Joseph Rebman, harp; Louis Setzer,
trombone.
Contents: The bounds of spring by Taylor Roland/Rebman;
A little music for trombone and harp by Raymond
Goldstein; “Ostinato malinconico” from Four songs
without words by Gideon Lewensohn; Pavane by Ravel/Ostrander/Lawrence;
Endless by Mack LaMont;
Negotiations by Sy Brandon; Sehnsucht by Donald Appert;
and Al circo by David Stout/Setzer.
Cottonwood, AZ: Emeritus Recordings, Emeritus
20201, emeritusrecordings@gmail.com, ©2020.
Detach.
Angela Schwarzkopf, harp; Michelle Cotton and
Étienne Levesque, vibraphones.
Contents: attach/detach by Monica Pearce; Garden by
Cecilia Livingston; A portrait of Tschamiu by Patrick
Arteaga; Contemplation by Mark Nerenberg; Sonatina
for vibraphone and harp by Elisha Denburg; and
Castles in the sand by Kevin Lau.
www.angelaschwarzkopf.com, ©2019.
La harpe consolatrice.
Kyunghee Kim-Sutre, harp.
Contents: Six pièces by Ibert; 4 préludes by Tournier; 6
pièces brève by Renié; La jardin mouillé by de la Presle;
Impromptu by Roussel; and Une châtelaine en sa tour
by Fauré.
WWI Music, Editions Hortus, ©2018.
Nino Rota: Works for harp.
Anneleen Lenaerts, harp; Emmanuel Pahud, flute;
Brussels Philharmonic, Adrien Perruchon, cond.
Contents: Concerto for harp and orchestra, Sonata for
flute and harp, Sarabanda e toccata, “Suite” from The
Godfather, “Nile journey” from Death on the Nile,
“Suite” from La dolce vita, “Love theme” from Romeo
and Juliet, and “Overture” from Taming of the shrew.
Warner Classics: PLG UK Classics, ©2019.
Renderings: A musical landscape for violin
and harp.
Crimson Duo: Matt Milewski, violin; Jaymee
Haefner, harp.
Contents: Andante religioso and Scherzo-Fantaisie
by Renié; Still/Nervous by Schocker; Violin and harp
music by Patricio da Silva; Flutter by Kirsten Soriano
Broberg; and Sonata for flute and harp by Rota.
Newtown, CT: MSR Classics, ©2019.
Soul awakening.
Brandee Younger, harp; Niia Bertino, voice; Robi
Coltrane, saxophone; Sean Jones, trumpet; Dezron
Douglas, bass; and E. J. Strickland, percussion.
Contents: Soulris, Linda Lee, Love’s prayer, Respected
destroyer, Games, Save the children, Soul awakening,
and Blue Nile.
Brandee Younger, ©2019 V.
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56 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
Directory of Teachers
ARIZONA
Christine Vivona
PO Box 37163
Tucson, AZ 85740
tel: 520-256-1655
chrisvivona@comcast.net
www.ChristineVivona.com
Darice Augustson
909 Bonnie Bell Lane
Greenwood, AR 72936
tel: 417-773-0437
CALIFORNIA
Allison Allport
3732 Mohawk St
Pasadena, CA 91107
www.allisonallport.com
Mindy Ball
401 Brighton Springs
Costa Mesa, CA 92627
tel: 714-342-3800
Alison Bjorkedal
1940 Fern Lane
Glendale, CA 91208
tel: 213-952-5977
abjorkedal@calarts.edu
Shula Calmann
3948 K Street
Sacramento, CA 95816
tel: 916-442-7315
Maria Casale
Studio City, CA 91604
tel: 818-762-9111
Ellie Choate
PO Box 4761
Lakewood , CA 90711-4761
tel: 310-613-1847
harpwoman@mindspring.com
Marcia Dickstein
PO Box 492225
Los Angeles, CA 90049
tel: 310-365-5763
info@debussytrio.com
Mary Dropkin
Claremont, CA 91711-2529
tel: 909-367-5376
Cheryl Ann Fulton
5670 Nottingham Court
Detailed information (full address; education; other information) can be
found on the AHS website:
