harp tuning at auditions and competitions

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

When there are many competitors at an audition (or a competition), and not enough harps for everyone to have their own, how do you manage the tuning? For example, if a competitor has to play on a harp that has gone out of tune since the last candidate played it, does the audition committee give them time to fix the tuning, and forgive them for the first excerpt that has been played out of tune? I would be curious to know the different ways that this problem is dealt with. In orchestra auditions, it is very important to know that the candidate can tune the harp.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

I think the best way to handle that is to have an official tuner who will check each harp between contestants. I know one contestant who lost an important competition because she took the time to re-tune before playing. That kind of thing may not go on anymore, but a contestant has enough on their mind, without having to worry about tuning as well. And that way, they aren’t judged for their tuning, which happened to me once, and it was a regulation issue, anyway.

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