Interview with Cécile MELLARDI – Part 1
Hello Cécile MELLARDI.
You are a harpist. Today you also work in a nursery in the Ile de France region.
Can you tell us about your career and the reasons behind it?
It’s been quite a long road to get to this nursery! I started playing the harp at the age of 9, and I was lucky enough to go to a primary school with a special timetable for music: there was school in the mornings and music in the afternoons. Then at collège and lycée, in the evenings after school I continued my studies at the conservatoire. I really enjoyed that period of my life.
After the baccalauréat, I had to decide what I wanted to do. I wanted to become a harpist and teach the harp, but this choice was conditional on passing some very difficult competitions. At the time, there were very few courses available and you had to enter one of the two “Conservatoires Nationaux Supérieurs de Musique et de Danse”, one in Paris and the other in Lyon. Selection was – and still is – drastic, with very few places available. While studying psychology and working, at the age of 22 I won a place at the CNSM in Lyon.
This training paved the way for my career as a harpist: concerts in chamber music, with choirs, substitutions in orchestras and various teaching posts in music schools and conservatoires. Then, in order to balance my family and professional life as well as possible, I decided to take up a permanent post teaching the harp at a conservatoire, while still having the pleasure of playing in a few concerts.
During my studies, I had enormous difficulty managing my stage fright and overcoming it. I could also see this in my pupils. It didn’t seem right to me to interfere with the pleasure of playing with such tension. So I decided to supplement my skills with training in relaxation and stage fright management, which enabled me to be more aware and to provide my students with greater emotional comfort.
What’s more, I’ve always been sensitive to the reaction of listeners after concerts, but also of parents after their children’s performances, who often say: “How beautiful the harp is!”, “How soothing, how harmonious and graceful, how dreamlike…”.
You’ve read the book “Le Pansement Schubert”, published by Denoël. Why did this book make an impression on you, and what can you share about what was important to you in reading it?
It gradually dawned on me that I played a special, fascinating instrument with a sweet, harmonious sound whose effects were immediately felt by listeners. Performing regularly for more remote audiences, I went on to gain experience in a variety of places: nursery and primary schools in priority networks, media libraries, parent-child centres, hospitals, and finally … the nursery!
I read this book with a great deal of emotion… I was touched from the very first pages.
Claire Oppert, a cellist, recounts her experiences in a hospital for autistic people and in a palliative care unit for elderly people. She titled the book “Le pansement Schubert” (“The Schubert bandage”) because she and the nursing staff at one hospital realised that a patient found it easier to change her bandage (which was very painful for her) when she heard an excerpt from a Schubert trio. It had a soothing effect not only on the woman, but also on the carers who looked after her. With the right words, she shares with us little moments of life in these establishments in which, through music, each person allowed their heart to be touched… connecting them in truth and simplicity in an intimate way to themselves and their emotions. In fact, her aim was not to heal, but simply to play and offer music, to provide a privileged moment of encounter and sharing. As she says, she is a musician and part of the care team.
It clearly struck me that music has the power to heal and soothe.
How would you describe the role of music in general and, more specifically, for the people you played for?
Music is a universal language that everyone can understand. It touches our minds, our bodies and our hearts. The sequence of sounds and silences resonates with our being and often gives us pleasure. It’s a pleasure that comes from the vibration of the sounds, this wave that touches us (whether we’re conscious of it or not…) both physically and emotionally. Melodies or musical atmospheres tell a story… They can activate our imagination, allow us to escape, to dream, they can influence our emotions and allow us to let go. Music sometimes expresses what words cannot. Musical expression doesn’t have to pass through the intellect to be “understood” or appreciated. It is a living language that is transmitted directly from heart to heart. It seems to me that playing or hearing harmonious music allows us to welcome more harmony within ourselves. It’s as if music puts us back in order, reharmonising our “inner being”. For example, when we’re stressed, relaxing music helps us to unwind. Conversely, stressful or disharmonious music can cause tension and disorder. I think that what is true for the listener is also true for the performer, who is responsible for creating the best possible music. The musician can be compared to the actor who interprets a tirade and captivates the listener by sublimating the text: he goes beyond mere words and allows the audience to access the author’s emotion. Like a well-rehearsed speech that reaches out to the audience, the music is also constructed with phrases, intentions, breaths… it’s a living speech that leaves the listener speechless. The performer is the extension of his instrument, the sounding board… He really plays with the timbre of the instrument… And that has an effect on the listener. In general, the public admits that listening to a concert in a concert hall does not have the same impact as listening to a CD. The sound immersion with the instrumentalists envelops them completely, thanks to the direct vibration of the instruments, unlike a recording. It’s not difficult to prove with scientific studies that sound (sound waves) has a real impact on living beings. Then there’s the musician’s interpretation of the moment… What emotion flows through him when he plays? What energy does he share when he plays? It’s invisible, but … it’s very real! We are living beings capable of feeling and sharing emotions. Sometimes it’s hard to express them, to put them into words, or even just to take the time to experience them. A concert is a special time to sit back, listen and let things happen.
One day, I had the opportunity to go and play as a trio in hospital wards, at the bedside of seriously ill patients. I thought it was wonderful to be able to offer them a little moment of music at the foot of their beds. They were very receptive, and moved, because the music touched them despite their pain and extreme tiredness. It did them good and gave them pleasure… life! They were incredibly grateful.
At the end of the afternoon, we also played for the carers. They told us that it gave them new energy for the end of the day, it gave them a moment to relax and recharge their batteries, and they appreciated being looked after.
I’ve also had other experiences in schools in disadvantaged areas. I would give a presentation on the harp, followed by a short concert. I was often greeted like a ‘star’ by the many children, who had ‘stars in their eyes’ when they saw and heard the instrument. Often interested, eager to ask questions and eager to try out the harp, they were very attentive, listening to the music. It was impressive to see them concentrated (and not scattered), all receptive and available to the present moment that was being offered to them. And during the exchanges with me, they adapted their vocabulary more finely to the musical questions and that stimulated their language. The group was united and attentive to the same event, and some of them shared their musical experiences within their families… Some of them saw themselves as future musicians…
Then I had the opportunity to go to this nursery, where the experience is even different because the age range is 0 to 3 years. And I was very impressed to see how receptive the toddlers were.
To read the 2nd part of this interview, click here