Harpist and Instructor, 93, Known for Her Pluck

Lucile Lawrence shows no signs of slowing down as her nimble fingers pluck the strings of the harp, filling the air with the angelic sounds of the instrument she’s played since age 6.

At age 93, she still has music to teach and to play.

Even if that means hopping a bus near her home in River Edge, N.J., and making the four-hour, 200-mile trip to her students at Boston University, where she has been on the faculty of the School for the Arts for the past 36 years. Lawrence also makes time to teach at the Manhattan School of Music.

“There’s a lot of technical work and understanding. It’s the most difficult instrument, except the pipe organ,” Lawrence said. “Any instrument, you have to work at. Too often, students first learn to play notes. They just throw a few together and play a tune.”

Petite and perky, Lawrence is dwarfed by her harp, which weighs nearly 80 pounds. Her sound, however, is anything but diminutive, a product of her years of study and her marriage to renowned harpist Carlos Salzedo, her mentor and teacher, who founded the harp department at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Lawrence met Salzedo, 22 years her senior, when she was just 6. By 18, she was touring as a virtuoso for concerts in Australia and New Zealand. They married when she was 21 and divorced eight years later.

She has been credited with helping refine the harp technique developed by her former husband--and continues to this day. She has performed with chamber groups including Pro Musica of New York, the Salzedo Harp Ensemble and the Schola Cantorum. Her music has been recorded on the Columbia and Mercury labels.

Lawrence’s versions of key harp pieces are used by harpists throughout the world.

During a recent class, the white-haired woman with bright blue eyes gently corrects the arm and finger position of student Liza Filippova, a master’s student from Moscow.

“Listening is most important to the sound quality of the things that are played,” Filippova said. “She helped me correct some of the technical problems.”

Colleagues and former students recently held a musical tribute to Lawrence. Elizabeth Morse, a 1976 graduate who began studying with Lawrence in junior high school, said she continues to learn something each time they speak.

“She always has a gem that she passes on, and so I’ve continued to grow as a musician and as a harpist,” said Morse, who plays principal harp with the Rhode Island Philharmonic and who organized the celebration.

For her pupils to truly hone their musical skills, Lawrence advises that they not only play but listen to as much classical music as possible.

“Music is something you live with. It’s not a mechanical thing,” Lawrence said.

In Lawrence’s honor, the Chicago-based harp manufacturer Lyon & Healy built a harp modeled after a design fashioned by Salzedo. The harp was being donated to Boston University in Lawrence’s honor, the school said.

“She is tireless,” said Morse. “Even when she’s deathly ill, she’ll come and teach, and she has the highest standards and is not compromising.”