Camac Blog
Home at Last: Sophia Whitson and the Symphoniker Hamburg.
News
September 25, 2024
When you work in the world of orchestral music as a freelancer, ‘home’ is an interesting concept. After all, you have to make your home in whichever orchestra needs your artistry. This concept of making one’s home in changing surroundings runs through my conversation with Sophia Whitson, who has an enviable career freelancing with all the finest orchestras in Germany, and is first call harpist for the Symphoniker Hamburg.
Sophia prepares for this harp’s inaugural concert under maestro Cambreling, with soloist Marta Argerich
Born in Basel to an American violist father (“So this is why I have my Whitson name!”) and a German violinist mother, Sophia was immersed from her infancy in the sounds of strings and bilingual household. You may be forgiven for thinking she’d want to learn the violin, like her parents? “Actually it’s my mother’s fault, kind of, why I choose the harp.” She laughs
Her mother had developed a fondness for the harp during her student days in Vienna, but after a stint playing at the opera festival in Verona, the die was cast: “they had six harps in the orchestra. And so she was sitting right next to these six harps… she was completely fascinated by this instrument and decided to spend her first earnings on a harp!”
Growing up in Ulm, in a musical household with easy access to a harp, the lure of the instrument was irresistible for young Sophia: “I tried to get sounds out of the harp, just to play on it…really until my fingers bled. I was crazy about the sound. So my mom said “okay, you you can learn.” ‘
Despite some initial scepticism from her mother’s harpist colleague from the Theatre in Ulm, six-year-old Sophia was completely determined: “I had a Camac Lever harp at home for practising but for my lessons I played on the golden Obermayer from the theatre. So I had to sit on five pillows with a little bench for my feet.”
Studies in Berlin with Maria Graf followed, during which time Sophia decided to take a year off and dive headlong into the world of work:“I had my first contract at a theatre in northern Germany when I was 21. It was maternity cover in Schwerin, about one hour from Hamburg.”
It was after completing the contract and subsequently finishing her bachelor’s degree, Sophia got a portentous call to work with the Symphoniker Hamburg: “And it became a very good working partnership. I took the train journey from Berlin to Hamburg three to five times a week.”
The Symfoniker Hamburg at home in the the Laeiszhalle.
Sophia was getting ready to take up her Masters in Munich when a friend called and said: “I’m looking for a new roommate in Hamburg and you work here all the time. So maybe you want to live in Hamburg?”
With the full support of professor Cristina Bianchi, Sophia remained in Hamburg to undertake her work with the Symphoniker, while commuting to Munich for school. Work followed in the Hamburg State Opera, the Hamburger Philharmoniker and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. This was in addition to her regular freelance commitments with orchestras in the South of Germany, including the Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio and the Bamberger Symphoniker (with whom she is also first-call).
For many, the key to success in the world of freelance work is about following one’s instincts, and having courage in that conviction. For Sophia, the desire to be in Hamburg had taken root many years before: “I was playing with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, in 2007. The first concert was in Hamburg at the Laeiszhalle.[…] And the hall is so magical, so pretty. And in this moment, I could not know that it would come to be like a second home for me today; this is the place where I spend most of my working time.”
“The hall is so magical, so pretty”… The orchestra’s new Art nouveau harp, in its new home in the Laeiszhalle.
This autumn, during renovations of the Laeiszhalle, the orchestra will travel to Berlin to give concerts in the iconic Berlin Philharmonie. For Sophia, this will be extra special: “The Orchestra’s new Camac Art Nouveau is travelling to the concert hall with me. I’m very happy to share the stage with this wonderful harp.”
In recent years, Camac has been honoured to provide harps to a number of major European orchestras, not least in Germany, something which caught Sophie’s attention: “I have been working with around 50 different orchestras in Germany. So, I’m quite well connected and I know what’s going on in Leipzig or in Cologne or in Frankfurt; it was interesting to see the rise of Camac.”
While travelling for a project with the Luxembourg philharmonic, Sophia took the opportunity to visit our Paris showroom (having given plenty of notice!) with a view to finding a new instrument for the orchestra.
Warming up!
“This was really good because Eric Piron organized a variety [of harps], when I visited the store in March it was like entering heaven!”
There was one touch in particular that impressed Sophia: “all the harps were tuned before I arrived. It was really nice to have this service, just as a little side note!”
After trying a number of our finest concert grands, Sophia settled on a stunning Art Nouveau in black and gold; the only harp of its kind that we have made. “I just started tuning and it was like, this is my instrument […] Eric was very proud that he could offer me a very special harp in black.”
Of course, it was now on Sophia to convince the management to procure the harp for the orchestra (!) In England, we say that the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so Camac arranged for her to have the use of this harp for a performance of Ravel’s piano concerto in G in the Laeiszhalle with none other than Martha Argerich as soloist.
The Art Nouveau won the acclaim of musicians, management, Principal Conductor Sylvain Cambreling and sound engineers alike:
“She [the engineer asked] Do you have a new harp? The sound is so round, well balanced and brilliant at the same time, she was really impressed.”
The harp will also regularly be played at the Elbphilharmonie and also the Hamburg State Opera
Apart from our pride in providing such an instrument to the Symphoniker Hamburg, we are also delighted that Sophia felt so cared for by us as a company:
“The Camac service is so professional and supportive and Eric welcomed me into the Camac family.
As wrote in my email to you, playing the Art Nouveau is like coming home.”
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