Kimberly Rowe

Kimberly Rowe

Sun, Fun, and Done!

Aug 2, 2015

Eight weeks, three states (not counting the travel in between), one transatlantic crossing—and this has potentially been the longest summer of my life, and it’s still only the first week of August. This year I had the great fortune to be involved in three summer festivals (National Music Festival, Young Artist’s Harp Seminar, and the Young Artist Summer Program at Curtis Summerfest), so this seems like a good time for a top ten list of favorite moments:

#10 (NMF) Free lunch at Emmanuel Church!

#9 (YAHS) Tubing/picnicking in Bryson City, N.C., in the Smokey Mountain National Park.

#8 (Summerfest) Coaching Serenade No. 10, by Vincent Persichetti, who I was coached by himself when I first played the piece in 1982 as a Freshman at the New School of Music.

#7 (NMF) Playing with four harps in orchestra (Mahler 3), under the direction of Richard Rosenburg who loves harps! (Not all conductors do.)

#6 (YAHS) Smokey mountain mornings in Rabun Gap, when you wake up and it’s cold enough for a sweatshirt, but you know that by 11:00 a.m. it’s going to be 90 degrees.

#5 (NMF) Playing “Raga” on two chamber music concerts with my student Allison Janney.

#4 (YAHS) Late nights on the porch of Jane Dormitory with my faculty and staff colleagues.

#3 (Summerfest) Playing in Field Hall at the Curtis Institute of Music. So much history in this building! (Update: Check out our review!)

#2 (YAHS) That moment when we get all the harps on the stage at Rearden Theater. So magical!

#1 (All) Working with amazingly talented students, faculty (especially my colleague Susan Bennett Brady!), and staff at each festival who love what they do. I couldn’t ask for more.