Hi there, and welcome to Notes From the Stage,
a show from the musicians of the Calgary Philharmonic.
We're the people playing our hearts out every
week of the orchestra season. I'm Adams Innatelli.
Usually I play first trumpet in the Calgary Philharmonic,
but today I'm your host, and I'm here with our
brand new principal harpist, Emily Melendez.
Hi, Emily. Hi. How are you? I am happy to be
here. Great. We're happy to have you. You've
just gotten to Calgary, and you've just started
your very first season with the orchestra. How
has it been? It's been fantastic. The orchestra
has been really welcoming and friendly and there's
been lots of fantastic repertoire and I really
love the stage and the hall in general and it's
just a beautiful area and I like the city a lot.
Excellent, excellent. So orchestra jobs for harpists
are hard to come, they're hard to come by for
everyone, but there are so few positions for
harp that I mean, how did it feel when you won
your job here? Is this your first? Full -time
orchestra job? Yeah, it is. Well, I was very
excited, first of all. You know, there's a lot
of, I think all harpists have a lot of feelings
about auditions and orchestra jobs, namely because
there's just so much that we deal with in an
audition that other instruments don't. Yeah,
that's really interesting. Tell us a bit about
that. Well, I think the biggest thing is that
nine times out of 10, you're not playing on your
own instrument when you audition. Yeah, that
seems... Incredibly challenging. It's incredibly
challenging and it can make an audition incredibly
unfair in that some people are going to have
almost, you know, like a 90 % advantage over
other people. Are harps very standard and, you
know, like string spacing, the way an instrument
feels? Even the spacing is different? Sometimes,
no. I mean, there was an audition, boy, maybe
six or seven years ago on the East Coast where
they provided us with a large spacing harp on
the top octave. Only on the top octave? Well,
that's when, yeah, they, they used to make harps
that had a little more variance. And so if you
get an older instrument that has wide, wide spacing
at the top and you have a small hand, everything
that you've prepared that is up there in high
is going to be completely different. Wow. So
yeah, it can, it can really throw you for a loop.
So honestly, winning an audition for harp is
A lot of it is just luck and timing. Yeah, I
always say when people ask me about auditions,
I say you have to be really good and you have
to be really lucky. Yep. Yep. So, you know, there's
about probably 50 people in the harp world, at
least in the US that I'm that I'm familiar with.
And I've seen these same people on and off for,
you know, 10 years and we'll all get together.
We'll go out for dinner afterwards and we'll
hang out. And it's kind of a a stressful and
sad party. Yeah, yeah. But we all know each other.
And I think we're all really happy when somebody
gets the job because we all know how rare it
is and how difficult it is. And just that, you
know, you could wake up and eat the wrong breakfast
in the morning and just have a bad day. And then
there you go. There's your thousand dollars to
get to the audition and pay for your flight and
pay for your lodging and pay for your food, gone.
Yeah. And so it's a hard world. You know, I've
been lucky in that all the auditions I've been
to I've had really great friends and colleagues
that are there with me and that will you know
celebrate each other and Will have fun despite
the circumstances which again can be really Not
fun. Yeah, so I'm someone who sits on audition
panels and you know, you'll sit on audition panels
You know later in your career the harp is an
instrument where you can guarantee at a harp
audition nobody Voting on the audition plays
the harp. Nobody knows the harp as well as someone
who plays the instrument, you know, you know,
I can do as much homework as I want. I can listen
to recordings and listen to the excerpts and
I can look at scores and things. But as far as
like the actual realities of playing the instrument.
For a trumpet player, you know, there's probably
going to be at least one other trumpet player
on the panel There's certainly going to be other
brass players who can you know who have a basic
understanding of how it works But truly no one
but the harpist knows what the harp really is.
Yep and that's one of the biggest disadvantages
that we face because Often what sounds good really
close up to a panel is not going to project in
a hall so oftentimes there'll be circumstances
where somebody playing something perfectly and
delicately and softly the panel is like oh my
gosh that sounds just like a piano it's perfectly
even it sounds amazing and then you get into
maybe a later stage and they hear it from a distance
and it's inaudible so that's another struggle
that harpists have to deal with and a lot of
times the volume can also depend on the instrument
they've given you if they give you a bad instrument
to play you're gonna be you know super soft or
super uneven because the harp is uneven and it's
just yeah but panels in general have no idea
what we're doing and a lot of times they'll get
complaints about tuning and it's like well you
were in tune in flats and then when you went
into sharps it was out of tune well that's not
us that's the harp it's not in regulation and
that's the harp you provided for us and there's
nothing we can do about it nothing we can do
about it right so that regulation is the term
for servicing a harp and making sure that the
intonation is correct as you change? Okay, so
for a total layperson, this is a general audience
podcast, the harp is not a fully chromatic instrument.
