The harp is anchored by a carved wooden pillar that is more than four feet tall, sometimes topped with an ornate decorative crown. At the bottom is a soundboard, and at the top is a harmonically curved neck. In between are dozens of strings with a range spanning six and a half octaves. It's celestial, elegant, and incredibly delicate-harps are notoriously finicky about temperature and upkeep-making the instrument complex not only to play but also to maintain.
During the early days of pandemic lockdown, while some of us were hoarding plants or feeding sourdough starters, 28-year-old Canadian actor Taylor Russell took up the harp. "I wanted to play it for a very long time," she explains. "I was like, 'What's the one instrument that none of my neighbors are going to hate hearing?'" Russell was living in New York at the time, and everyone was stuck indoors. "It's the harp. It could never be annoying. It's such a beautiful, calming thing," she says. Russell signed up for virtual lessons and rented a harp. (The first song she learned to play was "Creep" by Radiohead.) Three years later, her enthusiasm and commitment have not dimmed. She's just finished Mother Couch!, a dark comedy in which she costars alongside Ellen Burstyn and Ewan McGregor, and she is buying one as a wrap gift to herself. "You can't leave a harp at home and travel. You have to really take care of it and tend to it daily because the strings break and it can't be in a certain temperature," she says. "It's so sensitive."
This story is from the February 2023 edition of Harper's BAZAAR - US.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the February 2023 edition of Harper's BAZAAR - US.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
The Epic VISION of BARBARA CHASE-RIBOUD
With a MONUMENTAL new EXHIBITION in Paris, the Americanborn ARTIST looks back on a CREATIVE LIFE spent thinking BIG
She's a FREE SPIRIT and an OLD SOUL, a Disney Legend and a Grammy winner.ONE THING MILEY CYRUS is NOT INTERESTED in? Being PREDICTABLE.
Miley Cyrus is sitting in front of the stone-walled fireplace in her house in Los Angeles, holding up two coffee-table books.
Routine HABIT
How executive editor LEAH CHERNIKOFF found a SKINCARE REGIMEN she could finally COMMIT to
LIFE of the PARTY
Dance the night away with looks inspired by PARTY MAKEUP of the PAST. Grab BLACK EYELINER and lots of GLITTER, but leave perfection at the door. Here, how to re-create the coolest EYES, LIPS, and FACE for any FESTIVE OCCASION.
RETAIL Therapy
SHOPPING TODAY often feels more like mindless SCROLLING than BUYING something because it makes you feel SPECIAL. One writer discovers the beauty of a more PERSONAL, CUSTOMIZED EXPERIENCE.
CREATIVE Powers
In this edition, our columnist, DEREK C. BLASBERG, visits the PARIS STUDIO of the inimitable artist SETSUKO KLOSSOWSKA DE ROLA, who was married to one of the most celebrated painters of the 20TH CENTURY and has always approached LIVING her LIFE as if she were CRAFTING a MASTERPIECE
BIRTH Story
NEW MOTHERHOOD is often depicted as a BEATIFIC and BLISSEDOUT EXPERIENCE. Writer SARAH HOOVER'S JOURNEY couldn't have been further from it. In her new MEMOIR, she offers an unflinching LOOK at her STRUGGLE with severe POSTPARTUM DEPRESSIONand how she EMERGED from it.
What WORDS Are FOR
We have been LIVING in “UNPRECEDENTED TIMES\" for 25 years. KAITLYN GREENIDGE reflects on what it means to write through a NEW REALITY.
Tipping POINT
When the PROGRESSIVE A-LIST CLIENTELE of the fashionable workout BALLET BEAUTIFUL learned that its FOUNDER was MARRIED to an ARCHITECT of the MAGA BLUEPRINT to impose an ultraconservative social agenda, PROJECT 2025, many felt SHOCKED and even BETRAYED
SABATO's Way
hor GUCCI creative director SABATO DE SARNO, remaking the storied Italian HOUSE for a NEW ERA isnt about OUTRUNNING its PAST. ts about MAKING some HISTORY ofhis OWN.