The California-based chamber group reflect on their staying power after a quarter-century together.

The Debussy Trio performs a concert for school children.

The Debussy Trio performs a concert for school children.

When it comes to musical collaborations, getting together is one thing; staying together is another; and staying together for 25 years—well, that puts you in a league of your own. The Debussy Trio—harpist Marcia Dickstein, flutist Angela Wiegand, and violist David Walther—hit the quarter-century mark this season. We caught up with Marcia Dickstein to find out what has kept this ground-breaking group together for so many years and what new projects they have cooking.

Harp Column: When Harp Column interviewed you back in our March/April 1996 issue, your group was still fairly new. How has it changed since then?
Marcia Dickstein: The most important and obvious change for me is that the three of us really start to anticipate each other and our motions. I think it’s a much less superficial experience now, and back then David was just kind of new to the group, so it’s a much richer experience. For me, personally, as a musician, that’s what I really want it to be—not just throwing this stuff together and walking out of the room saying I never want to see those people again—I want to be with these people long term.

HC: What was your vision when you started the trio 25 years ago, and how does that compare to where you are now?

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MD: To a large extent I’ve been able to fufill, beyond my wildest dreams, what I wanted to do. When I started out I was much more naïve. Initially I thought I was going to change the world with the harp. I really thought it was going to be a much easier task than it has been. I thought I would walk in the room with the instrument and everyone would fall in love with it the way I did and then from there it would be easy. So I think that the learning experience is that it’s a much harder process to bring people to love it. Still, I haven’t reached as wide an audience as I would like to—my ongoing goal is to get the music out as widely as I can. I think the exciting part is that when we started we were the only group really working full time and commissioning as much as we were, and now it seems to be much more almost the norm. There are other harp, flute, viola groups, there are young people that are coaching in this medium, and I believe with all my heart that we have helped establish this as almost a recognizable instrumentation. I don’t think we’ll ever be where string quartets are, but I do believe that now when people think of flute-viola-harp, they think, “Oh yeah, there’s a lot of repertoire out there,” and other people are commissioning, and we set some momentum behind this instrumentation. I think there’s some incredible music being created. So largely what I thought I wanted and what I’ve achieved are different, but I’m very fulfilled by this group and it’s made my life incredibly rich, and I hope it’s contributed to the larger community, which I think it has. But also not as fast as I hoped it would be.

HC: You and your trio have been champions of new music. What insights have you gained into working with composers and how you approach new music?
MD: Well, I think the biggest problem we have as a community is that composers are still very intimidated by the instrument and they still don’t know how to write well for it. They are working on it. They are getting better, but still so many composers say to me, “I’m so afraid to write for the harp, how does it work?” I think for me, the biggest learning curve in the process is really letting go and insisting that the composers write what they have to write and say what they have to say, and thenwe make it work on the instrument. If anything, people are still under-composing technically, I think. It’s almost too easy, and I want to extend the range of the instrument. I think the range of playing the harp now has expanded so much and there are so many great players out there that I want to encourage composers to write harder music, more interesting music, more technically demanding music, and not always resort to our tried and true harp standards. I think they just underestimate what the instrument can do. So I think one of the biggest things I’ve learned is to stay out of the composer’s way and trust them to write what they have to write, and then if we have to tweak it, we tweak it.

HC: What do you think our responsibility is as a harp community in expanding the repertoire?
MD: I think part of our responsibility is to stay out of the way of composers and encourage them, and I think we should be commissioning at the highest level we possibly can. I feel like we haven’t tapped into some of the A-list composers in the world—they still aren’t all writing for the harp and they should be. That’s my dream—to get even higher-level composers really writing for the harp. If I was going to change anything in our [harp] community, I would start teaching new music much younger. When I go to student recitals I hear the same pieces that we’ve been trained on for the last 50 years. I’d love to start getting kids introduced to new music and chamber music younger.

HC: What do you think the Debussy Trio does really well?
MD: When we present a concert, we come in incredibly prepared. I have been told that we have a really good rapport with the audience, so I think we’re really good at selling it. I think we program appropriately for where we are playing—we never talk down to our audience and we always program new music wherever we go, but not the same pieces. And I think we’re really good at not insisting that everybody likes or understands it the first time they hear it, and leaving them open to listening to it again and seeing the possibilities of it. I think it’s unreasonable to play a program of all new pieces for an audience and expect them to like everything. So I always talk to the audience and give them permission not to like something, but to remain open to listening and expanding their mind and their experience and not pigeonholing, particularly the harp. You know, I’m still very frustrated by the fact that people are so impressed by the instrument physically—I tell people, I may be the best harpist you’ve heard, I may be the worst harpist you’ve heard, but judge me by the music. I know it’s a beautiful instrument, but close your eyes and tell me if the music is good.

HC: What words of wisdom do you have for other harpists who want to improve their chamber music playing?
MD: If you’re going to play chamber music, the number one thing is that you have to always be prepared. You walk in the door to any rehearsal, and you have to have your homework done. Everyone has to come in prepared or it’s just no fun. Then once you get there, the best part of it—the most fulfilling part, I think—is to listen and respond to what someone else does. Find pleasure in someone else’s phrasing or a dynamic or coming out of their sound. I think a lot of times we’re so wrapped up in our instrument as being sort of soloists, and what I love about chamber music is the communication. And I don’t mean to sound corny—I really, really enjoy listening and sort of smiling when someone does something I like or I get to come out of that sound, or come into that sound, and trying to find cohesion in our phrasing.

HC: What do you hope the next 25 years holds for the Debussy Trio?
MD: Our schedules have just gotten so intense, and so I had backed down from doing as much outreach work as I have in the past. So I’m actually thinking of increasing that because I feel like that’s an incredibly important part of what we do. I want to record more and I want to record commissions. My foundation is incredibly important to me and, like I said, I want to get big-name composers writing for our instrument. Some of it is going to be trio, and I’m branching out and doing some other commissioning—I have other dreams too—so there’s going to be a lot more music coming out.

HC: For those who might not be familiar with the Debussy Trio’s music, what one recording best illustrates your music?
MD: Well, I actually would say there are two CDs I would recommend. Our latest CD that came out a couple years ago, Look Ahead, and it has 10 pieces on it, so it has a very wide spectrum of ideas and it’s mostly the shorter stuff we’ve commissioned over the years. So it’s a really broad look at the different things we’ve done. And then, still, my favorite CD of us together is Three Friends. It’s the trio and a vocalist on that CD as well. It’s great music, but it’s not as broad of a look as Look Ahead. And then we’re finishing up a CD right now that will have four new works on it—four of our bigger commissions over the last few years—but that won’t be out until next year. •

Trio Tracks

The Debussy Trio has a plethora of recordings from their years together, including a special 25th Anniversary album set to be released soon.

Debussy Trio discography:
Music of Bruce Babcock (spring 2014) label TBA
25th Anniversary (spring 2014) label TBA
Music of David Walther (2013) Albany
Look Ahead (2009) Klavier
Three Friends (2001) RCM
Music of Ian Krouse (2000) Koch
Chamber Music of Arnold Bax (1998) RCM
Shadow of a Miracle (1996) RCM
Augusta Read Thomas (1995) First Edition
Kumbosoro (1993) RCM
Baroque Trios (1993) RCM
Trios (1992) RCM
World Premiere (1990) Sierra
Eric Zeisl Chamber Music (1990) Harmonia Mundi