Met awards tenure to principal harp… and gets two new instruments
mainThe wonderful Emmanuel Ceysson received his notification of tenure from music director James Levine earlier this week, on his birthday weekend.
And an anonymous admirer – a fellow-professional musician – presented the Met with two new harps for him to play. When I saw Emmanuel the other day, he was radiant with happiness.
You’d think the Met would bang the media drums about it? Not a whimper.
The orchestra may be the MET’s greatest asset, but few symphony orchestras, let alone opera orchestras, give their musicians major star treatment in the media; tenure is probably just a dull internal matter. I understand that as late as the 1970s, the MET didn’t even list the orchestra roster in its program book.
Because my daughter is a harpist, I have been fortunate to get to know Emmanuel. He is a brilliant, kind and generous teacher, as well as a lovely guy with a great sense of humor. The level of virtuosity The Met has sitting as its Principal Harp is awe-inspiring. I am a major Fan-Girl 🙂 By the way, the two new Met harps were built at Lyon & Healy in Chicago. They are the Salzedo model in RED, a rare and distinctive color for an instrument that has come to be associated with Emmanuel. He owns several of them. Bravo, Maestro!
I sat in the Grand Tier this week awaiting the start of Elektra. I pulled out my binoculars to look over the orchestra before tuning and spotted these two brilliant red-capped harps in the orchestra that screamed out “NEW” and yes, “WE MATTER TOO!” They are strikingly beautiful and a great addition to a generally grey-looking area. The blood-red tops seemed a portend of things to come from the great stage. Congrats!
The harps sound visually tasteless. And a distraction from what is happening onstage.