Harp Congress Comes To Tacoma

TACOMA - Jerusalem was a sentimental favorite. Japan and Australia were in the running, too. To attract the world's harpists, Tacoma had to show its pluck.

"Tacoma is perfect," Pat Wooster said.

The sixth World Harp Congress gets under way in this unlikely setting this week - thanks to the hard work of Wooster, harpist with the Tacoma Symphony and director of the Tacoma Youth Symphony harp program.

A thousand harpists from 35 nations will be in Tacoma because Wooster asked herself a question: "Why not Tacoma?"

"With the Pantages, Rialto and Theatre on the Square, all within a few blocks of one another, Tacoma is a natural," Wooster said.

Armed with promotional literature from the city, Wooster traveled to the World Harp Congress in Copenhagen to make her pitch.

"We supplied her with materials, but she's the one who went off to sell it," said Nancy Watkins, executive director of the city's Visitor and Convention Bureau.

"I figured most people wouldn't even know where Tacoma is, so I brought a map," Wooster said.

Harpists in Jerusalem were lobbying hard to win the meeting. This year is the 3,000th anniversary of the conquest of Jerusalem by King David, a harpist of renown. Australia and Japan also sought the meeting as a way of promoting the instrument in those countries.

But Wooster played up Tacoma's location on the Pacific Rim, its proximity to Seattle and its scenery.

"I told them `I can't give you palaces,"' Wooster said. "But I can give you tepees."

With the photos and her inventory of theaters, Wooster struck the right note and won over the Congress board.

For the next week, Tacoma will be home to all things harp - lectures, demonstrations, concerts and meetings. Sixteen concerts will be open to the public in Tacoma's downtown theaters.

"It's a great thing for the city," Wooster said. "It will raise awareness of the instrument."

Wooster won a scholarship to study harp at Seattle University. Her father took out a mortgage on the family home to purchase an instrument for her. Her daughter recently won a scholarship to study harp at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

"Years ago, to be a harpist was to be an island unto yourself," Wooster said. "It's different now. There are other harpists you can talk to, trade information with. It's things like the Congress that promote that."