This time last week, I saw someone roll a harp past the big picture window and I jumped up in my seat.
It is so rare that I see any harp that I’m not playing, I wanted to run outside and meet this short man with the tall instrument.
And then I remembered, “I’m at the American Harp Society’s national conference.”
I sat in an over air-conditioned hotel in the middle of steamy Atlanta. Harp vendors and harp makers surrounded me. I listened to some of the best harpists and harp teachers in the world. There, harp after harp rolled past the windows on their little specialized harp dollies. And that was normal.
And that is not normal!
In normal conversations, I answer the question “What do you do?” with “I’m a professional harpist.” The most common response is “Wow! I’ve never heard a live harp before!” As everyone relishes pointing out, it’s a rare instrument.
But at a conference of 400 hundred harpists, being a professional harp player was normal. Instead of our jobs, conversations started with “Hi, I’m Anna. What do you think of the new brand of synthetic harp strings being demonstrated in the corner?”
Even among musicians, I am often strange for owning five harps. But at the conference there were harps everywhere, in hallways, lobbies, corners and spare rooms
. In the vendor’s hall, premier harp manufacturers displayed wall to wall merchandise where we could wander around trying harps. At the last concert, 52 harps and harpists filled one stage. Harp was the new normal.
And because harp playing didn’t mark us out in the crowd, normal and abnormal seemed reversed. My fellow harpists and I talked about the things that are actually unusual in our lives: our families, our teachers, our students. Suddenly unusual wasn’t harps but humans.
One evening, five premiere harp professors performed a tribute concert to their common teacher. Between breathtaking performances they shared with tears how Ms. McDonald had encouraged their music. The champion of the South American harp, Alfredo Ortiz, told me about the living room conversation forty years ago that made him the opening performer at the first international harp festival. On the last night, the Dutch rock star of the harp, Remy Van Kesteren, performed in a leather jacket and described how a conversation with a London cabby inspired a composition. We all sat motionless while he played. Then we exploded in a standing ovation.
Sometimes it takes the most unusual people to point out how special my everyday relationships are. Connecting with new harp friends, hearing about their lives, even hearing all the awful harp puns, reminded me how our heart strings, not our harp strings, make the most interesting and unusual music in the world.
Oh, and then our car broke down. . . but that’s another post.
Thank you to the American Harp Society, Harp Column Magazine and check out Remy Van Kesteren for some stunning harp music!