You wake up and walk out onto your balcony to watch the sunrise paint the clouds over the ocean. Heading up to the buffet for breakfast, you meet a fellow traveler, who compliments you on your performance the previous night. You talk about your plans to visit the beaches of the Canary Islands tomorrow. After breakfast, you go for a swim in the pool and enjoy the sauna. You get coffee in one of the countless cafes, rehearse with the other musicians in your chamber ensemble, and give a performance for hundreds of people, to thunderous applause.

Sound like a dream? It was a reality for three harpists who sought adventure on the ocean, performing their music for fellow travelers on a cruise ship. Kate Heneghan, Isabel Goller, and Joel von Lerber each took a few months out of their schedules to explore different parts of the world and experience a different kind of musical atmosphere. While it’s not their main career, these harpists enjoyed this change of pace during their time on the ship. As part of our job shadow series exploring the diverse careers that the harp offers, we asked these three harpists to share about their experiences as guest musicians on cruises.

Kate Heneghan

Itinerary: Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji

Musical program: Solo harp: Irish, folk, classical, pop covers, etc.

Irish quartet (harp, voice, guitar, banjo/bouzouki): Motown, pop, rock, folk, classic hits, etc.

Heneghan says, “When you get a cruise ship gig, you need to cover a wide range of genres, to appeal to the masses that come on the cruise ships. I’m primarily an Irish traditional musician, but I also have a background in classical music, so sometimes I did solo harp gigs.” She says her band also covered a lot of genres. “You name it, we covered it on the ship.”

Favorite rough-weather memory: “The Tasman Sea, which I was sailing in at the time, is supposed to be one of the worst for storms on cruise ships,” Heneghan says. “One time, I was upstairs at the buffet, and all the cutlery and plates of food fell off the tables. You need a steady your feet and no high heels, that’s for sure.”

Irish harpist, fiddle player, and pianist Kate Heneghan is a full-time professional musician and touring musician. She formed a band with a few friends: singer and dancer Giselle O’Meara, singer and guitarist Joe Junker, and banjo and bouzouki player Killian Shannon. Together, they auditioned through an agent in Ireland and signed up for a cruise to Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji.

Isabel Goller

Itinerary: Northern Europe, Norway

Musical program: Violin and harp: classical, tango

“They always ask for two different programs,” Goller says. In addition to her duo’s classical program, the cruise line wanted an entertainment-focused program. Goller says it was fun to play a whole evening of tango music for her second program.

Travel highlight: Goller’s cruise spent one day visiting the northernmost point in Europe, known as the Nordkapp. This far north, the sun never sets during the summer months. “We were so lucky that we actually had good weather,” Goller says. “About one in 20 cruises has good weather for this day, because in the north it’s mostly stormy and wet weather. So to celebrate, we went into the whirlpool at three in the morning, lying in the sun and having a drink, because the sun was always there.”

Isabel Goller is a harpist from South Tyrol in northern Italy. She has performed with orchestras like the Vienna Philharmonic and Dresden State Opera, and trained with several different international youth orchestras and academies. A few years ago, Isabel and a violinist friend reached out to several cruise ship companies, looking for the chance to travel and perform. That’s how they sailed along the coast of Norway.

Swiss harpist Joel von Lerber, who now lives in Berlin, tours full-time as a solo performer and as a soloist with orchestras internationally. He won second prize at the International Harp Contest in Israel in 2018, along with two special prizes for the best interpretation of Bedrich Smetana’s Moldau and of the Israeli piece commissioned for that year’s Contest. At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, his busy performing schedule was suddenly empty. At the suggestion of singer Thomas Schreier, he decided to take his free time to perform on a cruise visiting beautiful cities in Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Germany, as well as a short cruise to the Canary Islands.

