Taking a stroll down the D building hallway is an experience unlike anything else on campus. Music oozes out of practice rooms and classrooms and constantly permeates the air. Many students are involved in the music classes here on campus, and outside of the classroom, many students take lessons and participate in bands. But very few can lay claim to the grace and beauty of the harp.
For junior Hannah Butcher and senior Victoria Bull, the harp is more than just a beautiful instrument. Rather, it is a form of self-expression.
Butcher’s passion for the harp came at a young age.
“When I was 4, I went to this wedding and I saw a harpist coincidentally named Hannah. I was mesmerized by her and I’ve always wanted to play ever since.” Butcher continued, explaining that, “my mom put me in piano lessons to kind of see [if I would stick with music], so I have been playing piano since I was 5, but she finally let me play harp when I was 9.”
For Bull the idea of playing the harp came as a suggestion.
“[When I was 9], my piano teacher was saying how piano is the ordinary. She said, ‘you should try [the harp]; you have the fingers for it.’”
Bull explained that having longer fingers is an advantage in playing the harp because “you can reach and have a wider grip on the strings.”
Both girls began playing the harp when they were 9 and both joined the Perry Orchestra program their freshmen year.
Orchestra director Alex Zheng commented Bull and Butcher “are incredible students, not only great student musicians, but also incredible people. I trust them so much because I teach stings, not harp, so they do everything by themselves. Also, they do a lot of arranging original music with the harp.”
One reason that Bull loves the harp is that “[harps add] diversity. When we went to New York [last year for orchestra], we were the only group there with 2 harps, so automatically, we [stood] out.”
Butcher commented that “[the harp] is a very unique instrument. It’s rare, so it adds a lot of different textures to the music. Talking about arpeggios and glissandos, string instruments can’t play [those], so it adds a different texture to the music.”
The incredible talents that exhibited by Butcher and Bull are reflection of their dedication and hard work, as well as an incredible love for the instrument.