Susann McDonald: A Legacy of Connection - PHH 222

Every time you play the harp and take joy in it, take pride in it even, maybe it's just practicing and you feel like, okay, I'm working hard at something that is adding harp happiness to the universe, to the world, and to you. That is part of your legacy. So don't discount that. Welcome to the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast. Hi, I'm Ann Sullivan, a harpist on a mission to empower every harpist to experience more harp happiness. Over my decades long harp journey, I've had lots of successes and more than a few failures. And I know firsthand what it's like to feel that playing the harp the way you want may not be possible for you. Now, I play and teach all over the world and I know what most harpists are never taught. The secrets to gaining the skills and confidence you need to play the harp with beau, freedom and joy. That's what the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast is all about. Showing you simple steps to help you play the music you want the way you want. If you're an experienced harpist looking for that next level, or a harp newbie anxious to avoid the pitfalls, or a harpist who just wants more fulfillment and a little encouragement, you're in the right place, my friend. So let's get started. First, I want to let you in on something special. I think the most important thing you can do for your harp playing is to develop the habits that lead to success. Whatever that looks like for you. All of us want to learn how to play the harp beautifully, how to play with confidence and enjoy making music. And if you really want to learn those things, videos are great. But live learning is essential. You need to be able to ask questions and get answers. You can't do that with just a video, which is what makes the My Harp Mastery community so special. My Harp Mastery membership is for those who really want an online experience that lets them learn at their own pace and learn what they want and be able to learn live from expert coaches every single week. Plus, you get to connect with other harpists in the community who have the same desires for their playing. This is not only a powerful learning platform, but it's also the most generous community of harpists anywhere on the planet. They're harpists with a positive outlook, a growth mindset, and a spirit of support for their fellow harpists on the journey with them. We're ready for you. Join us just go to harpmastery.comjoin-now that's harpmastery.com join now. Welcome to the show. There's a moment sometimes Only after someone is gone, when we finally see the full measure of their influence. We may have known they mattered, but loss has a way of sharpening our perspective, of showing us just how much they shaped our world. Some people use the word legendary a little too easily, but for harpist Suzanne MacDonald, it's no exaggeration. Suzanne MacDonald, who passed away this past May at the age of 90, left an indelible mark on the harp world. She was an acclaimed performer, a respected author, an extraordinary teacher, and a passionate advocate for our instrument. She co founded the World Harp Congress and nurtured a global community of harpists uniting people across continents through her music. But her story is more than a list of titles and accomplishments. It's about the way she created a sense of belonging for every harpist. No matter your style or skill level. Whether you play in concert halls or in your living room, her influence has touched you. And today we'll celebrate that. Her life, her music, her lasting legacy. And we'll consider what it asks of us as harpists. Now this isn't just a biographical podcast, though. I want to explore the idea of Legacy, of the connections we have to our harpist forebears that empower and guide our playing every day. Legacy isn't just about what's left to us. It's our springboard to the future. As I was preparing for this episode, I found myself thinking a lot about teachers. Obviously, the influence my teachers have had on me and the influence I hope I'm able to have on my own students. That got me remembering something I had created a while back. I dimly recalled some teacher support materials. So I went digging through my files and sure enough I discovered a video course I had put together specifically for teachers. It's actually a four part video video series all about becoming a better teacher, how to serve yourself as well as your students, how to think about your own teaching, and how to make it more rewarding. It isn't a how to course exactly, but it does touch on some of the challenges and frustrations that come with teaching and how to approach them in a new way. I had originally offered this series for free and I thought, well, what a great time to re offer it now. So I've updated it a little and republished it and of course it's still free. So if you're on my email list, you'll be getting a link to that series very soon. And if you'd like to check it out right away, I've also put the link in the show notes. Of course, this is also the perfect moment to remind you that our teacher retreat is coming up at the beginning of October. I'm really excited about this one. It's going to be a chance to step away, reflect and explore your teaching in a supportive and collaborative environment. Yes, we'll have workshops, but but I'm really most looking forward to the Mastermind style conversations with colleagues, sharing ideas, and having the opportunity to connect deeply with each other. So if you're a harp teacher, I think you'll find those few days