I had the pleasure of traveling to Brazil last May with a college choir from my hometown of Pella, Iowa, and two of our concerts were part of the Rio International Harp Festival. I was both excited and a bit nervous to use the harp to accompany the choir, as fine harpists and harp enthusiasts from around the world were gathered for this prestigious event.

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The first concert was in a large cathedral and was to begin at 6:30 p.m. At 6:00 the harp had not arrived. At 6:15 the harp had not arrived. At 6:20 the harp had not arrived. At 6:25 p.m. there was suddenly a buzz of excitement—the harp had arrived! As the beautiful instrument was uncovered and carted to the front of the cathedral, a hush came over the large crowd.

With only five minutes to thoroughly tune a fine concert harp, and in front of an absolutely silent audience, I felt as if I was tuning in my underwear. Pling, pling, pling…pling, pling, pling. With a quick prayer that I had done a decent job of it, I put the tuner down and the concert began, right on time. Thankfully, all went well.

The next evening the festival performance was in a large school auditorium. Once again the harp did not arrive when expected, but I was somewhat relieved that it arrived a bit ahead of the previous evening’s schedule—6:22 p.m. and there it was! I figured that if I had tuned it in five minutes the evening before, eight minutes would be a cinch.

At 6:25 p.m. a screen came down on the stage just behind me. “Ah,” I thought, “someone must have backed into the switch accidentally. Surely it will soon go back up.” Next the lights went out and a deep voice speaking Portuguese boomed throughout the auditorium from a safety film that was projected on the screen.

Really? Now what? Pling pling pling…pling pling pling… The prayer that night was, “Thank you for the little pick-up attached to my tuner and for the little red and green tuner lights that gave me a hint when I couldn’t hear my harp over the safety video.”

The hospitality, warmth, and kindness of the Brazilian harpists and festival-goers were wonderful beyond compare. How fortunate I was to be part of this wonderful event! But if you go, I would suggest speed-tuning and tuning in the dark as good preparation exercises. •

—Kris DeWild, Pella, Iowa