5 Questions with…Molly O’Roark!

Welcome to another 5 Questions with…, where I interview a musician via email! This week’s guest, Molly O’Roark, & I met at the Illinois Summer Harp Class in 2011. At the time, she was an undergrad at Eastman, but now she holds a DMA!

So are you ready for “5 Questions with…Molly O’Roark”?

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Congrats on earning your doctorate! What was that journey like?

Thank you! Whew, it was definitely a journey. My DMA path really started 10 years ago when I started college and knew that I really wanted to study/perform at a high level. About halfway through my undergrad, I knew I really wanted to be a teacher and hopefully at the collegiate level which meant grad school for sure. I went to the University of Illinois for my Masters and ended up staying for the DMA. Professor Ann Yeung is an incredible fountain of knowledge in regards to harp literature, history, and pedagogy and I knew that I wanted to absorb as much as possible from my time with her. Since I had gone to UIUC for my masters, I was able to actually transfer some extra credits to the doctorate and start it immediately. I graduated with my MM in May 2015 and started DMA coursework in June 2015—really no break at all in there.

I won’t lie…doctorates are tough. I feel that I really honed my ability to practice efficiently because your time is such a premium—especially when you’re a TA and gigging. I also had a second job at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts where I was a house manager and tour director, so when I wasn’t practicing, teaching, or sleeping, I was working! I also had to complete a minor as a part of the DMA, and I was happy to make my own minor of Arts Management and get to study and delve into the management side of arts organizations.

The last two years of the degree were the best and worst. I was working full-time while also finishing my research. The first three months of 2019 consisted of taking no gigs, teaching in the morning and afternoon and then coming home to write until 1am. Like anything, it takes a village. I wouldn’t have made it through without the support of my family and my boyfriend who sweetly did all the laundry, cooking, and cleaning while I lived in my “Dissertation nest.” It feels AMAZING to be done now, haha!

You teach full time with the Urban Youth Harp Ensemble. What tips do you have for teaching harp in a school environment?

I think the most challenging thing about teaching harp in a school environment is that the students do not have instruments at home or really access to one outside of class time. You really have to tailor each class period to getting a new concept/technique across and manage to have the time to not only teach it, but allow them to practice it within the class time. That’s the biggest adjustment from private lessons, you can’t really tell them, “okay, go home and practice this until it’s at this tempo.” They may have only 20 minutes to practice, so you break things down and have them work independently while you circle the room.

Additionally, you have the added pressure of classroom style teaching which was the newest to me. You have to be the disciplinarian, differentiate your style per different learning levels/disabilities, and teach technique en masse. 90 minutes with a class of 13 kids on pedal harp versus 60 minutes with one student are totally different teaching styles. I’ve actually found that the classroom style has helped my private teaching because I am so used to teaching a concept to a big group and filling with metaphors and quickly fixing hand positions, that private teaching becomes like a special treat with what feels like so much time and focus.

I also have an incredible co-teacher, Angelica Hairston, the artistic director of UYHE, who teaches the high school harp classes and co-teaches the beginning classes with me. She was the most valuable resource when transitioning to the new city and job. Through her I learned how to deal with crazy behavior problems, communicating with parents, and how to set the pace and goals for each class.

Also, how did you land a full-time harp-teaching gig?

In the Spring of 2017, I had just completed four rigorous Doctoral Qualifying exams (you cannot sit for the exams until you have completed all the coursework requirements), performed my third DMA degree recital, and defended my research proposal. By the end of April, I was at ABD (All-But-Dissertation) status which is a weird, good-bad limbo land where you have an “earned doctorate” and are a “doctoral candidate” but cannot be called Dr. or graduate until you submit and defend the final paper. At that stage you are simultaneously over-qualified and under-qualified at the same time. I remember feeling excited but exhausted after working so hard. I also felt a little bit of panic as I was nearing the end of my education and the real fear of “what if I don’t get a job” starts to trickle in.

