Bridget Kibbey

Bridget Kibbey

When Bridget Kibbey was nine years old, her family switched to a new church in Ohio where she heard the harp for the first time. She was mesmerized by the look and sound of the instrument, so her parents suggested that she take a few lessons. Luckily for young Bridget, the Kibbeys didn't stop to ponder the practicalities of their daughter's choice of instrument.

Today, the entrepreneurial 28-year-old Juilliard graduate, now based in New York City and on the Astral Artists roster, has a Rolodex of harp-haulers to call upon to assist her in her packed performance schedule.

Kibbey recently self-released her debut album, Love is Come Again, a compilation of works for solo harp spanning the past century. 'I desire a certain clarity of color and ideas in my playing now, having been so minutely involved in this recording,' she says, pouring milk into her decaf coffee at Le Pain Quotidien on Manhattan's Upper West Side, where we meet on a rainy Friday morning in mid-August. 'No product is ever a finished product - we're always honing our craft and can always have higher goals. But there's something about working towards a certain perfection while being organic that was so satisfying to me. It's brought me a higher standard in my playing but also a higher level of enjoyment.'

'I desire a certain clarity of color and ideas in my playing now, having been so minutely involved in this recording'

It's an enjoyment that's shared by her audiences. One New York Times critic recently wrote that it seemed 'as though her instrument had been waiting all its life to explode with the gorgeous colors and energetic figures she was getting from it'. And these colors can be heard throughout the five virtuosic works on Love is Come Again: André Caplet's two Divertissements; Germaine Tailleferre's Sonata for Harp; Benjamin Britten's Suite for Harp, Op 83; Elliot Carter's Bariolage; and Kati Agócs' Every Lover is a Warrior.

Each of these pieces, as Kibbey offers in her liner notes, 'celebrates composers and the harpists who […] have redefined the role, colors and technique of the harp'. The sonata by Tailleferre, for example, was inspired by the composer's exposure to Caroline Tardieu, a harp professor at the Paris Conservatoire. Britten's suite, meanwhile, was inspired by the Welsh harpist Osian Ellis, former principal harpist with the London Symphony Orchestra. Carter's Bariolage was written for harpist Ursula Holliger as part of his Trilogy for Oboe and Harp, and Kibbey herself played a direct role in inspiring the piece by young Canadian composer Kati Agócs.

One reason Kibbey finds this album so satisfying is that it conveys the live energy of her playing. She attributes this largely to the prowess of her Grammy-winning engineer Adam Abeshouse (who she admiringly refers to as 'a rock star'). Recording in an auditorium especially suitable for the harp at SUNY Purchase, about an hour north of New York City, Abeshouse was able to capture the natural resonance and clarity of the harp, which - especially on fast and virtuosic pieces - is a tall order.

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