My Harp Journey

I would like to introduce myself. I am a professional harpist. I studied violin and piano in England and Harp in the USA, and have been playing the harp for over twenty years. I play both pedal and Celtic harps, and have experience playing for all types of special events. I have enjoyed performing in my homeland England and Australia and across the USA. My goal is always to make every event a special occasion. My repertoire includes classical, sacred, Celtic, Jewish, and Hawaiian music to fit any event.

The two questions I am most often asked are, "How did you start playing the harp?" and "How do you move it around?" The answer to the second question is, "Very carefully" but seriously, I do have a specially built dolly, plus my husband who is the world's best harp mover. The first question is harder to answer. The journey began a long time before I decided to play the harp. This is a very brief encapsulated account, the full story of my experiences are in my book entitled Healing Strings.

A kaleidoscope of memories flood my mind. I was eight years old, the school I attended had a policy that all students must learn to play an instrument. One day a violin was put in my hands and magic happened. The feel of my violin, the lessons, the orchestra, sounds flow through the years. Music became a cocoon of safety shielding me from the jagged pain of loneliness and seeming rejection by my parents. In adulthood I came to realize that music is a wonderful gift from God.

My parents were British missionaries in Nigeria where I was born, When I was just two years old I was left in England with a family who had offered to take me. At the age of four, they returned for a brief leave, when they left again they took my younger sister with them. Confirming to me that I was not of much value.

At the age of ten I was sent to a girls boarding school where my dream to become a concert musician got on track. I was enrolled in a school program connected to The London Royal Academy of Music. Completion of the program would allow entry to the Academy. However, September 3rd 1939 was a day which turned the world upside down mine included. My parents were in Africa and it would be another six years until I saw them again. At some point for them money became short and I was pulled out of that school and sent to live with relatives. Food rationing, hunger, danger, bombing and death became part of everyday life during the war. There were no more music lessons. With a sickening realization, I knew my dream was gone. Like so many others I lost my childhood.

I was 17 and a new High School graduate the summer the war ended. With no means of support, the country drained poor by war, I felt I had no option but to train as a nurse. I picked the best I could find, Guy's Hospital London. My life experiences had conditioned me to just accept what came my way. Following graduation I met and married a Canadian and we went there to live. Later moving to the USA.

The deep longing to play the violin was an inner pain. At the age of fifty for the first time in my life I did something I really wanted to do. It was a drastic step giving up my job, and the money I earned, but I bought a violin and found a teacher. I needed to find out if my dream was real or a fantasy. When my bow touched the strings I knew I had come home. My joy seemed complete, when after time and much practice I was able to join a Chamber Music Group. To play, to practice to perform and make music was a spectacular gift from God.

Suddenly, an old neck injury I had sustained as a child came back to haunt me. X-rays revealed a crushed vertebrae. The terrible reality that I would not be able to continue to play the violin was devastating. God, however knew about my despair and had other plans for my fingers. Our Chamber Music leader was a wise and good friend. "How about another instrument?" she asked. My response was, "The only other instrument I have ever been interested in is the harp." "Well go for it," she suggested. "In fact go and see a friend of mine - she has a harp." Susan's harp was truly awesome, a magnificent concert grand with much gold overlay. She told me she had started on a small rented harp. Maybe there was hope. I knew I could never own a harp like hers.

So I started again, with an instrument I had never touched and knew nothing about. It was hard but an instant love affair. Within a year I knew I would try to get a large concert harp. Until this time few harps were built which did not have gold overlay. Then a major harp builder began with one or two, the sound is the same but the cost much less. I was able to acquire one, and all these years later just looking at it is still a thrill. This incredible instrument has brought me a musical freedom I never dreamt of. On a trip to England and Australia I took a small Celtic harp with me and had so much fun playing and saw the pleasure it gave, so a question arose, what does God want me to do with my harp music? On my return to the USA I attended a harp workshop. There I met a wonderful teacher. At the end of the week she gave me some stern advice. "What are you waiting for, get out there and play." It was exactly what I needed. So I offered to play at a nursing home. It was not a fancy place, but a State run home. Dreary rooms with pealing paint, a place of sadness, overworked staff doing their best, I was welcomed with open arms and given a list of the most needy patients. In some rooms I met apathy and silence, but the blank stares turned to smiles as the music won, and a plea, "Will you come back?" In the last room for the day lay a dying women, very fretful and agitated. Her daughter sat at her bedside, her face tired and sad. Not wanting to intrude I hesitated, but she invited me to play. Softly and slowly I played, finally ending with "Amazing Grace". Gradually the patient had relaxed, drifting into a peaceful sleep. As I prepared to leave, her daughter grasped my hands, and with tears thanked me. "It's the first time mother has slept peacefully in weeks."

Was this the concert hall of my dreams? Hardly. But then I remembered some words of Jesus when he spoke about giving a cup of cold water in His name. I felt very privileged to share my music that day, and continue to do so every time I have opportunity, be it for a wedding, a church service, a concert or a bedside. Since those early days of harp playing I have become involved with others who are dedicated to using the harp for healing. This field of Harp Therapy is opening up, though still not widely accepted in some places. Some doctors are beginning to realize the as yet untapped potential for music in the field of medicine, and what has been known for thousands of years, that music can be used as a healing tool. For me, accepting God's way has not always been easy, but I see clearly now that God can and does redeem those seemingly unredeemable experiences in our lives. This poem I wrote expresses my feelings:

Where are my dreams of long ago?
Gone like the mist on a sunny day.
I sometimes wonder, but can never know
What might have been if I'd had my way
But God has shown, his way is best
Asking only that I trust
A wisdom greater than my own
Grasping this, my spirit rests.

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