A Lasting Impression

For a quarter century, Kathleen Bride has spent her days teaching lessons in her small studio at the Eastman School of Music in upstate New York, surrounded by piles of harp scores and the ever-present box of York Peppermint Patties (a must for both good and bad lessons). In that time countless young students have gone into her studio and come out transformed both musically and personally.

I met KB, as her students call her, when I was 16 years old and my mom and I were traveling around taking lessons with perspective teachers. I remember my first lesson vividly. Her energy was infectious. She sang and danced and encouraged me until I was making music instead of just playing the harp. I felt an immediate connection with her and had the great honor of studying with KB for seven years during my bachelor’s and doctoral degrees at Eastman, learning much more than just how to play the harp in that time.

KB makes a lasting mark on all who have the opportunity to work with her, and she genuinely cares for all of her students. She took some time out of her very busy teaching, performing, and writing schedule (she has a book coming out soon!) to talk about what she has learned in her time at Eastman, how she maintains her sanity with her insane schedule, and a little preview of her new book.

Harp Column: In your 26 years at Eastman, having seen so many students come and go, what would you say is the biggest piece of advice you have to give to a student wishing to pursue a career in harp?

…never go into a situation thinking that you know everything, because there is always something to learn

Kathleen Bride: I think in my 26 years at Eastman and 15 before that at Manhattan (School of Music) one thing that I’ve learned is that the students who really work hard and are goal-oriented will achieve a lot. You can’t just come and coast through school, and if you decide that you want a particular career path—whether it be an orchestral harpist, a chamber musician, teacher, or a combination of the three—you’ve really got to do as much as you can when you’re an undergraduate student and a graduate student. Learn as much music as you can and learn it rapidly, because these are going to be the most valuable years of your life as far as learning music is concerned. When you get out of school you are spending an awful lot of time trying to exist—you have to pay your rent, buy groceries, do your laundry, make car payments, walk the dog, and generally have a life. The four to six compressed years of undergraduate and graduate study are the most important of your professional life. It’s where you make your very good friends and colleagues. It’s where you learn to be a professional and where you learn how to not do certain things that you see around you. I think if you are purpose-driven from the beginning, you are in good stead. Also, never go into a situation thinking that you know everything, because there is always something to learn.

HC: You mentioned choosing a path as a musician. You chose a path that many might call less standard, choosing not to pursue an orchestral career. What led you to that decision?

KB: I think I knew it wasn’t right for me. I did a tremendous amount of orchestral freelancing when I was in college in Pennsylvania and at Juilliard. I was busy every single night, but my heart really wasn’t in it. I loved to play chamber music; I loved to teach; I loved solo playing; and so I decided to go that route, because I knew I would be happiest. Also, I realized in the period of time when my career was forming that there were not any real orchestral openings; everyone was firmly ensconced in their job and had been there for a very long time. Much like it is now, the people who win these jobs are most likely young, and they will stay in those jobs for the next 40 years.

HC: [Laughs] Why wouldn’t they, if they can?

KB: [Laughs] Exactly.

HC: While you were living in New Jersey, before you started working at the Manhattan School, were you doing mostly orchestral freelancing, or were you playing weddings?

KB: Mostly orchestral freelance, but I also did a lot of teaching out of my home, and I taught in a public school music program on Saturday mornings in Montclair, N.J. I just taught all over the place, and when I went to Manhattan I started in the prep division, so I was teaching youngsters. That all goes back to my old axiom: if you’re going to teach you have to remember that if you can’t build a technique, you can’t fix a technique.

HC: That is such good advice.

KB: It’s absolutely true! [Laughs]

HC: Do you still do any teaching of young kids?

KB: I don’t, because I don’t have time, and I really miss it. They are so much fun, so enthusiastic and creative. I wish I could do it, but I can’t.

HC: Well, I think you pass on your obvious love to your students at Eastman through your pedagogy class. I experienced that. I never thought I would be able to teach young kids, but I have an 8-year-old student now, and we’re moving forward!

KB: There you go! And they surprise you every time they come for a lesson.

HC: Not always good surprises, though!

