Vienna Phil harpist goes solo

Allma Own says:

What about Xavier de Maestre? Mediocre talents raised to heights beyond their talent. The musical standards for harpists remain appallingly low. Much of it is due to politics within the harp community, and the rest due to ignorance on the part of listeners and conductors. In my lifetime, there was only one great harpist, Heidi Lehwalder, who is now retired. Zabaleta did all the recordings, but was deficient in many ways. All European harpists are deficient in that their training remains bogged down in 19th-century salon technique and repertoire, because they resist all the improvements that took place in North America, due to the presence of the greatest of all, Carlos Salzedo. The backlash/resistance/prejudice/disinformation to him is rampant and full of ignorance. But how else can mediocre people protect their positions from those more advanced? Conspiracy has kept Salzedo teachers out of the major conservatories in the United States, and kept the repertoire of competitions full of ignorance.