Liza Jensen: “We have to take the opportunities as they come and say yes to the open door.”

Written By Maureen Buscareno
Liza Jenson at The Somerset Folk Harp Festival during one of her classes on harp maintenance.

Welcome to Season 3 of the HarpSong Podcast!

Thank you for listening and for your support.  I’m so excited to be kicking off this new season with today’s guest, Liza Jensen.  I hope you are taking time for yourself for care and for treating yourself with the same kindness that you would show a friend in need…maybe that means playing your harp in the morning or composing a song as you watch the snow falling, maybe just having a cup of tea and taking a breath help you to recharge…  Just like us, our harps need some TLC every now and again, too. So, let’s take time to help the harps that help us and also keep nurturing and being kind to ourselves while we take those opportunities that cross our paths. 

As Liza says in this interview:

“We have to take the opportunities as they come and say yes to the open door.” 

So many of you have sent in questions about harp regulation and taking care of your instrument that I knew I had to have Liza on the show.  I’ve known Liza for 10 plus years and she is just fantastic, as you will hear. 

My interview with Liza was recorded in November of 2021 just before she left for her harp regulation trip to Singapore.  It was her first time back there since the COVID-19 shut down. 

Through curiosity, determination, and sometimes self doubt, we can still  welcome opportunity and the gifts that saying yes to life can bring.  Liza Jensen, is one of the most sought after harp technicians in the world. Her journey of becoming a harp technician has taken her on her own personal journey of discovery that is sure to inspire.

Liza is pleasantly surprised as to how she ended up in this career.  She grew up in the Pacific Northwest in a very musical family.  Her mother taught flute and encouraged Liza to learn harp. Liza is also an accomplished flutist  Living in a small rural town Liza appreciated how the harp got her out of the house to meet new people and discover new places.

Liza’s harp practice got her accepted into The Eastman School of Music where she studied with Kathleen Bride.  Liza recalls some of Professor Bride’s wise advice “You don’t need to practice more than three hours a day, because 1. You don’t want to injure yourself and 2., and I [Liza] really took this to heart, you need to have a life to put back into your instrument…to put back into your music. And for that, I really appreciated her.”  

Even with being accepted into one of the top music schools in the world Liza struggled a bit with Impostor Syndrome.  She thought,  “Maybe if I understood more of how the harp works, that would give me more confidence.”  

Liza has always had a mechanical brain and could be found trying to figure out how things work and how to fix them. Even when she was in high school she remembers trying to figure out how to repair the school’s harp.  At one point Pat Doogle, one of Liza’s harp tech mentors,  made her take the harp apart and reassemble it so that she could see the inside and see how each part is related to the other. It was a big “Ah ha moment” for Liza.

Her curiosity, attention to detail, and hyperfocus are some of the things that make her a great harp tech.  She is also extremely personable like a doctor with good bedside manners.  

“This is a big deal to me, one reason it does take me longer [to work on a harp] is that I like to talk to you about your harp.  I want to know if you are having specific issues, but also, I have very sensitive ears, so I may hear a buzz that you didn’t even know existed…or even if you come to me with a problem that you do know exists, I want you to understand what it was I did to make it go away.  Because a lot of times it’s just something silly.  More often than not, it’s something silly like a string end.  That’s why I give the classes to give you a checklist of what to check for that you can do easily for yourself, especially in the lever harp world. “

-Liza Jensen

“This is a big deal to me, one reason it does take me longer [to work on a harp] is that I like to talk to you about your harp.  I want to know if you are having specific issues, but also, I have very sensitive ears, so I may hear a buzz that you didn’t even know existed…or even if you come to me with a problem that you do know exists, I want you to understand what it was I did to make it go away.  Because a lot of times it’s just something silly.  More often than not, it’s something silly like a string end.  That’s why I give the classes to give you a checklist of what to check for that you can do easily for yourself, especially in the lever harp world. “

It is no surprise that Camac harps have made her one of their International harp techs.

Liza stresses the importance of having your harp regulated.  She suggests getting your pedal harp regulated a minimum of once every other year, but if you are a professional, every year.  Lever harps, if they don’t move much and depending on their construction they should be regulated around every three or four years. But if your harp does shift more than you will need more servicing. 

 “Not all the harp techs work on lever harps. That’s another way that I feel that they are very neglected. It’s getting better, I think. And I feel that part of that is due to Somerset [The Somerset Folk Harp Festival].”

“I feel that there is something special about the lever harp community…the pedal harp community is more formal whereas the lever harp community is more bohemian, but not less sophisticated.”

Liza will be teaching workshops and doing harp maintenance at the festival this July 21-24, 2022 in Parsippany, NJ.

“I don’t know why, but I have this Bob Ross approach” to teaching harp maintenance…”it’s all going to be ok.”

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Maureen Buscareno
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Tiffany Schaefer: growing a Celtic Music Community