The American Harp Society’s Central New York Chapter is offering a unique musical experience next month—one that invites audiences not just to hear the harp, but to truly compare it. Meredith Kohn Bocek describes the upcoming “harp tasting” as an opportunity to explore the instrument in a whole new way.
“A harp tasting is an opportunity for people to come and taste the sound of many different styles and makes of harp,” Meredith explains. “It’s a great way to understand how the wood, string materials, and size of the soundboard affect the tone of a harp and give each instrument its own personality.”
The event will feature instruments from a range of prominent makers, including Salvi, Lyon & Healy, Dusty Strings, and Triplett, representing craftsmanship from both the United States and Europe. But rather than simply displaying them, Meredith has devised an interactive listening experiment.
“The audience will actually sit with their backs to the stage so they can’t see the harps,” she says. “I’ll play the same short piece on each instrument—something that shows the full range and also the higher register. Then listeners can focus purely on the sound and decide: is it bright or mellow, crisp or dark?”
Each harp is assigned a number, and audience members are encouraged to take notes and vote for their favorite. “The owner of the winning harp even gets a small prize,” Meredith adds.
The program also highlights a side of the harp that many listeners—and even composers—may not fully understand. Unlike the large pedal harps of the orchestra, the instruments featured here are lever harps, sometimes associated with Celtic or folk traditions.
“These harps don’t have pedals,” Meredith explains. “To make sharps or flats, we use levers, which means taking a hand off the strings to adjust the pitch. That’s something composers and arrangers really have to think about—it keeps your hands quite busy.”
That accessibility, however, is part of the lever harp’s appeal. “They’re much more affordable and portable than pedal harps,” she says. “You can even fit one in the back seat of a car.” As a result, interest in the instrument has grown steadily in recent decades. “There’s been an explosion of lever harpists since the 1980s,” Meredith notes, “and many new learners are people picking it up later in life.”
For Meredith, the harp’s magic is especially powerful in a live setting. “When you hear a harp in person, you feel the vibration of the strings—the energy really travels into the audience,” she says. “You don’t get quite the same richness of overtones in a recording.”
Her own repertoire reflects the instrument’s versatility. “Right now I’m focusing on Scottish and modern traditional music,” she says, “but I also enjoy smooth jazz, light classical, and South American styles. I like everything—it’s a very varied repertoire.”
That interest recently took her abroad to the Edinburgh International Harp Festival, a long-awaited “bucket list” experience. “It was fabulous,” she recalls. “You could take multi-day classes and hear concerts by world-class harpists from across Europe. It was small—about 200 people—but incredibly inspiring.”
For those not planning a trip to Scotland, Homer offers a much closer alternative.
The harp tasting takes place Saturday, May 2 at 2 p.m. at the Homer Center for the Arts, 72 South Main Street in Homer. More information is available on the Central New York Chapter of the American Harp Society’s Facebook page.