A harpist’s story of a rehearsal surprise.

—by Susan Brady, Kennesaw, Ga.

Many years ago, when I was a student at the Curtis Institute of Music, I was always excited to see what my next orchestral assignment would be. There were four of us harpists who rotated on parts, with priority given to upperclassmen. I knew a lot of orchestral excerpts, but had never heard of Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms when the harp 1 part was assigned to me. I was an underclassman and was always excited to be assigned to the harp 1 part of anything.

[protection_text]

I prepared the part in the usual way—I got my hands on the music in advance, I got my teacher, Marilyn Costello’s, markings, I listened to the recording—you know the drill. I really thought I knew what I was doing, but nothing could have prepared me for what happened next.

Our orchestra did not have a regular conductor like most schools. We had special guest conductors for every concert; they could be Curtis alumni, whoever happened to be conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra that weekend, or just someone brought in for special events. I’m sure it was probably posted somewhere, but it never dawned on me to check to see who would be conducting the Chichester Psalms concert. So I walked into the first rehearsal and who is conducting this concert but Leonard Bernstein himself! My heart sank into my stomach. Was I prepared enough? Could I pull this off? Every self doubt I ever had about being at Curtis came rushing into my head.

At this point, I have about ten minutes to pull myself together and focus on getting through this rehearsal. But what happens next is simply surreal. The orchestra tunes. Maestro Bernstein is introduced and steps up on the podium. He begins to explain a little about the Jewish work and highlights some of the Hebrew text. Next he tells the orchestra,  “When I composed this piece I wrote the two harp parts first. The harps are set up in different keys and have an antiphonal effect. Before we play each movement I want to have the harpists play their parts for you so you can hear the effect we’re going for.”

Seriously? Did he just say the harps will play the entire piece first? Alone? Yes, he did, and that’s exactly what happened. The other harpist and I played the entire part by ourselves in front of Leonard Bernstein and all of our classmates.

Honestly, I don’t remember much about the rest of the rehearsal, but I managed to make it out of there in one piece. I’ve played that piece many times since then, and it always brings back a flood of memories from that first rehearsal.