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New Life For Antique Harp

Laura Kennedy
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WGLT

A hometown musician has returned to the Twin Cities to share an extraordinary musical instrument that, despite a series of unfortunate events, he managed to bring back to life.  Last year, GLT's Laura Kennedy produced a story we called 'How Do You Mend A Broken Harp?' It detailed the long road that musician Ted Nichelson took to restore a rare 86-year old Lyon and Healey harp.

A graduate of Illinois State University, Nichelson teaches music in the Beverly Hills School District and also works as a harpist for the Forest Lawn Cemetery. A few years ago, he set out to find a new harp, something unique and special.  He found it in Detroit.  The Lyon & Healey Style 26 harp belonged to Liz Ilku, who for 30 years had played the instrument as the only female principal player in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Nichelson was taken with the harp and bought it, but there was much work to be done in order to restore it.  And that's where his journey of bad luck, near misses and frustration began.

Credit Laura Kennedy / WGLT
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WGLT
Closeup on the harp.

Nichelson left the harp with a technician the Chicago area where it narrowly missed being incinerated in a workshop fire.  Then, the man working on the restoration became gravely ill and had to be hospitalized, leaving the harp in pieces at his home.  Nichelson journeyed to Chicago to check on the progress, only to have his car towed away, leaving him stranded in a snowstorm.  The harp technician died shortly afterward, and Nichelson discovered that both the instrument and his down payment were in limbo.

Credit Emma Shores / WGLT
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WGLT
Ted Nichelson and his restored harp.

The harp parts were sent to the Lyon and Healy harp factory for restoration, but there remained one problem:  funding what could be a 35-40 thousand dollar restoration.  Nichelson turned to a Go Fund Me campaign to raise the necessary money.  "I had a very good response to the Go Fund Me campaign," said Nichelson. "I had a lot of people contribute from the Bloomington/Normal community. So I was able to move forward with the restoration. And now a year later we're here."Now the harp has been fully restored, with a stunning new coating of gold leaf to go along with its magnificent sound. Nichelson decided to bring the harp to the Twin Cities to perform and give his thanks to the community that supported his efforts to preserve an important musical instrument.  He hopes future generations of harpists will enjoy playing the harp as much as he does.

06-17HarpRestoration.mp3
Listen to the original story, "How Can You Mend A Broken Harp," which aired last year.

You can watch Ted Nichelson play his harp on Facebook Live.

Reporter, content producer and former All Things Considered host, Laura Kennedy is a native of the Midwest who occasionally affects an English accent just for the heck of it. Related to two U.S. presidents, Kennedy appalled her family by going into show business.