Interview with Sara Cutler
Interview with Sara Cutler, Local 802 President
NY MetroHarp President Chelsea Lane and Vice President Tomina Parvanova Lyden sat down with harpist and current President of Local 802 Sara Cutler at the Carnegie Diner on February 21, 2024 to find out more about her life and extraordinary career. Among her many accomplishments, Sara Cutler served as Principal Harp with the New York City Ballet Orchestra, the American Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. For the sake of brevity, we have paraphrased Sara Cutler’s answers below; anything in quotations is directly excerpted from our in-person interview.
Where did you go to school? Was it for the harp?
I went to Yale for my undergraduate studies; however, I did not major in Music, but rather in Classics. I was nevertheless very active as a performing harpist during this time as a member of four regional professional orchestras. In fact, the music department, which was going through a process of rebranding, discouraged me from majoring in music because I wouldn’t have time to complete the necessary coursework. They told me that “we frankly don’t think you can be a music major if you don’t eliminate 75% of your performing,” but I decided that I was “more committed to performing than I [was] to the field of music as an academic field.”
Who were some of your biggest musical influences?/teachers?
I began my harp studies at the age of seven with Lucile Lawrence, who became a grandmother-like figure to me. She taught me many lessons, such as how to be supportive and generous with students and how to craft a career as a working professional. Later, as I entered the professional sphere in NYC, I learned a lot from working alongside Susan Jolles at the Metropolitan Opera and Cynthia Otis at the New York City Ballet. Among other things, Cynthia impressed upon me that “if you are gracious all the time, it pays back in so many ways, not the least of which is, you keep working!”
When did you move to NYC?
I moved to NYC immediately following my graduation from Yale College and participation in the Spoleto summer festival. My first apartment cost $250/month, which by today’s standards doesn’t seem like a lot, but which was nevertheless a financial obstacle for me to overcome! I was fortunate that some of my musical connections from freelancing during my student years also settled in NYC around this time, which enabled me to find work more easily.
What was your first paid harp gig in NYC?
Some of my first work in NYC included performing in Broadway pits. My first job on Broadway was subbing for Ray Pool in On the Twentieth Century; later, I worked at Evita and Sweeney Todd.
How long did it take before you began to have regular work as a harpist in NYC?
My first few regular gigs in NYC included playing a flute and harp duo on Thursday nights at Butler Terrace. They offered us $40 and dinner. After living in NYC for around two years, my parents continued to pressure me to pursue professional school (in law or business), but I was earning enough by that time as a harpist that I was motivated to continue trying to craft a career for myself in music. There were a few periods of slower work in my early years living in the city, but eventually I began to gain in confidence that the stream of work would be continuous. As many freelance players know well, when it comes to work, “it’s drought or it’s flood.”
Can you please tell us about some of the main orchestral positions you’ve held over the years?
I’ve subbed in virtually every orchestra in town for many years. In the late 1980s, Lise Nadeau retired from her job as principal harpist of the American Symphony Orchestra, where I had been subbing a fair amount. Leon Botstein, whom I had met early on in his conducting career pre- ASO, invited me to become her replacement in the orchestra. Around the same time, I started subbing with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. In addition, I played with the Metropolitan Opera for fifteen years as a sub and the New York City Ballet for twenty-five years. In summary, the “80s were a good decade to me.”
What has been your worst experience as an orchestral harpist?
In the mid 1980s–1990s, my friend and colleague Judith Arron ran Carnegie Hall; because of this connection, I became the de facto Carnegie Hall harpist. In the early ‘90s, the renowned conductor Georg Solti organized “The Solti Orchestral Project” at Carnegie. This project brought together the principals of the Big Five Orchestras and some younger musicians for two weeks to perform concerts together. As Solti didn’t have a harpist he liked, I was brought in to play Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra alongside Susan Jolles. Those two weeks working with Solti were extremely challenging. During one rehearsal, he called out our harp section in the fourth movement of the Bartók (addressing me as “Madame Harp”) to inform us that “you do not arpeggiate those chords.” We were thrown off-guard by this request, being accustomed to the typical performance practice of rolling these largely-spaced chords. To appease him, Susan Jolles and I agreed to each take one clef of the part. (“It sounded terrible.”)
Who have been your favorite conductors that you’ve worked with?
There are a few conductors I’ve deeply enjoyed working with: Simon Rattle, Iván Fischer, and George Manahan. Rattle was collaborative, gracious and respectful in his approach; he becomes part of the ensemble when he conducts such that he makes you feel as if you are playing chamber music together. Fischer, conductor of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, conducted OSL a few times. He would stand in the middle of the orchestra when conducting rehearsals, which added a layer of sensibility to his approach. Manahan, the music director of City Opera for many years, could conduct anything clearly and would not react poorly if anything went unplanned in performance. “It makes a huge difference when a conductor views you not as an antagonist, but as a colleague.”
As a harp player, what do you wish conductors would know about the harp?
I wish that they would know anything about the harp! But if I had to choose one single thing I wish conductors understood, it would be that the harp is not simply a textural instrument that should be hidden; the harp should be heard clearly in an orchestral setting. Lucile Lawrence would always say to me, “make a conductor ask you to play less.”
What sort of feedback do you find constructive in an orchestral setting?
Specificity is the most helpful feedback. In other words, if I’m doing something wrong, I want conductors to let me know exactly what to fix! What instrument do I need to listen to? Whom do I need to be playing with in this passage? If I am hearing something incorrectly, then please let me know if I am behind or ahead of where I need to be.
What advice would you give to freelance harpists hoping to build a successful performance career?