in Florida to be truly worth your while. And the link for the retreat, of course, is also in the show notes. So yes, today's episode has a strong focus on teachers. But don't worry if you're not a teacher, I think you'll still find plenty of inspiration here. Honestly, you're even just doing the research for this podcast was inspiring for me and I can't wait to share it all with you. So with that, why don't we get started? I realize that depending on your own harp journey, the name Suzanne McDonald may not mean much to you. Possibly it's just a name that you know from her beginning harp piece. It's a classic, moonlight, and that comes from the Graded Harp Solos Collection, Volume 1. That whole series was one that she co wrote with Linda Wood Rollo. Or maybe you've worked your way through some of the Harp Olympics books. Or maybe you know her method book called Harp for Today. Maybe you've run across her recordings on YouTube and wondered who was this harpist whose performances seem so natural and so, dare I say I never use this word, but so perfect? Well, however you know the name Suzanne MacDonald, or even if you've never heard it before, it might be a good idea to start with some simple biographical facts, just to give you some context. Even the basic facts of her story are remarkable. She began playing the harp as a child, and one of the early stories about her says that when she was in grade school, she wore white gloves to class, and when a teacher asked her to take them off, her reply was simple and determined. Well, I have to take care of my hands. I'm going to be a harpist. And while many Midwestern girls her age in the 1950s were living more ordinary lives, Suzanne MacDonald, an Illinois native, set her sights far higher. At just 18, she traveled to Paris to study at the Paris Conservatory with harp legends Lilly Laskine and Henriette Regnier. She went on to become the first American ever to win the conservatory's premier Prix First Prize for harp. As if that weren't enough when she returned to the United States having completed her studies, she launched her performing career with an astonishing feat, three back to back solo recitals at Carnegie Hall. That supersonic beginning quickly established her as one of the harp world's rising stars, but performing was only a part of her story. In 1981 she co founded the World Harp Congress, an organization that continues to bring harpists from across the globe together. It was her personal friendships and international connections that made that possible. Her vision was to create a non competitive, non judgmental space where harpists could collaborate, support one another and build a community strong enough to nurture future generations. Generations of harpists. That same year she joined the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University where she built the harp department into the largest of its kind in the country. These are enormous achievements, but they only begin to scratch the surface. In fact, it may be that the most meaningful parts of her legacy aren't the headline making accomplishments, although those are pretty powerful. But that could be the quieter, lasting impact she had on her students and the harp community at large that are the real core of her legacy. I should be clear. I never actually met Suzanne MacDonald. I did see her at a distance a few times at Harp Society events, but I was never in the right situation to simply walk up and introduce myself and I feel the loss of that opportunity. So my understanding of Suzanne MacDonald is entirely secondhand, drawn from the accounts I've read, the students I've spoken with, the recordings I've heard, and the publications that she left behind. In that sense, my experience of her may be much like yours, but even so, there is so much that we can learn and that's what I want to share with you today. I'd also encourage you to do some of your own reading and exploration. There are wonderful reminiscences and articles about Suzanne MacDonald in a recent issue of Harp Column magazine. If you're not already a subscriber, you really should be. But in particular, I hope you'll check out that issue. It's filled with moving personal remembrances from her students and colleagues and their stories bring her to life in a way that only first hand experience can. I will leave those who knew her best to tell those stories. So as someone who only knew her from a distance, I have to be content with sharing my reflections on the remarkable legacy she left left behind, and more importantly on how that legacy continues to inspire us as harpists. Whether we studied with her, only knew her by reputation, or are just becoming acquainted with her work, her influence continues to bring us together. And we can use it to fuel our daily practice and to spark a vision for the future of the harp and for all of us who play it. In fact, I think we can look at her legacy and indeed the legacy of any of our harp teachers through those three connection, inspiration and vision. A legacy itself can be many things. It could be an actual gift, it could be a memory, it could just be a trail of breadcrumbs that someone leaves along their path. Sometimes it's very tangible and concrete, like co founding the World Harp Congress. Sometimes it's less well defined, an energy, a spirit, a touch. Suzanne MacDonald's more personal legacy was, I think, marked by generosity, creating connections in the harp world, helping a student find their path, even when the path wasn't the same as hers. It's a legacy of accomplishment and influence. Now it's