harpsociety.org/Resources/TeachersDirectory.html
El Sobrante, CA 94803
tel: 510-367-7107
Karen Gottlieb
218 9th Ave
San Francisco, CA 94118
tel: 415-3860702
www.kgharp@com
Bennetta Heaton
47 Rovigo Court
Danville, CA 94526
tel: 925-820-1169
Linda-Rose Hembreiker
4522 Rainier Drive
Cypres, CA 90630
tel: 714-290-4615
www.lindarosehembreiker.com
Stephanie Janowski
San Jose, CA 95129
www.harpeggio.com
Heather Jenkins
8975 Nevada Ave
West Hills, CA 91304
tel: 818-516-8697
Kate Loughrey
3146 Marengo Ave.
Altadena, CA 91001
tel: 760-8450693
www.californiaharpist.com
Elena Mashkovtseva
6608 Reservoir lane
San Diego, CA 92115
tel: 619-2778978
Bonnie Mohr
225 S Ivy Ave Unit 821
Monrovia, CA 91017
tel: 626-357-0355
www.bonnieharpsong.com
Melissa Morgan
416 University Pl
San Diego, CA 92103-2937
tel: 619-995-0305
mmharp@gmail.com
www.mmmharp.com/
Samantha Mulgrew
3525 Dormer Ave
Concord, CA 94519
tel: 925-595-3845
www.fancyfingersmusic.com
Dominique Piana
5662 Carnegie Way
Livermore, CA 94550
tel: 925-455-5333
dominiquepiana@gmail.com
www.dominiquepiana.com,
www.harpiana.com
Laura Porter
2380 E Keats Ave
M/S MB 77
Fresno, CA 93740
tel: 559-903-3747
Donna L Rickard
21791 Eveningside Lane
Lake Forest, CA 92630-2404
tel: 949-830-6578
Jillian Risigari-Gai Lopez
4909 Locust Ave
Long Beach, CA 90805
tel: 626-6765458
www.jillharp.com
Linda Wood Rollo
8744 McCarty Ranch Drive
San Jose, CA 95135
tel: 408-622-6405
Jennifer Sayre
1055 Sunset Dr
Arroyo Grande, CA 93420
tel: 805-489-2204
Jessica Schaeffer
2264 Linden St
Hayward, CA 94541
tel: 937-409-9172
jessschaeffer@gmail.com
Kristal Schwartz Barlaan
17791 Mckinnon Dr
Saratoga, CA 95070
tel: 408-3163365
www.Bayareaharpacademy.com
Wendy E Smith
San Clemente, CA 92673
harpdove@gmail.com
Sonya (Shang-I) Yu
PO Box 10711
San Jose, CA 95117
tel: 408-6578153
musica2g@gmail.com
www.musica2g.us
WINTER 2020
57
COLORADO
Barbara Lepke-Sims
7300 W. Stetson Place #42
Denver, CO 80123
tel: 303-808-9307
blepkesims@gmail.com
www.barbaratheharpist.com
CONNECTICUT
Wendy Kerner
Wilton, CT 06897
tel: 203-554-0267
wklharp@gmail.com
Megan Sesma
61 Summer Hill Road
Madison, CT 06443
tel: 860-2870429
Lisa Tannebaum
359 Merriebrook Lane
Stamford, CT 06902
tel: 203-2737986
www.lisaharpist.com
FLORIDA
Catie Conway
400 Fairway Pointe Circle
Orlando, FL 32828
tel: 407-538-4402
Verlon Eason
142 Seville Chase Dr
Winter Springs, FL 32708
tel: 407-719-2038
Laura Sherman
Coral Gables, FL 33146
tel: 917-6973667
www.people.miami.edu/profile/
lxs126@miami.edu
GEORGIA
Susan Bennett Brady
1281 Rolling Oaks Drive
Kennesaw, GA 30152
tel: 404-643-7871
sbrady@harpcompetition.com
www.susanbennettbrady.com
Lisa Handman
905 Big Horn Cir
Alpharetta, GA 30022-4793
LHand30556@aol.com
www.harpnotes.com
Maggie Lovell
Cumming, GA 30028
