Zelda!

This past Wednesday I got to perform at the Venetian theater with an orchestra for performance of "Zelda: Legend of the Goddess"' which is basically all the music from the Zelda Nintendo game paired with a huge screen that showed clips from the game. It was awesome. From what I understand, they've been touring with this production, but this night they were also going to be filming it for PBS and making a DVD to go with a new release of Zelda that's coming out for its anniversary. How did I get this very fun gig? Several weeks ago, Jen Rudd, our USC bishop's wife asked me to email another harpist from USC who wanted some harping advice. I emailed her and forgot about it. She responded just a few weeks later with more questions and we emailed back and forth some more. Then, she emailed and said she had given someone my contact info for a Vegas gig that was coming up. So, there you go. These things come about through the strangest channels sometimes.

There were two harp parts. I was Harp I and they asked for help finding another harpist. I gave them three names, but one of my friends called me after they contacted her. Apparently the gig had tried to negotiate with the Musicians Union, but had failed to reach a deal. The Union wanted a cut in on the distribution rights or something since they are filming this. Anyway, my friend had had several union members and fellow musician friends call her and tell her not to play the gig. She's not a member of the Union, but is pretty prolific in the music scene here and didn't want to get blacklisted. Luckily, I'm enough of a nobody that no one knows or cares what I do, ha! They ended up bringing another harpist in from the Palm Springs area four days before the performance. In the end, they flew musicians in from New York and Boston and had some drive in from California. I think I was the only local playing. I was talking to one of the sound engineers (Frank, from Chicago, works for PBS) and he told me that when they did the math it would have been cheaper to fly an entire orchestra over from Italy, pay their airfare and hotels and performance fees, than it was to hire the Las Vegas Philharmonic to play it. Definitely a little drama! If you want a little more juice on the situation, give me a phone call.

They emailed us the music just a week before the concert, but we didn't have any rehearsal until the day of! Actually, the East coast had one rehearsal in NY or Boston, but none for the rest of us. We had a rehearsal from 2-5, which was a basically a full dress rehearsal that PBS was filming too. There was no real rehearsal to work out kinks. I talked with the conductor on my own to go over some tricky parts but that was it! It was nerve wracking because I don't think I've ever played in such a professional setting where every mic is positioned and tested for every instrument. We even had earbuds to put in our ears to hear the click of the metronome. That was amazingly helpful. I've never worked with a click before, but just to be able to hear it really helped me find tempos and key signature changes. When I had to play really rhythmic passages I could concentrate more on my fingers than on the conductor. I still had to watch her, but not as closely and that was so helpful because the sight-lines for the harp and reading music, looking at strings, and following the conductor don't quite fit that well. I can only imagine that if I was used to using the click, that I could have taken more advantage of it. There was a tempo and key change that I was having trouble with, but then realized that not only was the click slowing down, but I could also hear the downbeat change as it went from 3/4 to 6/8 and it was so much more simple! The downbeat had its own signature sound so you could always tell the meter and it was just amazingly helpful.

It was such a fun performance. The audience was so into it and clapped and cheered when certain video game sequences came on or when we started a certain song. Some of them were dressed up like Link. At intermission they gave us a standing ovation. Heading down to the green room, I remarked how fun the audience was and the conductor pointed out that they weren't regular symphony goers. They thought it was over at intermission. It was just refreshing to play for an audience like that. It introduced them to the orchestra scene, but also enlivened it for us with their enthusiasm.

During the dress rehearsal they filmed quite a lot and had camera crews walking on stage getting shots. Whenever I played it felt like one of them would whirl around to try to get a shot. They had the harps separated across the stage, which stunk for us, but looked cooler. Eventually the camera guys set up a little camera on a tripod right in front of me. I asked if that meant I couldn't pick my nose anymore. They said to go ahead and pick and that they would edit it out. Ha! I actually really enjoyed working with all the behind the scenes people. They really work hard to make the show happen and they were all super friendly.

It was such a fun experience. I made a few mistakes, which probably could have been solved with a basic rehearsal and not being totally exhausted from all the earlier rehearsals. but overall I think I did pretty well. As I was leaving the theater, people kept coming up to me and saying how much they loved the show. It was great being a part of something that so many people connected with. Ryan would have loved the show and I wish he could have come, but he was on dad duty.

Looking out at the theater from behind the stage. It was pretty full.

The big cutout at the front of the theater.

The giant screen onstage.

The other harpist's name was Celia and she was such a lovely person to work with. I hope that our paths cross again. She was totally professional and also very friendly. She talked through several passages with me to try to make our parts work better together. She also let me borrow some rubber guitar picks for all the glissandos. We realized that we're fellow Hoosiers and IU alums. She graduated in 1999 and knew my teacher Ela there.