Hooked on Classics

Every time Gillian V. Benet '87 wants to transport her six-foot tall harp from her room in Lowell House to Memorial Hall, where she practices, she has to hire a station wagon taxi to make the quarter-of-a-mile trip.

"It's hard for me when the harp isn't in my room," Benet says, "I get the urge to play all the time--even in the middle of the night--and I can't always get to it."

Benet, a French Civilization concentrator, has played the harp for eleven years. As one of the 3000 members of the American Harp Society, she has won the Society's triennial National Competition twice in her age division.

Benet says that contact with fellow harpists through competitions and lessons is essential to improving her skill. "It's such an unusual instrument that you need to know people who play to help you with your problems."

The small number of committed harpists to play with and learn from is only one of the difficulties involved with taking up the complex instrument. The harp, with its 46 strings and seven foot pedals, has only existed in its modern form since the late nineteenth century, so only a limited supply of old music is available. Some masters, like Handel and Mozart, have composed music for a more primitive version of the harp, but Benet explains that repertoire can be a problem because "a lot of composers write their token harp concerto and that's it."

The size and cost of the instrument are also formidable obstacles. Benet has three harps: she keeps her $17,000 model with its gold-plated column at home in San Francisco; the second, worth $13,000, she brings to school; and the third, a much, much smaller replica, dangles from a gold chain around her neck.

Although owning a harp can be expensive (Benet's family also had to buy a station wagon to transport the harp when she began playing it), its size can be an asset. Benet says, "sometimes, when I'm on tour, I use the harp case as a dressing room. It also doubles as a closet for my long dresses."

At Harvard, Benet practices her rare ability with the Harvard/Radcliffe Orchestra (HRO), the Bach Society Orchestra and the Ensemble Society. She takes three music classes as electives but must go to New York for lessons because Harvard lacks a harp teacher. She recently acquired an instructor from the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Benet says that HRO's tour of Europe and the Soviet Union last June was the most "exciting" musical experience she has had. The solo selection she played--a concerto by Argentine composer Ginastera--was broadcast over the BBC radio in London and advertised by poster in the streets of Paris. Although she thought playing in Moscow and Leningrad was depressing, she says the tour "felt sort of like my European debut."

In Paris, the HRO concert marked the opening of a three-month music extravaganza called the "Festival Estival." Benet says, "When I was in Paris, I almost didn't come back to the states. The arts there are so much more appreciated."

Benet hopes to attend the Paris Conservatory next year, which, she says, is the most prestigious school for studying the harp. She plans to compete in June for a $2000 Close Award for full-time harp study, and looks toward her first international competition in Geneva next year.