A Black harpist’s story | Ann Hobson | TEDxBeaconStreet

Ann Hobson Pilot, the former Boston Symphony principal harpist plays a beautiful work for solo harp by the Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla while sharing some of her challenges as the first African American musician in both the Washington National Symphony and the Boston Symphony in the mid-1960s. Upon her retirement in 2009 from a 40-year career with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a tribute concert was held featuring a harp concerto written especially for her by the world-famous composer John Williams. She performed the concerto at Symphony Hall in Boston as well as Carnegie Hall in NYC, and with many orchestras around the country.

Ms. Pilot has also been the soloist with international orchestras in Argentina, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada. She has several CDs available, including one called "Escualo," featuring the music of Piazzolla with violinist Lucia Lin and JP Jofre on bandoneon. Her most recent CD is titled "A Dream" and is a compilation of beautiful and meditative music for harp which includes "Chiquilin de Bachin."

Audio Engineer: Gary Baldassari & Alexander Berne
Editor: Shawn Convey
Photographer: Alexander Berne
BSO photo: Michael Lutch

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

(Solo harp music)

My name is Ann Hobson Pilot.

(Music ends)

I was fortunate to have enjoyed
a successful and rewarding career

as a classical harpist,

first with the Washington
National Symphony for three years,

and then 40 years

with the Boston Symphony Orchestra,

29 of them as principle.

This is a time

when some of our nation

has come to grips with its racist past.

You may wonder what my life was like

as the first African American
in these two orchestras

in the mid-1960s.

I remember my first day on the job
with the Boston Symphony.

It was my first rehearsal.

I arrived early

to tune my harp and to warm up.

An older member of the orchestra
came charging up to me.

I expected him to say,
"Welcome to the orchestra,"

or some other polite words.

Instead, he looked me right in the eyes

and said,

"You must fry some mean chicken."

For those of you

who don't understand what that means,

fried chicken is a mainstay
in racist depictions of Blacks.

I thought I had arrived

when I won the audition
for the Boston Symphony,

but with those few words,
that man had tried to put me in my place.

Fortunately, I have a good sense of humor,

which I have used then
and many other times.

With Washington, there were
more traditional problems with race,

mainly because our tours
were mostly down South.

It was pretty common

not to be able to eat
in certain restaurants back then,

but I was able to stay
in the orchestra hotels.

I won't say that it was easy

navigating the pretty much exclusively
white world of classical music back then,

and I'm very glad
to see that world changing,

if ever so slowly.

Seeing the protesting in the streets
for racial justice

gives me some hope for the future
of a better racial climate.

I will be playing a beautiful piece

by the Argentinean composer
Astor Piazzolla

called "Chiquilin de Bachin."

I first fell in love with this work
and other works by Piazzolla

after I retired from the Boston Symphony

about 10 years ago.

When I first heard it,
it was with a singer,

as it was intended.

I couldn't understand
the words in Spanish,

but I was able to find
an English translation.

It is a very sad and dark story

about a young boy who is so poor

that he eats from trash cans
and has no shoes.

He gets spare change

by selling roses
at a cafe in Buenos Aires,

the Cafe Bachin.

There was no arrangement for solo harp,

so I asked Michael Maganuco
to write one for me.

Michael is a harpist
as well as a composer,

and he wrote this beautiful
arrangement for solo harp.

I think this work suits the harp very well

with its warm and haunting tone.

I will be using different techniques
to vary the tone color,

playing in the middle of the strings,

as usual,

or lower on the strings -

bell-like sounds called harmonics -

and open-handed low notes
on the wire strings.

This is a sorrowful and meditative piece,

which will hopefully provide some calm

in this stressful and challenging time
of the pandemic and social unrest.

[CHIQUILIN DE BACHIN
Astor Piazzolla (1968)

Arranged for Solo Harp
by Michael Maganuco

Dedicated to Mrs. Ann Hobson Pilot]

(Solo harp music)

(Music ends)