KB: [Laughs] That’s right, but you learn to roll with the punches. You realize, when you are teaching a child that is that age and a little bit older, that you have an indelible impression on them. They really hang on your every word, and you realize that you can start to help form a really wonderful person who is able to create something and to perform and become a different kind of person in a sense. You have a big hand in that, because other than their parents, you’re probably the most important adult in their life.

HC: You’re probably the only adult they get one-on-one time with other than their parents on a weekly basis. You don’t only teach full time, though, you are also performing a great deal this season, right?

KB: Oh yes. The Florida Harp weekend took place at the end of July, beginning of August. We did workshops, a masterclass, a solo recital, and an ensemble concert all packed into three fun-filled days! Jan Jennings runs a really wonderful festival down there. I just finished a faculty recital at Eastman, at the beginning of school, with Courtney Bress, which was a duo program. Next month I play a concert for the 100th anniversary of Marywood University in Scranton, Pa., where I graduated with a bachelor’s of music. On that program I am playing the Handel Concerto in B-Flat, the Laura Zaerr Appalachian Concerto and the Grandjany Aria in a Classic Style, all on the same concert [Laughs]. And then in November I have to do a little more playing at a celebration of a musical club that gave me scholarship money as a graduate student. A few more things in December, and then [Laughs] I get back to the book.

HC: You’re a busy lady!

KB: Yes, it’s a bit much. Peter Wiley was just re-felting my harps and he picked up one of the felts from the garbage and said, “You have really packed these down!” [Laughs]

HC: With all of these projects on top of your teaching and performing schedule, do you ever have time for leisure? What do you do in your off time?

KB: I love to garden, I have a big garden at my house, and in the little leisure time I have I really love doing that, because it’s very relaxing and it always produces beautiful results. I also enjoy traveling with my husband as well as walking with him and our dog Luna.

HC: How do you find time to practice while you are teaching full-time?

KB: I’ll tell you, it’s really hard, and anyone who says it isn’t, is lying [Laughs] or they’re much more clever than I am! I usually carve out the morning hours to practice, from 8:30 or 9:00 until I leave the house. I can’t start teaching at Eastman until 12:30 because of the undergraduate academic schedule, so most days I teach from 12:30 until at least 6:30, and up until 9:00 on days with studio class. It’s a long day, and it’s not only teaching lessons, it’s pedagogy, technique, and four hours of chamber music coaching this semester.

HC: Oh wow! That’s a lot!

KB: Yes it is. But I’m learning more and more how to separate this all out. You have to learn more and more how to compartmentalize and do everything in its due time. For me, practicing is really important. We just had this great power failure at the school, which meant two days of harp regulations had to happen at my house. I didn’t get to do any practicing those days because there wasn’t a harp free for me to practice on and there were people all over the house, but I was thinking about the music during those two days. I’ve been going through a lot of things in my head, but it’s very hard. You really have to concentrate when you practice and work in a very organized manner.

HC: There are a lot of teachers who choose not to maintain a performance career once they have a time-consuming job. Why is it that you have chosen to continue doing this with all of the work that you have already?

KB: Because I really love to play, and I’ve gotten to the point now that I can pick my repertoire and choose what I want to do, and that’s fun for me! I really love the sound of the harp and I like to practice; I like to perform. So, I chose to continue to do this. I don’t think I could live without a balance of teaching and performing. I just don’t think it would work for me.

HC: Well, I can tell you that, as a former student of yours, it is incredibly inspiring to have a teacher who is still out performing. It makes a big difference for a student.

KB: Yes, I think it does. It’s amazing how the faces of your students light up when you actually go up on stage. I think it gives them a really good lesson in a lot of things; in public performance, repertoire, preparation, and that of course is very important. If you see it, you can understand it.

HC: Absolutely. It gives a student a practical example of someone who has been doing this for a long time and knows what she is doing.

KB: Well, hopefully. [Laughs]

HC: You mentioned earlier that after you are done with your performances for the year you will be returning to a book that you have been writing. Can you tell us a little about this book?

KB: The book is about the teachings of Marcel Grandjany. Basically, it’s about the French technique and how it evolved through his teaching. He hated the word “method,” so he would never use it. He never considered it to be the Grandjany method, always the Grandjany technique. He always said he was never going to write it down because his ideas on teaching were always changing, and that’s true, they were. I was one of the last of his students to come along, and he had changed from some of my peers, who were a little bit older, but I realized that the few who came after me got the same exercises that I did, and that he was basically pretty well grounded in what he wanted a student to do. So the book is for students and teachers. It’s how a teacher begins teaching a beginner; what do you start with? I see so many people who start with 2-1, or 1-2 and no youngster can do that kind of thing. But Grandjany knew exactly what to do—how to work the hand and how to set it up so that from the get-go the technique works.

