Kondonassis to play with BSO Noted harpist blends life of teaching, recording, performing

Picture a street in Chicago in the mid-1970s. A 9-year-old girl from Norman, Okla., stands with her mother in front of a display in the window of a music store. That was the beginning of what has become a stellar musical career for harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, who will appear with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra Sunday afternoon. Kondonassis talked about that past visit to Chicago and her upcoming visit to Bangor in a recent interview.

“I remember my mother and I just stood there, for a considerable amount of time, just looking at this great big display of harps of all sizes and styles, just thinking to ourselves, ‘Boy! This is a pretty magical instrument; I wonder how one gets to play one of these?'”

Kondonassis’ mother, also her piano teacher, soon acquired a Troubadour student harp for her gifted daughter, but after only four months, Kondonassis recalled, “I got bored! I grew out of that little harp very fast, and we needed to see about renting a pedal harp … and that was the genesis of that.”

From that small step, a great career has grown. Kondonassis is arguably one of the premier harpists in the United States. At 18, only nine years after taking up the harp, she made her debut with the New York Philharmonic, and since has appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, St. Louis Symphony and San Francisco Symphony to name just a few. She has also collaborated with a number of chamber ensembles including the Shanghai and Guarneri string quartets, as well as performing regularly in concert with the renowned flutist Eugenia Zukerman.

Despite her successes with some of the nation’s most prestigious orchestras, Kondonassis said she is excited to be playing with the Bangor Symphony, and that she holds Conductor Christopher Zimmerman in the highest regard.

“He’s fantastic!” she said. “We worked together a couple of years ago doing Alberto Ginastera’s Concerto for Harp, the same piece we’ll be playing on Sunday. It’s a very difficult thing to conduct, and Chris just brought it together almost instantly, which is a real testament to him and to his ‘conductorly’ powers.”

Asked about the Ginastera piece, which is a tour de force of what can be called harp artistry or perhaps “harpistry,” Kondonassis admitted, “There was a period back when I first learned this piece, where I just had to get comfortable with the technical demands of it. But now, it’s like an old friend, and every time I take it out there is some new dimension, some new color to it, or I find I can put a new twist to it to add a little more magic. Once the techniques are under your belt, you are free to explore, pretty much endlessly, the imagery and color of the instrument. I think the Ginastera is a very special piece, and I always jump at the chance to do it.”

Speaking of her instrument, Kondonassis recognizes that “the prettiness factor” is both an advantage and an obstacle. “There’s nothing wrong with being pretty,” she laughs. “I think it is tremendous to play an instrument that is just inherently beautiful.” But, Kondonassis continues, “I think it’s my job to push beyond what comes naturally, to push things to a new level, a higher level that people might not even know to expect.”

In addition to a goodly number of live performances every year, Kondonassis also teaches at both the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music. And she records for the Telarc label.

“All three elements of my professional life work together, they reinforce each other,” she explained. “The performing helps the recording, and the recording helps the playing, but the teaching does too! It is really helpful on my teaching day, to literally spend hours on end thinking about what I do, kind of examining the building blocks of the art. And, of course, I love the personal contacts in teaching.”

Recordings by Kondonassis include “Scintillation,” “Pictures of the Floating World,” “Sky Music,” and, more recently, “Music of Hovhaness,” featuring the lyrical spirituality of American composer Alan Hovhaness. It is interesting to note that a portion of the proceeds from the Hovhaness CD go toward rain forest preservation.

A new recording, “Quietude,” also on the Telarc label, is expected to be released in April. This collection of soft music from composers such as Debussy, Respighi and Satie, differs from her other releases in that all the music has the same mood. Says Kondonassis, “We had always tried in the past to vary the mood, kind of plan it like a good meal, some of this and some of that. But this album chilled us right out,” she laughs, “It’s like a nice, long cup of tea, or maybe a hot toddy!”

Yolanda Kondonassis will perform with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Christopher Zimmerman at the Maine Center for the Arts at 3 p.m. Sunday. In addition to Ginastera’s Concerto for Harp, the program will include Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis,” and Symphony No. 2 by Sibelius. For information or tickets, call 942-5555 or contact the Maine Center for the Arts box office.