One hot July day, I had to play a private party on the USS Intrepid, which is an aircraft carrier docked at Pier 86 on the west side of Manhattan. This was one of my first gigs outside of college and I didn’t really ask or plan out the load-in logistics.
I drove to a gate where the guard let me drive through to drop off the harp. Okay, now what? I called the event coordinator. No answer. The guard told me he will send help to get the harp on the ship. A few moments passed, and then I saw someone lower a pallet from the ship, attached to ropes on a pulley system. I called out and asked if this contraption is to get my harp on board. To my dismay a worker informed me that it was. I almost died.
I then asked if there was a way I could be on the pallet with the harp. The worker told me I couldn’t because I would probably fall off. Well then, this won’t work!
I asked what the alternative is, and he pointed to 12 flights of stairs. It was my first (and hopefully my last) harp move up a dozen flights of agonizing, treacherous, exhausting stairs in the sweltering summer heat. I arrived at the event space on the ship dripping in sweat, only to discover that the venue’s air conditioning is broken. Oh, and there was an elevator at the base of the ship.
—Matthew Tutsky, Boise, Idaho
Some years ago I played two funeral services for the same family, two weeks apart. The family was not expecting to lose their grandparents within one week of each other, even though they were in their nineties. The one and only song request was “Won’t You Come With Me, Lucille, In My Merry Oldsmobile?” a well-known song from turn of the 20th century.
I was asked to play the song and nothing else for the entire service at appointed times, in every way possible that I could. For the departed grandparents, the tune was “their song.” Changing keys notwithstanding, it was a great challenge to play it in swing and jazz, and then go to Latin and I can’t remember what else I ended up doing.
The family warmly expressed their approval and delight, for which I was relieved and grateful. I was never so glad to pack up the harp and drive home. •
—Stella Castellucci, Santa Monica, Calif.