58 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
tel: 574-870-2476
mjlovell317@gmail.com
www.maggieplaystheharp.com
Magg Wattley
2819 Pine Needle Drive
Atlanta, GA 30344-1949
tel: 404-245-7633
atlantagirlchoir@aol.com
HAWAII
Megan Ward
1031 Maunaihi Pl. Apt. #905
Honolulu, HI 96822
tel: 585-2595439
meganbledsoeward@gmail.com
www.meganbledsoeward.com
ILLINOIS
Annette Bjorling
721 Case St
Evanston, IL 60202
tel: 847-475-3905
www.muziker.org
Claudine Cappelle-Harig
260 Deerfield Rd
Deerfield, IL 60015
tel: 312-316-2720
Erin Freund
2065 Eldorado Dr.
Geneva, IL 60134
tel: 630-864-8489
erin.p.freund@gmail.com
Janelle Lake
Loyola University Mundelein Hall
Chicago, IL 60608
tel: 847-636-2612
www.wheretheharpis.com
Lillian Lau
University of Chicago Department
of Music
Goodspeed Hall 101
Chicago, IL 60637
tel: 812-391-0730
Lillian.Lau.Music@gmail.com
www.LyrebirdEnsemble.com
Brittany E. Smith
Barrington, IL 60010
tel: 847-204-5773
www.harpbybrittany.com
Julie Spring
609 E Wilson Ave
Lombard, IL 60148
tel: 585-7557772
www.juliespring.com
Marguerite Lynn Williams
1750 N Campbell Ave Unit C
Chicago, IL 60647
tel: 773-7917520
marguerite@mlwharp.com
www.mlwharp.com
INDIANA
Abigail Crouch Acosta
6502 Kingsbury Way
Zionsville, IN 46077
tel: 317-750-4267
Diane Evans
8105 North Illinois Street
Indianapolis, IN 46260
tel: 317-797-4299
KENTUCKY
Elaine Humphreys Cook
Lexington, KY 40502
elainecookharp@gmail.com
LOUISIANA
Cathy Anderson
4808 Antonini Dr
Metairie, LA 70006
tel: 504-782-6531
cathharp@aol.com
www.andersonmusicnola.com
Rebecca Todaro
7110 Goodwood Avenue
Baton Rouge, LA 70806
tel: 225-572-4138
MAINE
Jara Goodrich
Limerick, ME 4048
jara.goodrich@maine.edu
MARYLAND
Jacqueline Pollauf
Baltimore, MD 21212
tel: 443-846-8437
www.jpharp.com
Barbara Seidman
5301 Westbard Cir #239
Bethesda, MD 20816-1430
tel: 301-656-4423
Rebecca Anstine Smith
1796 Reading St
Crofton, MD 21114
tel: 301-261-0303
www.marylandharpist.com
Wendy Willis
8715 First Ave #1131C
Silver Springs, MD 20910
tel: 301-588-2502
www.harpistsonline.com
MASSACHUSETTS
Sally Elliott
472 Powder Mill Rd
Concord, MA 01742
tel: 978-369-9366
Krysten Keches
351 Marlborough St. #4
Boston, MA 02115
tel: 508-272-9659
Michele Pinet
Arlington, MA 02476-5754
tel: 781-646-4460
Felice Pomeranz
379 Old Lancaster Rd
Subury, MA 01776
tel: 978-443-0656
fpomeranz@berklee.edu
www.gildedharps.com
MICHIGAN
Patricia Masri-Fletcher
Detroit, MI 48201
Martha Waldvogel-Warren
1320 Waukazoo Drive
Holland, MI 49424
tel: 616-610-9004
MINNESOTA
Paula Smith
2315 Superior Lane NW
Rochester, MN 55901
tel: 715-308-0297
MISSOURI
Joan Ferguson
1404 Rockford Dr
Warrenburg, MO 64093
tel: 660-747-1387
Denise Fink
Dept of Music
900 North Benton Ave.
Springfield, MO 65804
tel: 417-8737879
www.harp-to-harp.com
