I recently played Star Wars: A New Hope with one of the orchestras I perform with regularly. The concert was at the biggest arena in town in front of about five thousand people. At the end, the conductor went around for the solo bows and inevitably came to the harp. I stood and the crowd exploded. Their enthusiastic response to the harp wasn’t my imagination—many of my colleagues commented on the crowd’s response as they passed me coming off the stage.

…installing a pickup was the most important thing I had ever done to promote the harp.

As much as I would like to take credit for the ovation, I must confess that it was not due to my unique interpretation of music that’s nearly 50 years old, nor the importance of the harp in the score (the horns really are the heroes of Star Wars), nor even the perfection (ahem) of my playing in the pitch black darkness on stage. The crowd responded to the harp that night simply because they could hear it—a product of the fine ear of our sound engineer, Nathan Evinger of Blackbird Productions and the Dusty Strings P30 pickups that I had purchased and installed on my harp some years ago. 

I am not one prone to gush about gadgets, and jazz and pop harpists discovered the benefits of good amplification long ago, so it’s not exactly like I discovered something new. But it occurred to me after that Star Wars concert that installing a pickup was the most important thing I had ever done to promote the harp. Let that sink in a minute. The hours of practice, the sacrifices, the teaching, the Harp Society stuff—none of it meant as much as making sure that the audience hears the sound of the harp. 

One of the first things we learn as orchestral harpists is that unless the composer was particularly sensitive to the instrument or the piece was scored for a small ensemble, we’re almost always asked to produce more sound. It is quite defeating to hear “more harp” again and again, and, truthfully, it was many years before I stopped taking it personally. I can now confidently testify that there is no amount of crisp articulation, digging in, raising, or just plain yanking that can overcome a poorly orchestrated harp part. 

There are other factors that can work against a harpist being heard, including the size of the hall and where the harp is positioned on stage. I seem to live in an area with halls that seat 2,000-plus with stages that can hold a full cast of Les Misérables plus scenery and cannons. If the harp is way off to the side against a wall, the soundboard aimed at the backs of violinists, the conductor may not hear the harp even though the audience does. In an acoustic setting, your best friend may be the stage manager or whoever determines the stage plot.

Orchestral harpists are often asked to perform as studio harpists. In a studio setting there is no sound projection problem. The harp will be heard in the final product in whatever balance the sound engineer and producer want. As a player, this is liberating. Confident that I am heard, I can luxuriate in a full range of dynamics and effects. Even if I don’t have a monitor and can’t hear myself on stage, I know the sound engineer is fixing things in real time.

Why did it take me so long to address such a fundamental issue in orchestral playing? Years ago, Nathan (our orchestra’s sound engineer) mentioned to me that he had heard about the Dusty Strings P30 pickup and encouraged me to investigate. He was faced with the challenge of amplifying the harp for pops and movies, as well as mastering recordings of acoustic concerts for the radio. Having a dedicated pipeline for the harp sound would certainly make his life easier, but did I really want to spend the money?

Finally, I did the research into the pickup, and my first reaction was absolute clarity after learning about the installation requirements for the device. No, I will never drill a hole in my harp nor permanently glue anything to its soundboard, thank you very much. 

After some counseling from harp technician Karen Rokos, I purchased and nervously installed the device in my harp with 3M stickies for the pickups. The first season was a little bumpy as I had to occasionally adjust the harness and the pickup arms to get rid of buzzes, but I’ve had no problems since. There have been no negative effects to my acoustic performance either. 

Hearing is believing. Early on, my purchase decision was validated at a gig with the Indigo Girls. They’ve long been a favorite of mine, and I was happy for the chance to play with them. As I was getting set up and tuned, their sound engineer came over to place a stand mic, and I said, “You know, I have pickups installed in the harp. You may want to give them a try.” The sound engineer was game for it and got a converter box for the quarter inch jack. Later, during rehearsal, we got to a bridge in a song that had a harp lick. From the stage the Indigo Girls exclaimed, “Wow—the harp!” Maybe the engineer had the harp a little hot, but I was thrilled and so were they. •