in itself. That kind of legacy can change, right, because the outlook of future generations could show the relevance of something that wasn't credited at the time. But that powerful legacy of personality, of touch, of connection, what a person was really like, that's the one that tends to live on through the people that they touch. Now, as teachers, that's what we strive for. Being able to share ourselves, our sense of purpose, our energy, helping our students bring their own dreams to reality. But as the benefactors of someone's legacy, I think we experience that in three ways. I think we experience their legacy as a connection to the past and that inspiration in the present and a vision for the future. Those are the ways that we connect with someone's legacy. Legacy. Let's start with a look at how someone's legacy helps connect us to the past. There's the obvious way, of course, where they studied with certain people. And so in terms of a harp teacher like Suzanne MacDonald, she studied with Henriette Rainier. Wow. Rainier is one of those names we think of as a legend, and we think of her as a long ago legend, although it wasn't really all that long ago. But when you look at a piece like Contes de Noel, for instance, which is one of the pieces by Henriette Reynier that many of us have learned as students or at some point in our harp journey, and you think, wow, I'm connected to somebody who knew her, who studied with her, who had a personal connection to her, that helps you relate to the piece in an entirely different way. I remember the first time I saw a harp family tree. Maybe you've seen this, or maybe your teacher has shown you something like this or just even talked about it and, you know, it's simply a family tree of harp teachers and students. And for me, I was remembering that my teacher studied with Carlos Salzedo. So there's a big name. Carlos Salzado studied with Alphonse Hasselman. Oh, there's a big name. And you can go back from there. And there's that interesting sort of straightening of the shoulders just that happens when you think, wow, this is part of who I am, harp wise. I have the lessons that we'll start with Hasselmann. I have the lessons that Hasselmann taught Salzedo and the lessons that Salzedo took and the way he changed them and the lessons that he taught my teacher, and those are the lessons that. That she taught me. You think, wow, it impresses you, right? With that sense of being part of something that's bigger than just you, There's a little bit of a sense of responsibility as a teacher that goes with that, too. Because the legacy was given to me, and it's mine to pass on. It's not mine to just destroy. Not as a harp teacher, for sure. No matter how I take the ideas that I have, the lessons that I was taught and combine them, whether they were to come out in something totally new, perhaps a new way of looking at the harp the way Salzato's did, or just continuing the tradition that I learned in, that's part of my responsibility to that legacy. Now, I think as a harp student, we don't need to feel the weight of the responsibility. We just need to feel the energy that comes from the fact that there's always all this harp learning and performing and teaching that is part of what we are experiencing every day we sit down at the harp. Now, does that make you feel differently about your practice today? I mean, it's just pretty cool. Guess what? You get to play the harp. And if you think, I don't have any harp family tree, well, take mine. You're listening to me today. And my roots go back to Hasselmann and before all of Hasselman's teachers. And you can do all that research. You can find harp family trees online, and it's really, really fun. So you get to connect with all those people just because you're listening to me. Or maybe you have a harp teacher who has a completely different lineage. Now you get to be connected to the harp family tree in two different ways. That's pretty cool, too. So that sense of connection to the past can be very empowering and very affirming. And as I said, it Just makes you sit a little straighter in your chair right now. A person's legacy has more power to inspire us in our day to day playing than just by looking at their connection to things in the past. And when it comes to a teacher like Suzanne MacDonald, the inspiration is there even though she is no longer with us. We've got her recordings, we've got her writings, her music, and of course we still have her students to inspire us as well. But there's a richness left to us in the writings of Suzanne MacDonald, particularly the music that she wrote and the teaching materials that she wrote with Linda Wood Rollo. Those graded harp solos, they're a fabulous way to work through the various skills that you need to learn as a harpist. They're wonderful whether you're starting out in grade one at moonlight or moving through those later grades as well as. And her method, Harp for Today is definitely worth a look to get a more complete idea of what she believed was important about harp playing and how to make your harp playing the best that it could be. You may or may not know that Suzanne MacDonald was a devoutly religious Christian, very strong faith, and in fact wrote a couple of devotional books, including one which was a year's worth, 365 daily devotionals with scripture in prayer called Praise the Lord with the Harp. If this sounds like something that might inspire you, this is another way in which you can help contribute to the continuation of her legacy and of course derive a lot of inspiration in your life right