HC: What inspired you to write this book?

KB: You know [Grandjany] always said he didn’t want to do this, and I think the enormity of the project for him as he got older was huge. He was still teaching like crazy and he just didn’t have time to do this. But, he wrote down these countless exercises, and he was also the kind of person that when you sat in a lesson and you were having trouble with something, he would work out an exercise for you right away. He would write on a little sheet of manuscript paper and you would take that home with you to work on. I realized that as students come to me, and audition for me, and I see some of the problems that they have with hand position, relaxation, and their ability to get around the instrument, that somebody had to do this. I didn’t want to go to my grave saying, “Oh, I should have done that!” [Laughs] So I just started writing down these topics—things that a student really needs to know—and I put out the word to so many colleagues, who had studied with him, and they really graciously shared a lot of things with me that I didn’t have. So here we are, and I’m just pluggin’ away at it. I took a sabbatical in 2010 to start the book, and I am within an inch of finishing. I just felt that it had to be written down, that all of these various exercises that people have used and have helped them over the years really should be codified. We should have the ability to use these in future years with students and maintain this beautiful sound that he had.

HC: What else can we expect to see in the book?

KB: I have exercises for two, three, and four fingers, arpeggios, rhythm exercises, scales, octaves, glissandi—single and double—I am always surprised at the kids who come to me who have never done a double glissando. Harmonics, sliding, etouffée, pdlt, staccato muffling, and interlocking fingerings. There will also be some etudes in there. He used to have these exercises called “chart of finger positions” where he would take a five-note pattern and in that have different finger patterns so that the hand is prepared to not only just play three fingers in a row, and the hand is flexible. Oh, modulations! We have some wonderful modulations! I just sat down one day and asked myself, what do you need to learn in order to build a really strong, reliable technique? One that does not fail you, does not allow you to fall off, and one that does not allow you to do things that frustrate you when you’re playing.

There is also a chart of all of the markings that he used in his various publications, and finally a wonderful irregular fingering exercise that I do every day. It’s scales but starting on different fingers, changing around all the time, and also with constantly changing rhythms. What he really wanted to do was to make a player comfortable playing their instrument. In other words, you’re not going to fall off the harp when you play a scale, because you know how to play a scale. You know how your hand works, and what your elbow is supposed to do. He wanted the harpist to feel confident using an unusual fingering. That’s what the Bach-Grandjany etudes are all about. I know a lot of people who go through and say, “Oh, well, that fingering is stupid, let’s change it.” But that wasn’t the point, and unfortunately he never said that in the forward [of the book]. I was with him when those etudes were sent to publication and he explained this all to me. He said, “I want people to feel comfortable when an odd fingering comes up,” because sometimes you simply have to do something a certain way.

HC: How interesting! I never knew that about those etudes.

KB: Yep!

HC: Have you had any contact with the Grandjany family in the process of writing this book?

KB: Oh yes. He had one son, Bernard, who is still alive. When I first came up with this idea I asked him what he thought and if he would he approve this project, and he said, “Oh yes! Yes, of course! When will it be done?” And I’m thinking, “Well, oh my gosh, not right now!” [Laughs] So yes. I have been in touch with him, and he is very enthusiastic about it. So I’m just terribly pleased by that!

HC: When should we expect to be able to get our hands on this book?

KB: I’m hoping that by the 2017 school year it will be done.

HC: Can’t wait to see it! Do you have any other upcoming projects that you plan to tackle once the book is finished?

KB: I have lots of projects on my plate. Definitely continuing teaching at Eastman—I have a great class now and I expect to have great classes as we go along—and continuing to coach harp chamber music at school, which I love to do. Also, as you know, I own Willow Hall Press and I would like to publish more. I have some new ideas for publication, and I also own the rights to all of Marcel Grandjany’s unpublished works, which were given to me by his son. My plate is never empty, and I don’t think that I want it to be! •