Every other instrument in the orchestra, in the
modern orchestra, can sort of freely play whichever
of the 12 notes we want. Whereas on the harp,
the logistical reality of the instrument is different.
Can you just explain that in basic terms for
us? So in basic terms, the strings that you see
on the harp are like the white keys of a piano.
that is the basis. We only have the notes that
are the white keys of the piano. Now, because
most orchestras have, well, all orchestras have
double action pedal harps in them, I can change
that single white note on the piano to be a half
step above or half step below its base, right?
And when you do that, how you said pedal action?
Right, pedal action. So I have seven pedals,
one for each note of the scale, and each pedal
will change every single octave of that note.
Right. So I have seven -ish, six and a half really
octaves. So one pedal will change sometimes six
notes. So all of my Cs will change at once. Yeah.
And the harp is tuned to flats. So it kind of
looks like my pedals look like they have a little
step ladder in the bottom. They're like positioned
at the bottom of the harp and it looks like a
little step ladder and I have a groove I'll put
in. So it'll be in flat in the top groove and
then natural in the middle groove and sharp in
the bottom groove. If those little levers at
the top of the instrument that actually tweak
the strings, if they are not perfectly tightened
and aligned in the right place, the harp is going
to sound out of tune and natural in sharps, even
if I tune it perfectly in flats. And most panels
don't understand that at all. Right. So this
is a great opportunity for me as a non -harpist
to learn about the instrument and maybe dispel
some of my misconceptions about the instrument
and how it works. So stop me if it's getting
irritating. Oh, no, please. So the way that the
instrument works, I think for a composer who
maybe hasn't thought things through, might seem
like a bug. It might seem like a problem to be
overcome. But to a great composer who knows the
instrument really well, does this become a feature?
Absolutely. Especially, and you see this a lot
in Debussy and Ravel, they know how to do inharmonic
things on the harp. So basically an inharmonic
for... Anybody listening who doesn't know, it
means you're creating a note with a different
spelling basically, right? So the note B sharp
and C natural, it's the same thing. So I can
push my B sharp pedal down and have my C natural
pedal set, and I'm playing two strings that sound
exactly the same. They have the same pitch. They
have the same pitch. Yeah. So somebody like Debussy
is going to use that. in like La Mer, I'll have
a glissando and it's going to be a pentatonic
scale. So it's going to only, I'm going to be
playing all seven notes on the harp as I run
my finger up and down the strings, but you're
only going to hear five because of how I have
my pedal set. That's amazing. And La Mer is on
later this season in the spring. That's one of
my favorite pieces to play. It's a gorgeous piece.
WC is a fantastic uh harp writer and so is Ravel
and they they made great use of the harps pedals
and what it can do it wasn't a bug for them at
all yeah there's a lot of amazing french music
on this year's program la mer uh escale by jockey
bears on that same concert holy moly that's an
amazing piece yeah uh we're playing alberada
del gracioso a more great harp writing great
virtuosic writing for the whole orchestra uh
Ravel piano concerto is up pretty soon at the
end of this month lots of great stuff yeah really
really fun things So I think we're used to hearing
about kids starting on the violin or the piano
or the cello or singing. How do you find your
way as a young, you know, young musician? How
do you find your way to the harp? My road was
a little untraditional. I just wanted to play
the harp when I was three and I started pestering
my mom and she didn't know what that was. First
of all, she asked a lady she knew that played
the piano in church or something. And this lady
was like, well, she has to start on the piano.
I did not want to play the piano, but they made
me. So when I was six, I started playing the
piano and I just kept pestering and pestering.