Joel von Lerber

Itinerary: Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Germany; Canary Islands

Musical program: Voice and harp: “Be Our Guest” (songs from musicals, including selections from Aladdin, Cats, and Beauty and the Beast); “Lied Meets Opera” (songs by Schumann, Schubert, Wagner, Verdi, and Puccini) 

Solo harp: classical (including The Moldau by Smetana, which von Lerber chose because it depicts water) 

Favorite on-board dining: “I really enjoyed going for dinner to the Atlantis restaurant,” von Lerber says. “They always have five or six courses; it’s really fancy, and people dress up nicely. You can say, ‘I want to have three starters, I want to have five [courses of] desserts,’ it doesn’t matter. You can order five steaks, if you want. So I really enjoyed those fancy dinners in the evening.”

The first thing to know about cruise ships is that they are huge. Like worlds unto themselves, they have every type of restaurant and recreation you can imagine. Filled with shops, hairdressers, libraries, gyms, swimming pools, saunas, basketball courts—endless hours of activities await the passengers, and guest musicians with passenger status. And we haven’t even mentioned the restaurants! Food is served 24/7, with a dozen different restaurants on the ship, and bars on every deck. From fine dining to burgers and fries, breakfast buffets and ice cream shops, the cruise ship has it all.

Because cruise ships are so enormous, there are many places for musicians to perform. Some play in the bars or play music while guests eat dinner; others play shows in the theaters, which seat hundreds or even thousands of people. Goller played in a big theater and also for teatime in a restaurant with windows overlooking the sea. While performing, she enjoyed the amazing view from the front of the ship. Heneghan’s band started by playing in the bar. Their shows were so successful that by the end of their contract, they were playing in a theater that seats 2,000 people.

Sometimes the location of the theaters on different ships impacts the musicians who perform there. Goller’s duo performed in a theater at the bow of the ship, where the waves were strong. She learned how to adjust so that the waves didn’t break her concentration while performing.

Some musicians are guest artists and have guest status, so they have access to all the variety of restaurants and entertainment on the ship. They perform shows about every other day, so there’s plenty of time off to experience the cruise as a passenger. They can also bring a friend along. Other musicians, such as pianists, have crew status. They eat with the crew and can only enter guest areas when giving a performance. Heneghan, Goller, and von Lerber were all guest artists with passenger status.

Cruise ship musicians stay for about four months on the ship, depending on their contract. Heneghan says her four-month contract was a long time to be away from family. In her case, she spent five months on the ship due to a COVID outbreak at the end of the cruise. While the guests had already been let off the ship when COVID was discovered, the crew had to isolate themselves. Heneghan says, “When the guests left the ship, we were allowed to move up to the state rooms, which are really nice and have balconies. But I was locked in the room for 32 days, so it was pretty long.”

Getting to know the passengers was one of Heneghan’s favorite parts of the experience. Every two weeks, when a new group of passengers boarded the ship, more guests wanted to know about the harp. They asked questions, recommended tunes that suited her band’s style, and asked her to learn songs for special occasions. In the big theater, Heneghan’s band played for 2,000 people, and everyone in the room knew their names. “That was pretty cool,” she says. “I hadn’t experienced that before.”

Being personable was an important part of all three harpists’ experiences. It’s something that von Lerber says is helpful for all musicians presenting themselves to an audience. On the cruise ship, he practiced his communication skills when he was invited to the daily TV show that was produced onboard and broadcast to all the cabins. Heneghan also says that it’s important to enjoy chatting with people. “If you’re a musician on a cruise ship, and you’re walking from your bedroom upstairs to the buffet, you’re going to be stopped by a lot of people who want to have a conversation with you,” she says. “They want to get to know you—they’re watching you every night of the week.”

These harpists also gained new perspectives on performing. As Goller spent time with other entertainers on the ship, she found their fun approach refreshing. Playing on the cruise ship gave her the chance to let go and get in touch with the less serious side of performing. Heneghan says she learned a lot from playing daily with her bandmates and learning from their skill as musicians. She also strengthened her improvisation skills by soloing on the harp during the band’s sets.

If playing on a cruise ship sounds like your dream gig, make some contacts and pursue the opportunity. Whether you learn new repertoire and genres, or learn something new about yourself as a performer, you’ll be sure to enjoy the adventure. •