Each of these harpists may have left music, but music hasn’t left them.

Longtime readers of this magazine know that these pages are 100 percent Team Harp. Whether you’re a kid who wants to learn to play, an adult beginner chasing a dream, a serious student eying music career, or a professional freelancer, Harp Column is here with articles to support, inform, and occasionally commiserate with what the joys and struggles of playing this instrument. So you might be surprised to find a feature article in this issue about harpists who have taken an exit ramp off a music career to pursue a different field (see “Change of Direction” on pg. 36).

When Eliza Holland pitched the story idea to me several months ago, first reaction was skepticism. How could an article highlighting harpists leaving the field be helpful to our readership of harpists pursuing music? Holland was convincing and earnest, though. After years of serious study and receiving undergrad and graduate degrees in harp performance, she was on the brink of diving head-first into a music career. But her heart was not in it. Law had been on her mind, and so she did an about-face and entered law school directly after finishing her master’s in music (see her “Sounding Board” article on pg. 10 for the full story).

Holland’s personal journey away from music and her reasons for pursuing a career outside of the harp are a familiar refrain in our world. I could rattle off the names of a dozen musicians I know who spent years studying their instrument, even receiving advanced degrees from prestigious schools, only to relegate their instrument to the back burner for a completely unrelated field. So why does it matter? Why should we cover this story in Harp Column? Because, as you’ll see in Holland’s articles, once you are a harpist you are always a harpist, and Harp Column is in the business of supporting harpists. 

Holland profiles five women who shifted away from harp to unrelated careers. I found three points in this article particularly valuable:

First, no one—including Holland—regrets the years they spent studying music or pursuing music degrees in college. You might think there would be some resentment about the time and money invested in music when someone leaves the field, but it turns out to be quite the opposite. 

The second point I found interesting, but not surprising, was that each person reported that their music education prepared them well for their new careers. It turns out that what many music educators have been saying all along about the benefits of studying music applying across disciplines is true. Perseverance, solving complex problems, self-discipline, poise under pressure, self-reliance are just some of the skills former harpists say they took from music and applied to their new careers. 

The third point is the one I found most heartening. Though each of these harpists may have left music, but music hasn’t left them. The harp may not be at the center of their lives, but it is still there—it just looks a little different. They each defined the harp’s role in their life rather than letting the harp define that role. In a sense, that makes them perhaps the quintessential “practical harpists” we aim to serve in Harp Column’s mission “practical news for practical harpists.” •