In 2014, Emmanuel Ceysson became the first person to ever perform on the iconic red Salzedo harp. Upon seeing it at the 150th-anniversary celebration for Lyon & Healy (a Chicago-based instrument manufacturer known for their harps), Ceysson wrote on Harp Column: “I was even more astounded after laying my hands on it and playing the first chords of the Fauré Impromptu  I always use to warm up—what a beautiful, deep, warm, and luscious sound it gave back to me. In an instant my decision was made. This harp was to be mine.”

Since then, no matter where his career has taken him—the Paris Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, and, since 2020, the Los Angeles Philharmonic—he’s done it all with his red harp.

Get to know Ceysson as he reveals some of his favorite childhood memories, the story behind Joe Hisaishi’s Harp Concerto, and how his harp got its color.

Can you tell us about a piece of music that moves you?

When you connect to a music piece, there are different layers of memory. “Le jardin féerique” (The Fairy Garden)—the last movement of Ravel’s Mother Goose—really connects to my inner six-year-old. My first connection with it was early on growing up in France where I listened to it in this music initiation course. It’s an easy piece for kids because it’s based on little stories.

When you look at the way it’s composed, the melody is pretty simple, but inside of these chords, you can follow every voice. It’s going somewhere; the color changes, the chord changes—it just takes you places. It has some kind of articulation that’s done in such a gifted way. Ravel was obviously a talented composer.

And then, I must add another layer. I watched the movie Call Me By Your Name a few years back, and the coming out scene actually uses a piano duet recording of this part of Mother Goose. It’s a very emotional scene between Timothée Chalamet’s character and his dad, and not a lot of words are spoken. But it really resonated in me, because I am gay myself, and coming out is always very impactful.

This piece has all of these layers in my memory and whenever I listen to it, it moves me every time.

You made your television debut on L’École des fans at just 7 years old! Is that when you knew you wanted to be a professional harpist?

Yes, it was really an important moment for me. I have vivid memories of it being my first real big trip outside of the city was born, Lyon. I took the fast bullet train to Paris with my parents, and I had never been to a TV studio before. There was a whole lot of preparation, waiting, and buildup of the pressure.

When the host asked me, “Do you want it to become your work?” I answered yes. As a kid, you don't really realize what it implies—wanting to become a professional musician—but I didn't even wait or think about it. I just said “yes.”

I always liked being a musician, but I wouldn’t say it was an easy road—of course, I had to practice hard and go through difficult times, but I always felt this connection to music. I don't come from a musical family, but my mother's father was a clarinet player.

Whenever I would go to my grandparents’ house in the center of France for holidays, I would spend a fair amount of time listening to Tchaikovsky with my grandfather. These are privileged moments in my memory, and so, I associate classical music with getting together and connecting with people.

I think that's also what made me choose it as a professional path—it's what we do on a daily basis. We practice to connect and create intimate moments, even if there are thousands of people listening. You draw this thread between you and the audience that makes it an intimate moment for everybody.

In November 2024, you premiered Joe Hisaishi’s first harp concerto! How did that commission come about?

Well, it was a very exciting project for me. To be honest, I started reaching out to Joe in 2010. At the time, I was still living in France, and I was the principal harp with the Paris Opera. I loved his film music and knew he had a taste for the harp in his orchestrations, so I reached out to his agent.

Of course, I was very naive at the time, thinking that because I had won these big solo international prizes that maybe he’d want to write something for me—but it doesn't work this way! You need to commission and pay your composer…so, I bided my time.

Opera houses don’t often commission pieces for their principals because what is most important in opera are the singers on stage. It’s not in the habit of an opera orchestra to commission concertos, so as soon as I joined the LA Phil, I knew the time had come.

I was in touch with [Chief Content Officer] Meghan Umber, and she came to me with proposals of different composers. I told her, “Those are lovely names, but even if I have to wait like 10 years for something, I would rather have one concerto written by this guy than anyone else.”

Since the LA Phil is so prominent in commissioning works and very active on the new music scene, I knew it would make a difference, so I crossed my fingers and waited.

Later, I had a virtual meeting with Joe Hisaishi and his team on Zoom, and he said, “Yes, I will do it.”

What did you do when you finally got together in person?

When he was here [in August 2023] conducting the orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl, we spent a few hours together behind the harp. I showed him what I like, what I dislike, what can be done, what cannot be done, and things like this because he knew how to write for the harp in an orchestra setting, but not as well for a solo instrument.

He came back with some ideas [in March or April 2024], and I started working on it straight away because it’s very long—around 30 minutes. Usually harp concertos are around 20.

What is the most challenging part about the concerto?

It’s rhythmically very complex. Harpists have the reputation of not being great at rhythm because we have so many other parameters to control when we are playing…rhythm is not the one we focus the most on when learning the instrument. Still, it has been an amazing process to practice and learn it.

Hisaishi’s music has a dreamy, enchanted kind of sound to it. Does this work have a similar mood?

Yes, especially in the second movement! It’s very harrowing and a little dark, but really beautiful in color and very emotional.

The concerto has three diverse movements—two fast and one slow in the middle. It’s very defined in the writing. You can find the colorful, dreamy things in the second movement, but the first and third are different. They are much more active and exciting and surprisingly much more rhythmical than people are used to.

Joe’s concert music is very influenced by Philip Glass and the repetition of sequences, so the new concerto has some kind of trance-like mood.

You really stand out on stage with you bright-red harp! What’s the story behind that?

Oh my gosh, it's a very long story…it’s an Art Deco design created by French harpist Carlos Salzedo and artist Witold Gordon. The harp has traditionally had a big attachment to the feminine and the cliche angelic idea, so I think Salzedo wanted to make a statement by designing a harp that was very stripped out of all ornaments, especially since he was a man playing the harp.

The color is the same particular nuance of red Salzedo used to write on the scores of his students. It really draws the gaze of people!