In the summer, my professor forwarded an e-mail with the job description and I was really excited about it. I felt that I was well qualified for it and could do a good job. I am from the South, so I felt comfortable moving down to Atlanta— and because I was at ABD status, I no longer had to be on campus and could take a job and move. I interviewed at the end of June and received the offer a few days after. It was a bit of a crazy few weeks because I had intended on staying another year at Illinois, so I had to formally resign my assistantships and find a sublet for my apartment. I flew down to Atlanta for a new teacher orientation and to find an apartment on July 18, moved in on July 23, and school started July 26^th. It wasn’t the most amazing timetable, but I made it through!!

On your website, you’re described as a harpist, teacher, & composer. How did you start composing?

I first started composing as soon as I started playing the harp. I remembered that I would take my Suzuki Book 1* pieces and change all my levers and play them in different keys. Eventually, I began improvising and expanding upon them. My first composition was called “Ahmed’s Lamb” and is a Middle-Eastern variation and improvisation on “Mary had a Little Lamb.”

My parents knew that I loved creating melodies and pieces and when I was 14, they were able to convince the Community School of Music at the University of Memphis to hire a composition teacher to give me private lessons. They bought Sibelius for our home computer and an awesome 88-key MIDI keyboard which I still use today. I studied with Dr. Scott Hines for four years and my senior year I put together a composition recital at the University of Memphis. At one time, I even applied to schools as a double harp performance and composition major, but after meeting with different composition professors, I decided I wanted to keep composition for myself and focus mainly on harp. In grad school, I began writing harp ensemble pieces again—original ones for fun and then numerous arrangements for my harp duo, Ginger & Spice. I’m grateful in the past few years to receive some commissions from the Michigan Harp Day Ensemble, Connecticut Valley Harp Intensive, and the harp duo Lilac 94. Actually, I have two premieres coming up- September 29^th with Lilac 94 in Wilmington, NC and October 5^th with the Michigan Harp Day harp jam ensemble in East Lansing, Michigan.

It’s definitely something that I’m hoping to focus more on now that I’m done with school: both original harp ensemble works and arrangements. You can check out videos of my pieces and arrangements on my YouTube Channel!

What made you choose Harpo Marx as the focus of your doctoral thesis?

I’ve always loved Harpo Marx and watched their [the Marx Brothers’] movies and read his autobiography in high school. My old yahoo e-mail address in high school used to be “harpomolly” (super cool, I know. ;)).

When I was taking the final class to help write my research proposal, I wanted to study to the iconography of the harp as perceived through media in America in the 1920s-1940s. This was such a fascinating era with new technology and cultural changes that I found so intriguing. As I was doing my research and literature review, I soon realized how much more material was written about Harpo and the Marx Brothers but how little of that material was focused specifically on him as a harpist and his arranging/ composition styles. We only had some passages from Bill Marx’s book, Son of Harpo Speaks!, and a short article from a 1983 American Harp Journal by Carrol McLaughlin.

After realizing the gap in the literature, I changed the focus to be specifically about Harpo and his harp journey, arranging/compositional style, and how those elements changed over his career. I really wanted research that I was passionate about and would keep me entertained over the multi-year writing process and Harpo was the ticket. I was fortunate to be able to fly out to Palm Springs, CA for an in-person interview with Bill Marx which just added so much to the work.

I am hoping to present my “How to Harpo” recital at the next AHS conference in 2020 so fingers crossed! In addition to the final paper, I have an hour-long recital that features music that Harpo learned to play, transcriptions I made from the movies, and pieces that reflect the sound of the swing-era.

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And there are “5 Questions with…Molly O’Roark”! What’s your favorite Marx Brothers movie? Drop it in the comments!

Thank you for your interview, Molly (Dr. O’Roark!)!

Want to be interviewed or have a suggestion for a “5 Questions with…” interviewee? Let me know via the contact form!

-Barbara

Molly O’Roark, a native of Memphis, TN, is a dynamic performer and composer known for crafting exciting and energetic programs that showcase her love of music and the harp. Molly holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts and Masters of Music degree in Harp Performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the studio of Dr. Ann Yeung. She received her Bachelor of Music in Harp Performance, Performer’s Certificate, and Arts Leadership Certificate from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY in the studio of Kathleen Bride. Read her full bio at mollyoroarkharpist.com.

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