A freelance harpist should be ready for anything, especially being required to sight-read. One could help build this skill by acquiring a library of used easy to medium piano pieces and starting each practice session by reading down a page at random. Harpists should also possess the ability to smile no matter what’s happened or how terrified or angry they may feel in any given setting. Another piece of advice on the job would be not to ask questions of conductors. Doing so only makes them think that you are insecure in that particular place in the music, and they will then become unsure in that place as well. Better solutions to getting answers to your questions include asking someone sitting near you, checking the score at break, or listening to a recording. Beyond this, there are so many more recommendations I have for harpists. To that end, Laura Sherman and I are working on a book covering all things harp-related!
What advice would you give to harpists preparing to take the NYC Ballet Audition?
Firstly, you should find all the old, out-of-print NYCB recordings and listen to them with a goal of internalizing the tempi of each excerpt. Even tempi from 30 years ago will still be fairly accurate today. It’s amazing to audition committees how few people come in with the right tempi: “the quickest way to eliminate yourself is getting wildly wrong tempi.” Secondly, you should make sure that your excerpts don’t all sound the same. While Stravinsky is all about rhythm, Tchaikovsky is about fluidity and brilliance, and Ravel is about melody, harmony, and billows of sound. You should think about the important elements of each excerpt and bring them out.
How is playing for a ballet company different from other ensemble playing? .
It’s really not different at all from the perspective of the musician. It’s the job of the conductor to coordinate the music with the stage action. Your job is to play the music in the style of the composer. However, the acoustics and size of the concert hall are important: at NYCB, for instance, you need to play loudly and brilliantly in order to fill the 3,000-seat hall.
What do you think conductors and other instrumentalists listen for in a harpist?
I think they listen for the wrong things: perfection, a little bit of blandless, finger noise. Harps are sometimes expected to be seen and not heard, and people are often surprised when they can hear the harp. It’s challenging to deliver exactly what people want to hear, as “we play [an] instrument that demands imperfection. The best you can do is keep going and come out the other [end].”
Can you tell us more about your current role as President of Local 802? What made you interested in getting involved with the musicians’ union?
I have been very fortunate in my career as a harpist. I know many fabulous players, but not everyone achieves from the same successes. I felt like I owed it to my colleagues to give something back to the community. I made my first foray into serving my musical communities by serving on orchestra committees as both a member and chair (NYCB, ASO). I also served as an officer on the executive board of Local 802 for nine years. I was encouraged to take over the role of President by the union’s executive board. I agreed knowing it would be a thankless job! In total, I’ve volunteered over two decades of unpaid work to serving musicians in NYC.
What do you hope to accomplish as President of Local 802?
I hope to start the union on a path to accomplishing some broad, overarching goals. These include figuring out how to position the union for the future, resolving issues surrounding AI and our education thereof, preparing the physical Local 802 building for revitalization, turning the union green, returning a sense of confidence in the union (especially to younger members), and considering all proposals brought to the union. “I’m going to do my best, and that’s going to have to be good enough.”
Dance Theater of Harlem - Rehearsal for the Ginastera Concerto (1995)
Sara Cutler, called “dazzling” by the Washington Post, was Principal Harp with the New York City Ballet Orchestra, the American Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. She has appeared as concerto soloist at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland and the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. In addition to performing the standard concerto repertoire, she has premiered and commissioned many 20th Century concertos, such as the Concerto: Cold, Silent Snow by American composer Elizabeth Larsen and Gian-Carlo Menotti’s Cantilena and Scherzo for harp and string orchestra. In 2012, she premiered Michael Torke’s harp concerto Wild Grass, which was written for her.
For many years, Ms. Cutler collaborated with flutist Linda Chesis in the Chesis/Cutler Duo. The New York Times called their playing, “gorgeously fluid” and the Times of London praised the “sweet touch of sparkle and class that was to pervade” their debut recital at London’s Southbank Centre. Their debuts in Tokyo at the Asahiseimei Hall and in Paris at the Comedie de Champs-Elysees were both sold-out. As a soloist and with Ms. Chesis, Ms. Cutler has performed around the world, appearing in recital in Tokyo, Tel Aviv, London, Paris, and New York. A participant in the Bard Festival in upstate New York since its inception, she appeared there every summer as a soloist and chamber musician. She has also appeared at dozens of other summer festivals including the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Cooperstown Chamber Music Festivals.
Linda Chesis, flute and Sara Cutler, harp (1990)
Among her many recordings are the Concertino for Harp and Chamber Orchstra by Ernö Dohnányi, with the American Symphony Orchestra (Bridge Records); an all Debussy CD with Ms. Chesis, (Masters/Carlton Classics, London); with the Smithsonian Chamber players (BMG Classics); with soprano Jessye Norman (Philips); and, in 2015, including the Britten Ceremony of Carols and Rutter’s Dancing Day, with the Boy’s Choir of St. Thomas Church, NY (Resonus Classics, 10158). This last was chosen Album of the Week upon its release by the Times of London. In 2019 her premiere recording of Jose Serebrier’s harp concerto, Colores Magicos, was released. She can also be heard on many recordings as the harpist with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and the American Symphony Orchestra. She has recorded with many non-classical artists as well, including Pat Metheny, Paul Simon and Bjork.
Onstage at Carnegie Hall with Tori Drake (2nd) for an American Symphony Orchestra concert (2021)
In 2013, Ms. Cutler’s method book, written as an homage to her late teacher, Lucile Lawrence, was published by Lyon and Healy Books. A Yale College graduate, with a degree in Classics, she is on the faculty of the Bard College Conservatory, an editor of the American Harp Journal and is currently President and Executive Director of Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians (NY).