now. But no legacy is complete without a vision for the future. And I think one of the central visions of the future that Suzanne MacDonald had in mind was just this big global international harp community that was based on support and on collaboration. And the World Harp Congress was the beginning of the fulfillment of that vision. And an exciting thing that is moving that vision forward is happening next summer in Toronto. There is the One Harp World event, which is a joint event between the American Harp Society and the World Harp Congress. It's going to be a fabulous event event. It's going to be one of those events that you won't want to miss. To have that global harp community coming together to express all the love for the harp in this unified way. It's going to be. It's going to be a global expression of harp happiness. How's that again? That's the One Harp World event coming to Toronto next summer. Finally, I want to take a couple of moments and have you consider your harp legacy. I know you might not think that you're going to leave one, you say, well, I just, you know, I just play in my living room or I just play at church or I go to the nursing home, and I'm not, you know, I'm not a superstar. I don't play big concert repertoire. I play folk music. How am I going to leave a legend? Well, you know, take a look at o'. Carolyn. He left a lot of legend just playing folk music, Right? That's not the point. The point is much more like what I say at the end of the podcast every week. And I know you listen to it, but maybe, like I do sometimes, you don't always pay a ton of attention to it, but your legacy is a measure of harp happiness, whatever that measure happens to be for you. And every time you play the harp and take joy in it, take pride in it even, maybe it's just practicing and you feel like, okay, I'm working hard at something that is adding harp happiness to the universe, to the world, and to you, that is part of your legacy. So don't discount that. That's important. You don't know what that ripple effect is when it comes to your own heart playing. None of us ever knows exactly who our music has touched and how it has touched them. We don't know what kind of effect we've had. We just put our music out there in the world. Whether you're putting it out there on Facebook or Spotify or YouTube, or you're just putting it out there by opening the window when you practice, you don't know what effect that has, but it can only be a good one. Harp music soothes the world. I truly believe that harp music has the power to make life better. Not just because I enjoy playing it, but because I think it adds to the richness and the beauty of the world. Now, that's not why I play, but it's part of why I work so hard at what I do. Because I know I can have an effect. And I know that you can have an effect, that you can have a legacy, too. When you take your harp and you play at the senior center, people may tell you that they've really enjoyed your music and that it's meant a lot to them. But there are other people, too, who don't take the time to tell you about the fact that you played a song that was especially meaningful to them or that they walked away from this performance encouraged, refreshed, renewed, with a new relaxation, a different spirit. You don't know the ways in which your music affects other people. And that doesn't mean that you have to be the best harpist in the world. You just have to love what you do. And it helps to love sharing what you do. Our sharing is how we put that Harp happiness the World. If you'd like to learn more about Suzanne MacDonald and her amazing journey in harp happiness, you can check out the articles and reminiscences in Harp Column magazine. It's a wonderful source and you'll hear directly from students of hers and their reminiscences are so powerful. So I would urge you to check that out once again. I'll remind you about One Harp World in Toronto in summer of 2026. It's going to be a great and it certainly is part of her legacy. And finally, of course, I'm encouraging you again to work on your own harp legacy and remember that what you do matters. Okay, next week on the podcast, something a little bit more practical, we're going to do a review of some of your potential harp blind spots. Where are you encountering difficulties in your harp playing and how can we surmount those difficulties? So we'll be looking at some potential blind spots to progress and how to eliminate those blind spots. That is next week on the podcast, another reminder for all you harp teachers, there we have our brand new free. Well, brand new Recycled Free four video series that is geared toward helping you become a better teacher. So this is something that might impact your legacy. You can use the link in the show notes to check that out or you can watch your email. We'll be sending that link via email as well. So that's coming up. And of course, there's our teacher's harp retreat. So two resources for teachers. And if you're one of them, you might want to consider this as an investment in your legacy. Right. Okay. And now I'll bet you know what I'm going to say, and it is this. Remember that every day is a day you can add more harp happiness to the universe, to your world, and to your spirit. And all you have to do is play. Thanks so much for listening and I'll see you next time. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast. I release a new episode every Monday morning so you can hit your practice week running. Until then, remember to practice your harp happiness every day. See you next time. There.