ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 13, 1997 TAG: 9703140070
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SARAH HAMMERSCHLAG/SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
SONG Hee Uhm says she wants to put Roanoke on the map as a city of great harp players.
She's well on her way.
A year and a half ago, Uhm, 33, gathered a batch of 10- and 11-year-old students from the Roanoke County School System and organized the first elementary school harp ensemble in the state - possibly one of the first in the world, she and her husband believe.
In September the ensemble will become Roanoke's cultural ambassadors when they travel to Wonju, Korea, as a part of the sister cities exchange program. For 11 days the children will tour and give concerts. Their repertoire will include everything from ``America the Beautiful'' and ``Beauty and the Beast'' to Irish folk songs and traditional Korean melodies.
A year and a half ago, eight
of these nine children could not read music. Today, each of them can play 30 to 40 songs. In the past year they have performed publicly more than 21 times, and half of those performances were for pay.
Jim Glazebrook, director of Roanoke Youth Symphony Orchestra and the concertmaster of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, said Song Hee Uhm's ``little harpists have really impressed everyone. It's quite remarkable how wonderfully they play.''
Calloused fingers|
Uhm attributes the harpists' success to discipline and hard work.
Every Thursday night the nine-member ensemble rehearses in the King Man'scq? room ofat Roanoke's First Baptist Church. There, they sit behind instruments that dwarf them in size, and pluck the tight strings of their troubadour harps with newly calloused fingers.
Song Hee Uhm, a striking woman with relentless energy, travels from student to student adjusting hand positions and fixing posture. All the while she sings the composition's melody, vocalizing its notes. ``E, G, E, G, C, G... a little faster here,'' she calls. The children concentrate intently.
Uhm is an accomplished harpist in her own right. She teaches at Roanoke College and Radford University, and performs with both the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and the Opera Roanoke Orchestra. She received her master of music degree in harp performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied under internationally renowned harpist Kathleen Bride.
Uhm volunteers her time to the ensemble. She does so, she says, because the harp is a rare instrument that few ever have a chance to hear or play. In the 20 years since she began playing as a young girl in South Korea, Uhm says, she has rarely found other harpists with whom to practice and perform.
``When people see me play, they say 'Wow a harp,' but I wish people could play just for fun. I dedicate my time and want others to play so I have people to play with,'' Uhm said.
Old harps the inspiration|
Uhm first developed the idea for the harp ensemble while giving educational demonstrations in Roanoke County schools. She entered one of the school's music rooms and saw an old troubadour harp standing in the corner.
``I was nearly speechless,'' she said.
Not only are harps rare, they are expensive. Each one costs at least $3,500.
The more demonstrations Uhm gave in county schools, the more harps she encountered. The history of these particular instruments, she discovered, went back a quarter of a century. Apparently an area music teacher ordered the instruments after hearing a high school harp concert in Richmond. The harps were never used, gathering dust in music rooms and storage spaces across the county.
Uhm proposed to county school officials that she organize a harp ensemble for children. She chose the children through interviews.
Somehow in an age of wide budget cuts--particularly in the fine arts--Uhm managed to convince the county school administration to allot minimum funds to initiate the program.
Normally, a single harp lesson costs $30 to $40 an hour. The students in Uhm's ensemble pay $90 for 12 weeks of lessons. They meet with Uhm privately for an hour a week, as well as together on Thursday nights. In addition, the students all have one of the county instruments on loan, which they keep with them at home.
``Roanoke doesn't realize how lucky they are to have a program like this spring up and take off,'' said Uhm's husband, Dan Uhm, who manages the ensemble's public relations, financing and instrument maintenance. ``Not only are the kids lucky because they get to play, but the community is lucky because they get to hear great music.''
Music for the masses|
For the most part, the ensemble sustains itself financially. The group has been successful in soliciting public donations and raising money through performances. In order to travel to Korea, however, the group needs to raise $6,000 for airfare.
Last year three of the young harpists began performing semi-professionally at weddings. A bride called Song Hee Uhm and said, ``Now, we know we can't afford you, but could you recommend another harpist for our wedding?'' Half-joking, Uhm replied, ``Would you mind having 10- and 11-year-old players?'' The lady laughed and said, ``Why not?''
Mathew Moye, a fifth-grader at Roland E. Cook Elementary School, was one of the harpists who performed at the wedding. ``It's the best thing we've done,'' he said, ``because afterwards we got to eat all this free food.''
The harpists are booked for several more weddings in the spring. In preparation they've been practicing the "Canon in D" by Pachelbel and "The Wedding March," which a few of the students affectionately call ``the evil march.''
The young harpists donate half of their earnings from performances to the program.
Males stake a claim|
Four of the ensemble's members are boys. Traditionally, the harp has been viewed as a woman's instrument.
``Many harp teachers will go their entire careers without ever having a male student,'' Dan Uhm said. ``But in Roanoke, the rumor has circulated that the harp is a boy's instrument.'' At the beginning of this year, Uhm had to recruit girls to balance the group's gender ratio.
The situation is so unusual that the male harpists in the ensemble have begun to receive national attention.
Harp Columns, a national harp magazine, will feature two of the group's boys in its winter issue.
Reciprocal benefits|
Both Dan and Song Hee Uhm attribute much of the group's success to the support they've received from the school system and the parents.
Simply transporting the harps from home to practice and back again can be quite an ordeal.
"It's a tight squeeze. We have to fold down the front seat,'' said Nathan Hurst, a sixth-grader at William Byrd Middle School, and one of the ensemble's earliest participants. At 5-feet-4, Nathan said he's proud to be almost as tall his harp.
For the parents, the group's success has been manifold.
Nathan's mother, Candy Hurst said, ``The self-confidence Nathan has gained through harp has helped push him to try other things. He joined band and started playing clarinet. Now he's begun the oboe. Because of all the performances, there is no challenge he's not up to. He just goes `Oh shoot, I'll try it.'''
Pat Smithlin said her daughter, who has been playing with the ensemble for more than a year, ``is much more disciplined. She can focus better and it's helped with her grades.''
The children only have one complaint: Playing makes their fingers hurt. ``In the beginning they'd all come in with blisters and Band-Aids,'' Dan Uhm said, ``but now they've grown callouses.''
Despite the casualties, many of Song Hee Uhm's students have expressed a dedication to the instrument that looks like it will last for years. John Booker, a fifth-grader at Glenvar Elementary school, said he began playing because his mother wanted him to. Now, he's considering a career as a professional harpist. Melissa Smithlin said she wants to be a teacher and a professional harpist. Already, a few of Uhm's older students are giving free lessons to younger kids.
``If you see these kids here and they keep playing and teaching others and then more kids play,'' Song Hee Uhm said, ``Imagine what you'll see in 10 years.''
Roanoke: Harp City of the South?
LENGTH: Long : 157 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS / THE ROANOKE TIMES. Melissaby CNBSmithlin, 11, of Roanoke (left) plays under the direction of Song
Hee Uhm during the youth harp ensemble's practice at Roanoke's First
Baptist Church.