Harpist Lavinia Meijer has forged a successful yet unconventional career on an instrument that more often demands a set path. In addition to playing the classical canon in major concert halls internationally, she is passionate about expanding her practice to other musical genres, including rock, pop, jazz, and electronica. She has experimented and collaborated with a wide range of composers and musicians, including Iggy Pop, Sufjan Stevens, and Laurie Anderson.
Meijer was born in South Korea but grew up in the Netherlands after she and her brother were adopted as toddlers. She was accepted into the Utrecht Conservatory’s Young Talent program at age 11 and by 14 was performing with orchestras. She went on to earn her master’s degree, with honors, from the Amsterdam Conservatory.
Not long after she graduated, Meijer met a music journalist who admired her playing and connected her with composer and pianist Philip Glass, who eventually invited her to perform with him. Glass became a close friend and mentor and also gave the harpist permission to transcribe and record an entire album of his compositions.
Meijer will be performing in the Studio at Stanford Live on March 15, presenting pieces by Glass, Ólafur Arnalds, and Nils Frahm, along with some of her own compositions and a U.S. premiere by Douglas J. Cuomo. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
When did you begin playing the harp?
When I was 8, I started looking around [for an instrument to learn]. And before I saw the harp, I was thinking maybe it would be the piano, the violin, or the flute. But I had a girlfriend in elementary school who played the harp, and I thought it was a mysterious, beautiful-looking instrument, very delicate. I was also fascinated with the many strings, and the sound to me was the closest to the human voice. So it immediately resonated with me — mesmerized me.
How did you start exploring music beyond the classical repertoire?
I noticed you could do so many things with the harp — not only beautiful Romantic music, which I love to play, but also modern. You can scream and really put a lot of force into it. So when I was 15 years old, I decided my personal goal [would be] to make the harp more well known as a solo instrument to a wider audience, just like the piano, and to guide the harp into the 21st century. I believe that the harp fits pretty much with anything.
Tell me about your relationship with Philip Glass and why you were so attracted to his music.
My most precious, most enriching collaborations [have been] with Philip Glass. When he came to Amsterdam, he invited me to perform with him, and that was for me an amazing moment. He was also very impressed and said to me, ‘I’ve heard this piece played by many artists so many times, but hearing you play it on the harp gives me new insights into my own music.’
The classical music I used to play was like a village with all kinds of different buildings, bridges, details that you had to memorize if you wanted to walk through it. His music is a village where at first, it all looks the same. And then you have to look for the details, and you will see the differences, but they are subtler. On the harp, his music brings out so many colors. Maybe because [his writing is so] transparent and the harp is a really rich-sounding instrument and every tone has so many overtones — like extra colors. When you play his music, those overtones really come to life, and it can sound as if you are playing a whole orchestra.
When did you start composing?
It happened gradually. I never would have thought to call myself a composer, but I started improvising at a certain point, and I was arranging and transcribing the music of Glass, [which is] kind of like composing because you have to take it apart and put it back together.
While improvising, I thought, ‘OK, if I write this down, it might be a song,’ and then I started doing it more regularly, and I was composing quite a lot. The existing harp repertoire is not as extensive [as the repertoire for] the piano or the violin, so being able to add my own compositions feels like the gaps are being filled.
Tell me about the premiere of Douglas J. Cuomo’s new piece on your upcoming concert.
Douglas is the composer of, among many things, the Sex in the City main theme and has continued composing all kinds of classical works. I was introduced to him by our mutual management in the U.S., and he came to see me perform a couple of times. We clicked. Through Glass, I learned more about Buddhism, and I do meditation, and Douglas is also Buddhist, so it was nice to talk to him about it. He told me a really beautiful story about this relatively new ritual in Japan where people who are missing their loved ones who [have died] have made a phone booth, and you can go inside and call your loved one.
Just that image and that vulnerability I thought was pretty, so we talked about him writing a piece. Then I asked myself, ‘If I was in that phone booth, what would be the words I would say?’ The words I wrote are also in the piece — the title is Every Door.
What does playing the harp do for you?
The harp is like a magnet that keeps challenging me and bringing me new ideas. I was shy as a child, but playing the harp, I could transform into a person who was full of all kinds of emotions [that would be difficult to] express [otherwise] at a young age. It was really an extension of my inner world. And for me, [performing] feels like an extra connection to the audience. That’s the magic of live performance.
Why do you think music and the arts are so important?
The arts are such a vulnerable part of society, but even though they’re such a necessity, they’re not often looked at like that. You need to keep feeding them, like a tree. If you don’t give [a tree] water, it will die. And to keep feeding [the arts], we need new music. We need collaborations. I think having examples and inspiring people [to look to] is also really important. Like Glass was for me, I hope that I can be that for the younger generation of artists.