V Sue Taylor
8130 Edinburgh Dr
St Louis, MO 63105
tel: 314-862-0874
NEBRASKA
Mary Bircher
1522 South 32nd Ave
Omaha, NE 68105
tel: 402-203-7005
NEW JERSEY
Kathryn Andrews
1 Harborside Place Apt 415
Jersey City, NJ 07311
tel: 973-4208434
kathrynandrewsharp@gmail.com
Elaine Christy
197 Princeton Ave
Princeton, NJ 08540
tel: 609-4541685
harpdma@gmail.com
Frances Duffy
44 Mountain Ave
Bloomfield, NJ 07003
tel: 917-975-8719
francesduffy99@gmail.com
www.francesduffy.webs.com
Oksana Kessous
Manalapan, NJ 07726
tel: 917-579-1833
www.harp4you.com
Marjorie Mollenauer
11 Carriage Hill Rd
Colts Neck, NJ 07722
tel: 732-431-0010
NEW YORK
Karlinda Caldicott
335 Jefferson St. Lot C18
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
tel: 518-2260508
kdcharp@hotmail.com
Mary-Elizabeth Gale
287 Scarsdale Rd
Tuckahoe, NY 10707-2114
tel: 914-961-9443
Sonja Inglefield
State University of New York at
Fredonia
Fredonia, NY 14063
tel: 716-673-4629
Sonjaling@yahoo.com
Nina Kellman
149 E 18th St Apt P
New York, NY 10003
tel: 212-533-1327
Sylvia Kowalczuk
PO Box 541182
Flushing , NY 11354
tel: 646-554-1058
Karen Lindquist
450 West End Ave Apt 3A
New York, NY 10024
tel: 212-8736827
Tomina Parvanova
4700 Broadway
New York, NY 10040
tel: 617-412-9487
www.tominaparvanova.com
Alyssa Reit
5 Dogwood Rd.
Mahopac, NY 10541
tel: 914-248-0366
Kristi Shade
New York, NY 10026
kristishade@gmail.com
Karen Strauss
45 Fir Drive
East Hills, Long Island, NY 11576-
2405
tel: 516-484-9554
NORTH CAROLINA
Jacquelyn Bartlett
1533 South Main Street
Winston-Salem, NC 27127
tel: 757-818-4869
Laura S Byrne
11704 Black Horse Run
Raleigh, NC 27613
tel: 919-845-8343
www.raleighharpist.com
NORTH DAKOTA
Gayla Sherman
Bismark, ND 58501
tel: 701-221-5894
OHIO
Jeanne Z Norton
Columbus, OH 43221-4130
tel: 614-486-8567
WINTER 2020
59
norton.3@osu.edu
www.music.osu.edu
Alix Raspe
Columbus, OH 43240
www.alixraspe.com
Ni Yan
6239 Muirloch Dr
Dublin, OH 43017
tel: 614-766-4048
yanniharp@gmail.com
OKLAHOMA
Lorelei Kaiser Barton
711 South Allegheny Ave
Tulsa, OK 74112
tel: 918-520-4041
lkbe2014@gmail.com
OREGON
Laura Zaerr
3015 NW Taft Avenue
Corvallis, OR 97330
tel: 541-757-8313
lzaerr@uoregon.edu
www.laruazaerr.com
PENNSYLVANIA
Cheryl Dungan Cunningham
734 Morning Glory Drive
Southampton, PA 18966-4247
tel: 215-355-3872
www.cdcharp.com
Andre’ Tarantiles
118 New Street
New Hope, PA 18938
tel: 917-992-4393
Andrea Wittchen
1885 Dartford Road
Bethlehem, PA 18015
tel: 610-7308246
www.andreawittchen.com
SOUTH CAROLINA
Abigail Kent
79 Church Street
Charleston, SC 29401
tel: 843-530-5689
musikmaid@gmail.com
www.abigailkentharp.com
TENNESSEE
Kirsten Agresta Copely
Franklin, TN 37064
60 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
tel: 212-851-6387
kirsten.agresta.copely@vanderbilt.