And eventually my mom brought it up to a lady
that was teaching me choir. And this lady happened
to know a harp teacher in my town. And so when
I was eight, I got to start on the harp, but
it was, it was not something that was inspired
by a moment or a concert or anything. I just,
I think I must have. seen like Christmas angels
with harps or something like nobody really knows
it was one of those strange things so amazing
amazing and where is home for you home is wagashaw
wisconsin it's a little outside of milwaukee
kind of between milwaukee and madison if you
know the states at all so the shortest available
route to the harp for you right but then i wasn't
really content with just learning the harp i
kind of wanted a piece of everything so then
i started learning the flute and then the violin
So I played all four instruments through high
school. Oh, that's amazing. Yeah. It's hard enough
to be good at one instrument. Well, I wasn't
good at them. But I did enjoy playing them and
I was good enough that I could play the violin
in my youth orchestra when there were no harp
pieces, which was really fun because I got to
play stuff that there are no harp parts on like
Beethoven and Mozart. So that was very fun for
me. That's great. And the flute flute is a natural
pairing with harp. There's tons of repertoire.
So having a bit of a working knowledge of that
instrument must come in handy sometimes. It does.
And I appreciate flutists a lot because I can't.
I can't control my breath for anything in the
world and so I'm constantly in awe of wind instruments
like yourself that you know everything has to
come out of your lungs and it's like I'm sitting
playing the harp you know chewing on some gum
or a cough drop I'm like thank goodness I don't
have to worry about this oh yeah but at the same
time right like you've got so much going on right
to anyone who sees the harp you know from from
the audience might think like oh it's so beautiful
it's a very visual instrument as well I don't
think everyone really sees the madness that is
going on at your feet. True. Because sometimes,
like, a harpist's feet are like, you know, you're
working them like an organist almost. I think
organ and harp are probably the only instruments
where you really are using hands and feet in
coordinated, pitch -related motion at all the
time, you know? Well, here's the thing though,
it's often not pitch -related on the harp. On
organ it always is, right? Because you're actually
playing a note with your feet. funny there's
a lot of organist harpist crossovers out there
um garagini who was a harp composer he also was
an organist and wrote for the organ as well and
i can think just one of my friends is a fantastic
organist and harpist and yeah parker rams he
was at sound atlas yeah yeah here in town we
went to school together oh that's great but yeah
so but with the harp you know i'm changing pedals
that i'm gonna need maybe two bars later but
because of the timing of the piece I have to,
you know, if I have to change seven pedals and
three bars, I have to do that ahead of time.
So I'm hitting notes that have no relation to
the chord that I'm playing or hitting pedals
that have no relation to the chords that I'm
playing. Yeah, like so even while you're still
playing, you're preparing pedals for, you know,
something that's happening down the line. Exactly.
So there's no chord pitch relation at all. I
guess that. The timpani also has to do that as
well, you know, to think about that, you know,
adjusting the pitch, using pedals for things
coming up so it's there when you need it. Exactly.
And both the timpani and the harp, you're also
sometimes doing it on the fly as you go, right?
Indeed. So moving a harp sucks, I assume. Depending
on the place you're moving it into, stairs suck.
Elevators, fine. Snow, not ideal. But it depends
a lot on the, you know, what kind of a dolly
you have. If you have a good dolly, it's not
so bad. If you have a nice, you know, car that's
easy to load into, it's not so bad. So there
are ways you can make it not horrible. But in
general, it's, I mean, it's not anybody's favorite
thing to do, but we all do it. Harps are around
85 pounds, so. Yeah, that's that's significant.
And let alone a case if you're moving it, say,
like if you're. putting it on a truck or if you're...
Oh, the case that looks like a... Oh, you never
want to fly with a harp. You would ship it. Really?
Well, you know how airlines treat everybody's
luggage. Yeah, it's not ideal. So yeah, but the
transport cases, they look like giant black coffins.
It's pretty funny. This is the second giant instrument
coffin we've talked about our notes from the
stage. See our previous episode with Matt Heller,
bass player. Oh, yes. So here in Calgary, you
know, you're going to be practicing at home,
I would assume. Yes. And you're going to be playing
at the hall. Or is that two different instruments?
Yeah. So I have my own harp at home and then
the orchestra has a harp. And hopefully soon
the orchestra will have a new harp. That would
be very exciting. That would be very exciting.
