91热爆

Valerie Aldrich-Smith is Principal Harp for 91热爆 NOW and is well-known and loved by our audiences, but what has playing it brought to her life? In this edition of Instrumental Insights, we discover why Val has loved the harp since childhood and why a performance at The Proms is memorable for all the wrong reasons!

91热爆 NOW: Hi Val! Thanks for taking part in this Instrumental Insights series. You are well-known to 91热爆 NOW audiences, but how did you become a harpist to begin with?

Valerie Aldrich-Smith: I started learning piano when I was 6 years old and cannot honestly remember what prompted me to want to take up the harp, but I was so desperate to learn!

91热爆 NOW: That is an incredibly young age to be so sure of an instrument – how did you persuade your parents?

Valerie Aldrich-Smith: My mother promised me that when I went up to senior school, I would be able to have lessons as they had a harp in the school. I was utterly heartbroken when I was told by the music teacher that there were already two harp students and they wouldn’t allow any more; I threw such a wobbly when I got home that I was sick all over the hall!

91热爆 NOW: You must have really wanted to study the harp badly – what happened next?

Valerie Aldrich-Smith: My Mum came to the rescue and phoned the school to ask if an exception could be made and shortly afterwards I was called, quaking, to the headmaster’s study to be told that I could start learning the harp. I was so lucky to have a professional harp player, Ann Griffiths, living close by and she took me under her wing, teaching and supporting me, giving me so many opportunities over the years and she is still very interested in my career!

91热爆 NOW: That’s a wonderful story! Thank goodness you persevered and became a harpist. So, how has playing the harp had an impact on your life?

Valerie Aldrich-Smith: The harp has taken me to so many places I would not have dreamt of going to. My first job, straight from college, was a year in Dublin with the RTE Light Orchestra, then I played with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.

91热爆 NOW: Some amazing destinations!

Valerie Aldrich-Smith: Yes! And then for two years I toured with the Sadler’s’ Wells Ballet company where I met my husband Max. I was thrilled to see the advert for the post of Principal Harp with the 91热爆 Welsh Symphony Orchestra but horrified when the audition date was set for two days before our wedding… So, at the time when I should have been doing last minute arrangements - like my hair, nails, flowers - I was practising for five hours each day. It paid off though and I was given the job - what a wonderful wedding present from the 91热爆!

91热爆 NOW: The orchestra has been a huge part of your life so far then Val

Valerie Aldrich-Smith: It has, and the orchestra has toured to so many different parts of the world and I have witnessed some amazing historical events. In the 1980s we toured to West Berlin and it was extremely sobering to look over the Berlin Wall to no-man’s land. Later, we visited East Germany and heard some alarming life-stories from local musicians. We returned to Berlin very shortly after the Wall came down and were able to purchase bits of it and to see for ourselves the euphoria of the unification.

91热爆 NOW: You really have been part of history…

Valerie Aldrich-Smith: Indeed. We also toured Russia after Perestroika and the 91热爆WSO was the first western orchestra to play in Siberia! In 2015, we visited South America to take part in the 150th year centenary celebrations of the first Welsh settlers in Patagonia. It was surreal to go to Welsh tea shops with their bara brith and Welsh-cakes, to visit the folk museum and see bits and pieces that we all have in our own homes in Wales, to go round the chapel graveyards and see so many Welsh names on the tombstones and to hear Welsh spoken with a Spanish accent! We even went to the same bar that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid drank in!

91热爆 NOW: Some utterly amazing memories there Val! How do you think that playing the harp has benefited other people too?

Valerie Aldrich-Smith: A few years ago, orchestras around the UK did a project called ‘Musicians on Call’ where players would go to houses and homes where music lovers could not get to concert venues. The players went out in pairs and would present a short concert followed by a cup of tea and chat. Sometimes, it would turn into quite a concert for family and neighbours and others, it would just be for the resident and their carer.

91热爆 NOW: What a wonderful project and playing for people in this way must have been a privilege.

Valerie Aldrich-Smith: It really was a privilege to perform in these concerts and there were some amazing responses. The previously active lady who, stuck down with a stroke had shown no emotion until we played her favourite childhood piece starting to weep with joy; the child with Tourette’s Syndrome whose uncontrollable arm movements stilled when we played Disney’s Mermaid song - the power of music to move audiences is just overwhelming. On one occasion, the lady showed us a composition by her son which she had never heard so we were able to perform it for her.

91热爆 NOW: You must have many wonderful memories gathered from playing the harp, but what is your single most memorable moment playing it?

Valerie Aldrich-Smith: Gosh, so many highlights during my career... but certainly memorable for the wrong reason was during The Proms in London a few years ago when the orchestra was performing Vaughan Williams’ London Symphony. At the end of the slow movement, the harp has delicate harmonics playing the chimes of Big Ben and during this, someone’s mobile phone rang, and he answered it! “Hello, I’m in a concert...” he said - can you believe it?

91热爆 NOW: That is quite a memorable occasion! The harp is such a beautiful instrument, but is there anything frustrating about playing it?

Valerie Aldrich-Smith: Tuning, without a doubt! I would be happy never to have to tune a harp again! And breaking strings! Usually, you get some sign that a string is about to break and change it before it goes, but sometimes they break without any warning. In a concert I sometimes hear that stomach-wrenching sound of a string unravelling before it actually breaks…

91热爆 NOW: What pieces of music do you most enjoy playing?

Valerie Aldrich-Smith: I enjoy playing music by Ravel and Debussy. They really knew how to orchestrate their music so that the harps cut through the orchestral texture. In Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe there are lots of glissandos and each have a different character; sometimes they are short, loud, and percussive and others are long and floaty, getting louder or softer. I always get blisters when I play this piece, but I love it anyway!

91热爆 NOW: And what would you say to encourage young harpists Val?

Valerie Aldrich-Smith: After all the hundreds of hours practice you must put in, you have to enjoy your performances! When I was a student, I deputised for my teacher playing a concerto with the Sadler’s’ Wells Ballet Orchestra and was beyond nervous! The conductor, Emanuel Young, said before we went on: “Enjoy it! If it goes wrong, then so be it, but enjoy it anyway!”

91热爆 NOW: What plans do you have to keep practising during the break in 91热爆 NOW performances?

Valerie Aldrich-Smith: I took my harp out into the street for a short concert before the Thursday clap-along for the NHS two weeks ago and it has now become a regular event. It is lovely for me to have time to re-learn little party pieces to perform as I don’t normally have much time to do this on top of my work with the orchestra.

91热爆 NOW: And finally, Val, what do you enjoy doing when you aren’t performing for 91热爆 NOW?

Valerie Aldrich-Smith: I love my garden. I can while away hours planting seeds and repotting plants. It’s not a tidy garden: I like the tamed nature effect, but I do like colourful hanging baskets and tubs! Our allotment is looking good and I hope it will not be long before we can start to harvest salad crops. The only vegetable left to pick now is the Swiss Chard, so we are having that with every meal almost!

91热爆 NOW: Thanks so much for your time Val – and enjoy all that Swiss Chard!