edu
www.musiccityharp.com
Alissa Amundson
1422 Woodpointe Dr
Knoxville, TN 37931
tel: 865-3216799
alissa.smith@me.com
Paula Bressman
2400 Blakemore Ave.
Nashville, TN 37221
tel: 615-9696888
Sarah Crocker
1545 Brentwood Pointe
Franklin, TN 37067
tel: 615-416-0971
hillnotemusic@gmail.com
www.hillnotemusic.com/index.html
Cindy Emory Hicks
4228 Taliluna Ave
Knoxville, TN 37919
tel: 865-323-8413
Gina Neupert
803 Culbreath Rd
Covington, TN 38019
tel: 901-326-4748
Marian Shaffer
8494 Bergen Cove
Cordova, TN 38018
tel: 901-833-3888
marianshaffer@gmail.com
Phyllis Sparks
3500 John A Merritt Blvd
PAC Building, RM 286
Nashville, TN 37209-1561
tel: 615-963-1482
psparks1@tnstate.edu
TEXAS
Nelda Etheredge
P O Box 120444
San Antonio, TX 78212
tel: 210-4738399
Neldaetheredge@yahoo.com
www.Saharp.com
Moira Greyland
1580 Mahogany Drive
Allen, TX 75002-6467
tel: 510-599-7828
Jaymee Haefner
2216 Acorn Bend
Denton, TX 76210-3854
tel: 940-453-0488
Jaymee@theprofessionalharpist.com
Sydney Howell
Ft. Worth, TX 76108
sydney@harpsofgold.com
Alice M Spero Keene
810 Venado Hills
San Antonio, TX 78260
tel: 830-714-5028
Luzviminda Keene
1456 Beltline Rd. Suite 165
Garland, TX 75044
tel: 469-661-8116
mindamusicschool@yahoo.com
www.mindamusicstore.com/
Delaine Leonard
Austin, TX 78755
tel: 512-413-3152
Delaine@austin.utexas.edu
www.harpist.net
Sandra Salstrom
14500 Cutten Rd., #21104
Houston, TX 77069
tel: 281-543-1156
www.gigsalad.com/sandra_salstrom;
www.thebash.com/harp/sandra
UTAH
Maren Laurence
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
tel: 801-520-2686
www.marenlaurence.com
VIRGINIA
Elizabeth Blakeslee
3006 Woodlawn Ave
Falls Church, VA 22042
tel: 703-975-1132
elizabethblakesleeharp.com
Elisa Dickon
408 Dundaff St. apt.706
Norfolk, VA 23507
tel: 757-4707486
Melissa Tardiff Dvorak
7207 Idylwood Ct
Falls Church, VA 22043
tel: 202-2622613
www.melissadvorak.com
Jennifer Narkevicius
Alexandria, VA 22315
www.jeniuscreations.com
Colleen Potter Thorburn
922 Park Ave.
Richmond, VA 23284-2004
tel: 804-828-1166
cpthorburn@vcu.edu
Monika Vasey Rhodes
7312 Woodley Place
Falls Church, VA 22046
tel: 716-316-6961
www.monikavasey.net
WASHINGTON
Sophie Baird-Daniel
Seattle, WA 98115
sophiebd@comcast.net
www.sophiebdharp.com
Susi (Rowles) Hussong
2640 NW North Beach Drive
Seattle, WA 98117
tel: 206-783-9493
Deborah E McClellan
16529 9th Pl NW
Shoreline, WA 98177
tel: 206-696-3552
harpdeb@gmail.com
Juliet Stratton
12429 NE 127th Ct Apt B6
Kirkland, WA 98034
tel: 206-304-3519
julietstra@gmail.com
WEST VIRGINIA
Christine Mazza
West Virginia University
School of Music
1436 Evansdale Drive PO Box 6111
Morgantown, WV 26506-6111
tel: 304-598-2569
Christine.Mazza@mail.wvu.edu
www.christinemazzaharpist.com
WISCONSIN
Johanna Wienholts
3001 HERMINA ST
MADISON, WI 53714
tel: 513-6007151
jwienholts@gmail.com
INTERNATIONAL
Karen Rokos
136-1083 Queen St
Halifax, B3H0B2 Nova Scotia
CANADA
tel: 902-221-7471
Lanalee Montgomery
55 Rue De Rountzenheim
67620 Soufflenheim, 67620
FRANCE
tel: 333- 88867370
jwmontgomery@compuserve.com
Karen Vaughan
Middlesex, HA5 4PW
UNITED KINGDOM
k.vaughan@ram.ac.uk V
TheHARPCONNECTION
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WINTER 2020
61
The American Harp Journal
Advertise in The American Harp Journal (Vol. 27 No. 3, Summer 2020)
DEADLINES
Reservation/Payment: June 1, 2020
Artwork: July 1, 2020
PAYMENT OPTIONS
1. Online: HarpAds.com
2. By check: use the order form provided. Please note: Checks
must accompany the order, with the exception of educational
institutions, which may follow the normal purchasing procedure.
All payments must be in U.S. funds.
Order Online
Order and pay for your ads at:
HarpAds.com
FILE REQUIREMENTS
All materials should be provided as Adobe Acrobat files set at 300 dpi resolution, with compression set for none and
embedded high resolution images and fonts. For all other formats, please contact the Advertising Manager. If files are
not available, please submit black and white camera ready art or reproduction proof. Images should be high quality
photographs or laser originals with no screens.
The American Harp Journal will alter ads for an additional charge. A minimum $50 charge will be assessed for any
modifications made to process incomplete or incorrectly prepared ads.
SUBMISSION OPTIONS
1. Email stuffed/zipped files to AdManager@harpsociety.org.
2. Mail a CD, with a printout of the ad for reference. (Disks will be returned ONLY if SASE is provided.)
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENT (Single Issue)
$25.00. No artwork; the Journal creates all classified copy. Provide name/make/style of harp; anything additional that is
included (ex. case); price; preferred contact information (phone or email); area of the country or city where you live.