It's nice to have some input into that, I would
assume. Yeah. You know, the ball has not really
gotten rolling yet, but I know that it's kind
of time for that to happen. Harps only have a
certain amount of years that they have, you know,
really good sound. They have a lifespan. Oh,
that's interesting. Why is that? It's because
harps have so much pressure on them. Like mechanical
tension? Well, yeah, tension from the strings.
So I think it's... I always get this mixed up.
There's, I believe, a thousand moving parts and
two thousand pounds of pressure. Holy moly. It
could be swapped, but I believe that's correct.
And so eventually that pressure warps the neck
because it's just wood and it warps the neck
and it pulls up the soundboard. So a harp that's
played a lot has about 25 years before it needs
some type of a rebuild or re -riveting or something,
some kind of major repair. Wow, I mean... That's
a lot of moving parts. I mean, a trumpet has
like under a dozen. Yeah. So when you need your
harp maintained, like, is that something that
you do yourself or is that something that you
would send it to a specialist for work every
few years? Well, the regulation that it would
undergo every year, which is making the notes
all in tune, natural, sharp and flat, that is
done by a regulator. You can learn to do it yourself
as a harpist. I haven't. It's a very in -depth
training and you have to get certified. It's
a whole thing. So usually there are traveling
regulators that go all around the country and
into Canada. They have different regions that
they service and you find your favorite regulator
and you get your harp regulated once a year.
But any major repairs, it would need to be sent
to the factory. So my harp and the orchestra's
harp are both line and Healy's. Those are made
in Chicago by Line and Healy Harps. And so you
would ship your harp to the factory and get it
worked on. I've been very lucky that I'm living
in Milwaukee. I've been close enough to just
drive my harp down whenever it needs repairs
or anything. So that's been really nice. So when
you're not playing the harp and you're not spending
time with your dog, who you are petting as we
speak, what do you like to do with your spare
time? Well, I'm kind of an introvert, so I don't.
Go out that much or at least I haven't in the
past. Maybe I'll get better being more extroverted.
I Like to take pansy on a lot of walks. We're
big walkers I have a little bit of asthma so
I don't run even though I would like to but I'm
I it always prevents me so I just like to walk
and I like a good TV series. Oh, yeah, what have
you been watching recently? Well, it's what I'm
going to be watching now that I'm finally settled
in and have some time. I haven't watched the
second season of House of the Dragon yet, and
that is very much on the list. I've been waiting
all summer. I've been too busy to devote time
to it, but it's one of those things you don't
want to rush into. You want to have time to be
just like, I'm going to sit here and enjoy this.
So I've avoided all of the spoilers. So yeah,
I like good. TV series HBO is a is a favorite
for me. Just most most of what they put out is
excellent. I also love books. I like oh, what
do you love to read? Well, it's it's either high
fantasy or sociology and there's like no in between
interesting. It's very strange. That's very interesting
Well here as we sit you can see some of the bookshelves
in my house here. There are many so you can see
that there's a lot of high fantasy in there as
well that I really enjoy. I noticed that, I did.
Yeah, when you first showed me your studio, I
was like, oh yeah, these are great. Okay, okay,
so what jumped out to you? I'm curious, I'm so
interested in your taste. Lila Gwynne did, and
only because she, I have, my sister sent me a
whole bunch of her books for Christmas, but I
haven't gotten into her yet. She's my favorite
author. I'm undergoing a long -term project to
read her complete works. Okay, yeah, my sister
sent me like the two volumes of her complete
works, and I just haven't Delved into them. Yeah,
but you're gonna be so thrilled She's one of
the few who writes amazing science fiction and
amazing fantasy and see you see that's a really
rare combination It's either really good fantasy
or really good sci -fi So I read all of the Game
of Thrones books in grad school on the subway
in New York You know what when I was in school
in Toronto? Uh, a feast for crows was coming
out and I realized it was coming out in the UK
before it was coming out in North America. I
ordered a copy from the UK and I got it like
a month before it came out here and I was reading
it on the subway in Toronto and someone like
ran up to me and was like, where did you get
that? That's amazing. Well, that's yeah. Yeah.
So I, you know, it's, it's hard sometimes. Oh,
sorry. That's my dog's tail banging the cord.
It's hard to find time to read books like that
for me because I never want to wait to finish
them. So it's difficult to start and then have
to do other things. But I've found that audio
books are great for that. So I've been reading
an audio book called... Fields of Blood, Religion
and the History of Violence. Okay, interesting.
