Sylvia McClain Has the Harp in Her Heart

By Sophie Scheps

As a child, nothing seemed more beautiful to Sylvia McClain than the sounds of the harp. Growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, McClain attended Birmingham Symphony concerts several times a year with her school. She took piano lessons, but after her first visit to the symphony, something else caught her eye.

“There was this very beautiful young woman on the edge of the stage who played the harp,” said McClain, who now lives in Lovettsville. “I would zero in on her and watch her for the entire performance.”

That initial love affair with the harp blossomed into a full-blown love affair with an instrument she now teaches at the Community Music School of the Piedmont. 

Because of the size of the harp, McClain had to wait several years until she was 12 before her parents could even consider purchasing the instrument for her. The complicated process to produce a harp takes years.

“You can’t just go to a music store and buy a harp,” she said. “Lyon & Healy is a manufacture in Chicago and my father started corresponding with them. Even new harps were not readily available. They are totally hand-made and we were put on a waiting list for two years.”

A harp was finally sent to their home in Birmingham on a trial basis. After that first touch of the strings, McClain fell in love. Her father contacted the harpist from the symphony to inquire about music lessons.

“She was very strict and tried to talk us out of it because she never had a student work out,” said McClain. “But I was very conscientious and I worked well with her.”

After several years, McClain’s instructor moved to Virginia. The orchestra could not find a permanent replacement harpist for some time. Instead, performers from neighboring states would fill in at their concerts.

“My father would go back stage and ask them if they would give me a lesson,” McClain said of the visiting harpists. “He would pick them up from their hotel and bring them to our house. Nobody ever turned us down.”

One of McClain’s instructors as a teenager was Alice Chalifoux. A world-class harpist, she was a successor to the great Carlos Salzedo who developed much of the modern harp music and the Salzedo method of playing, which McClain subscribes to.

Carlos Salzedo started a summer harpist colony in Camden, Maine in the 1930s. Serious harpists would rent rooms from locals and take lessons twice a week, practicing five to seven hours a day. Salzedo died the year before McClain attended the summer sessions, and that’s where she first met Chalifoux.

“She was one of the most instrumental people in my life,” McClain said. “She was an awesome teacher and a wonderful personality. We had a common bond both being from Birmingham.”

By coincidence, McClain and Chalifoux both ended up in Loudoun County later in life. Chalifoux had retired from teaching at the age of 89 but continued to coach McClain for eight years. She died at the age of 100.

“I was playing with the Loudoun Symphony and she would coach me between performances,” McClain said. “Those years were the greatest gift. My first daughter is named after my mother and Alice.”

McClain performed with the Loudoun Symphony for 12 years. She also played at weddings and other private events and also gave music lessons. After living in the area for a few years, McClain discovered the Community Music School of the Piedmont, based at Trinity Episcopal Church in Upperville.

“One week in the community news section there was a little blurb on the 

caught my attention because I didn’t know many musicians out here.  I emailed the school and asked if they were interested in having a harp teacher. (Executive director) Martha Cotter called me almost immediately and invited me to come see the school and meet a couple of the other teachers.  I soon paid her a visit and left as a new faculty member.”

Sylvia teaches children and adults through CMSP and at her studio in Lovettsville. Each November, her students present an annual recital in the historic school building in Waterford and also perform at recitals held by CMSP. And they obviously have the same love affair with the harp as well.