ADVERTISING RATES
Black and White Pages
Price Width Height Picas
Full Page $625 7" x 10" (42 x 60)
Half Page $325
Horizontal 7" x 5" (42 x 30)
Vertical 3.5" x 10" (21 x 60)
Quarter Page $175 3.5" x 5" (21 x 30)
Eighth Page $125 3.5" x 2.5" (21 x 15)
62 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
Four-Color Pages
Price Width Height Picas
Cover Page* $1275 9" x 11.5" (54 x 69)
Full Page $1125 9" x 11.5" (54 x 69)
Half Page $550
Horizontal 7" x 5" (42 x 30)
Vertical 3.5" x 10" (21 x 60)
Quarter Page $275 3.5" x 5" (21 x 30)
* Includes 1/8” bleed
Order Form for Advertising Space in The American Harp Journal
Vol. 27 No. 3 (Summer 2020)
Please complete this form:
1. To order advertising space in the Summer 2020 issue of
The American Harp Journal.
2. To be added to the mailing list for future advertising
opportunities. You will receive a mailing twice a year.
INSTRUCTIONS: Make check (in US funds only) payable to The American Harp Society, Inc., and mail to Stacie
Johnston, Advertising Manager, The American Harp Journal, 2 Charlton Street, Suite 9K, New York, NY 10014.
Deadlines: Reservation/Payment: June 1, 2020; Artwork: July 1, 2020
No of Ads Ad Type Rate Total
COLOR
cover page* $1,275
full page $1,125
half page $550
quarter page $275
BLACK & WHITE
full page $625
half page horizontal $325
half page vertical $325
quarter page $175
eighth page $125
*contact Advertising Manager for availability before ordering
TOTAL ENCLOSED:
CHECKS MUST ACCOMPANY ORDER. Educational institutions may follow the normal purchasing procedure.
□ Check here if you are an educational institution and you would like an invoice.
Advertiser
Contact
Address
ORDER ONLINE
Order and pay for your ads at:
HarpAds.com
Telephone
Billing Address
(if different)
□ Check here to be added to the mailing list.
CHECK ONE:
□ Artwork included.
□
□
Artwork will be emailed to AdManager@harpsociety.org or sent on CD to the address above.
Please use advertisement from previous issue. (Attach a photocopy and indicate issue date and page number.)
(issue date and page number)
WINTER 2020
63
Index of Advertisers
Schools and Teachers
Concordia University Irvine
(Mindy Ball)....................................................................6
Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam
(Jessica Suchy-Pilalis)....................................................39
Department of Music at Christopher Newport University
(Anastasia Pike)............................................................51
Frost School of Music, at University of Miami
(Laura Sherman)...........................................................51
Peabody Conservatory, The, at Johns Hopkins University
(Jasmine Hogan and Sonja Inglefield)..........................45
School of the Arts at University of North Carolina
(Jacqueline Bartlett)......................................................34
Music Competitions
USA International Harp Competition.............................42
Music Camps, Festivals, Conferences, and Workshops
Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp................................................50
Christopher Newport U. Annual Harp Festival...............51
Dusty Strings 14 th Folk Harp Symposium.........................10
Greenspring American Youth Harp Ensemble.................35
Harp in the Mountains.....................................................25
Historical Harp Retreat....................................................43
New England Music Camp...............................................42
Retail
Atlanta Harp Center.........................................................43
Camac Harps.............................................inside back cover
Dusty Strings.....................................................................10
Fatrock Ink Music Publishers............................................34
Harp Caddy.......................................................................42
Harp Connection..............................................................61
Lyon & Healy Harps..............inside front cover, back cover
MusicWorks - Harp Editions.......................................41, 42
Salvi Harps.......................................................... back cover
Virginia Harp Center........................................................43
The American Harp Society, Inc.
AHS Annual Meeting......................................................51
AHS Membership.............................................................43
Harp Resources
Harp.com..................................................inside front cover
Harp Mastery....................................................................25
Other Societies
Folk Harp Society.............................................................34
Historial Harp Society......................................................43
The American Harp Journal
Advertising Information........................................56, 62-63
Subscriptions.....................................................................21
64 THE AMERICAN HARP JOURNAL
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92, rue Petit
75019 Paris, France
Workshop & Offices
La Richerais BP15
44850 Mouzeil, France
www.camac-harps.com