You could call it fate or a match made in heaven.
Either way it was a touch of serendipity that led Tracy Sweet to discover her musical destiny at the age of 27.
“Thirteen years ago I started taking lessons and my teacher told me I had a gift and that I should pursue it, hat it’s not an easy instrument to play, you either have the gift or you don’t” Sweet said. “I would show up to lessons just knowing things. The technique is not easy to have your hands in. It just came very naturally to me.”
Before Sweet ever laid eyes on the angelic 46-string, seven pedal, six-foot tall, 100-pound, $25,000 instrument she was constantly told by friends how suitable she would be plucking on the harp.
“I had a lot of people telling me that with your personality I could see you playing the harp and ‘I’m like really? I’ve never even seen a harp before,’” Sweet said. “I thought I would check it out and went for a few lessons and see how it went and I loved it right away.”
Sweet found solace in her innate talent and was determined to master the instrument, studying music theory at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario and studying privately for three years in her former home of Stratford, Ontario – a beacon of the arts in the Heartland province.
Playing the harp becane a full-time gig for Sweet, a classical harpist since 2000, an Albertan for seven years and an Okotoks resident for a year-and-a-half.
Sweet earned her first paid gig at a wedding and after getting over some palpable nervous energy, realized she could be onto something.
“I just kept getting more and more requests and work,” she said. “When I lived in London, Ontario I was the only one there within a two-hour radius so anyone wanting a harp hired me and I started to do really well at it.”
Performing largely at wedding ceremonies, private dinners, charity events and corporate functions, she’s been able to make sweet music across the country and at some of the most picturesque locations, including the Banff Springs Hotel.
Sweet’s career has also allowed her to rub shoulders with high society in Alberta, reflected by a private performance at a Christmas function for Premier Alison Redford in the winter of 2011.
However, it’s her intimate performances at weddings that really stand out.
“I just love meeting the people afterwards,” Sweet said. “When brides say I can’t get married unless I have a harp. It really is important to them, it’s not I can take it or leave it. I do like being in the background. I don’t need to be front and centre, putting on concerts. I just like to be there and people here the music.”
Though Sweet’s never been through a wedding of her own, she strives to treat every opportunity to perform at the celebration of marriage as if it were her special day.
“All I care about is if the bride is happy,” she said. “Even though I’ve performed at hundreds of weddings I perform it as if were my very first wedding. I’ve never been married, but I always approach it as if it were my wedding. In an industry where all you do is weddings you could get bored, but I love weddings. When the bride is walking down the aisle and you’re playing it’s a very important aspect of the wedding.”
Though classical music composes much of Sweet’s catalogue, including the wedding staple Pachelbel Canon, her eclectic tastes include Broadway show tunes from the likes of British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, songs from Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and themes from Hollywood movies.
“I’m trying to expand my repertoire to more popular and more current music,” she said.
Sweet’s musical journey has come full circle. Now she’s the one offering lessons to upcoming musicians, many of whom struggle to make the instant connection with the harp that launched her career.
“Now that I teach it’s not coming so naturally to my students,” she said. “I forget how hard it really is. It’s hard for people who aren’t naturally inclined to it. I have a lot of students that end up giving up when they realize how hard it is.”
The harp is not an instrument one can merely strum or pick at, she added.
“It’s very technical,” she said. “Your hands have to be in a certain position and you control the volume and everything with your technique.”
Despite no musical background whatsoever the Okotokian found sweet success in her late 20s by taking a chance on an intimidating instrument.
It’s a scenario she encourages everyone to be open to, no matter what their circumstances are or what stage of life they may be at.
"We all have gifts and talents and sometimes we discover them later in life,” she said. “I am thankful for this God given gift and that I have been able to travel and perform at some of the most magnificent places for the past 13 years."
“It’s never too late to find out what your gifts are.”
To find out more about Tracy Sweet visit her website at www.harpist-tracysweet.com.