That's my new favorite and I've really enjoyed
it so far. That's on the sociology side there.
Right, exactly. So there's no in -between. I
don't really read historical fiction. I don't
really read biographies. Yeah, I just have like
two genres I enjoy. That's very interesting.
That's very interesting. Oh, you're gonna enjoy
Le Guin so much. I'm so excited for you. What's
a good one to start with for her? If I were to
make a recommendation of where to start with
Le Guin, I would start with A Wizard of Earthsea.
OK. It's the first of a... Well, it was originally
three and she said she was done, then she wrote
a fourth and then she said she was done. Then
there's a book of short stories in that universe.
And then there's a final book. OK. And if you
look over at the shelf there, there's a beautiful,
big, thick doorstop. I see that. I know. It's
The Complete Earthsea, which contains a short
story that I've never read before. at the very
end of the set. And so I'm saving that for when
I actually reread the whole set top to bottom,
and I can enjoy that new -to -me short story
at the end. But Earthsea is really, really magical.
I mean, it's magical and it's magical. But it's
a great place to start. None of the books are
very long, so it's not like diving into A Song
of Ice and Fire or something like that. But they're
just wonderful, wonderful books. If you're interested
in a start into the science fiction of Ursula
Le Guin read Lathe of Heaven. Oh, OK. It's a
little novella. It's it's pretty short. It's
an amazingly creative story. It's it's wonderful.
Some of the bigger ones are I mean, they're all
everything that I've heard from her. I just I
just love so much. But something bigger like
The Dispossessed is going to be a tougher way
in. I think that's what I started. The Dispossessed
is it's a lot. Yeah. And I found it very dry.
Really interesting, but but very dry, probably
the driest of her science fiction. Left Hand
of Darkness is much more approachable and really
great and really interesting in in today's society,
I think. Oh, yeah, I have to admit, I so I never
finished the Silmarillion. I started that. So
dry writing and I are not. We don't get along
too well. Yeah, the Silmarillion, I think maps
help a lot with that one I found and actually
on Tor .com, you know, Tor. the science fiction
publisher. Okay. They had a great, you know,
like these days there's like a podcast about
like, you know, episode by episode of a TV series
or something on tor .com. I remember reading
a chapter by chapter set of articles about the
Silmarillion that had a lot of diagrams with
family trees and things like that. And that made
it a lot easier to soak in. Oh, that's good to
know. I don't know if I'll ever. ever go back
to that, but it's good to know if I want to.
You know, Emily, you've only been here for the
better part of a couple of months now, but we
get to hear our great colleagues play and make
wonderful music on stage every day at work. Has
anyone's playing particularly caught your ear?
Well, I guess the playing that is most in my
ear would be our lovely French horn colleagues
who usually are right behind me. So I've been
really enjoying them. They're fantastic. I actually
knew Nikki, who's our principal horn. About 10
years ago or so, we met at New World. We were
roommates together for a week. That's New World
Symphony in Miami. She's actually the only person
I knew coming up here. And I really enjoyed her
playing and the rest of the horn section. They're
just fantastic. There's been a lot of a lot of
fresh blood in the horn section. Recently actually
this year for the first time in a long time.
We have a fully staffed horn section of five
players Which is amazing. Yeah, Nikki is relatively
new Peter Clark. Our second horn player just
started along with you this year He's gonna be
our guest on the next episode of this podcast
Max Stein started not too long ago and Heather
Wooten our fourth horn is retiring at the end
of this season We'll be featuring her later this
season. I hope later this season of the podcast
and Jennifer Frankumana has been in the orchestra
one year longer than me. So she will be the longest
-serving horn player in the section as of next
year. Wow. Yeah, a lot of turnover, but that's
how it goes. Yeah. Wonderful. Well, Emily, thank
you so much for sitting down with me and for
bringing your great dog over. Yeah, you're welcome.
Now that we're finished, she's finally laying
down and being calm. Great. Well, I'm sure that
she and mine will hang out much more in the months
to come. Yes, I hope so. Thank you for having
me. Thanks so much. Let us know what you think
of the show and check out our concert calendar
at CalgaryFilmmusicians .ca to see what we're
all up to outside of our regular performances
at the CPO. On our next episode in two weeks,
I'll be talking with another new arrival, Second
Horn Peter Clarke. Talk to you soon!