Kaimukī resident Constance Uejio has been playing harp with the Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra, formerly Honolulu Symphony, for 44 years. The principal harpist is set to retire this season. She will be recognized at HSO’s Masterworks concert finale on Sunday, June 15, but will play through rest of the season, which ends in August.
“It feels exciting, but also it's sort of bittersweet,” she told Aloha State Daily. “I have loved my time with the Hawaiʻi Symphony, the Hawaiʻi Opera Theater and Ballet Hawaiʻi, and we must include those other two because the orchestra plays for all those things. Although we have a symphony schedule, in that symphony schedule is also an opera schedule and a ballet schedule.”
HSO will perform Brahms Symphony No. 1 for the Masterworks concert finale. Buy tickets.
When asked how many concerts she performed with HSO in an average year, Uejio didn’t know.
“I haven't counted them out, because I figure I'd be overwhelmed,” she said. “That's a lot of music that has to be practiced and learned.”
For each concert, she loads her 90-pound harp, which is taller than she is, into her Toyota Sienna along with a music stand, bench and bags.
Uejio was interested in harp from a young age. Her father, a Lutheran minister in Pennsylvania used to point out harps and comment on their beautiful sound. Her uncle, a professional organist, played with a harpist at church.
“By the time I was three or four, I was convinced that I was going to play harp,” she said.
Uejio started piano lessons in second grade. She started to learn the harp in seventh grade. Her father had planned on buying a used harp, she said. The family took a road trip to New York City to look at instruments, but they were expensive.
“On the drive home, they told me that they couldn't afford a harp right now,” Uejio said. “I'd have to wait a little longer, etc. But unbeknownst to me, in a back room, they had taken him to see a harp that was in pieces. … He and mother cashed in their insurance policies and bought that harp without telling me. When it was put together and fixed, they had it shipped to our neighbor who kept it in their bedroom until Christmas Eve, when they somehow got it next to the Christmas tree. It was a very exciting morning when I walked downstairs and saw my first harp there.”
As part of HSO, the opportunity to share her instrument with people was memorable since audience members often had not seen a harp up close, she said. After retiring from HSO, Uejio looks forward to more free time.
“The symphony schedule has ruled my life for 44 years,” she said. “I try not to travel when it's a symphony work week.”
Retirement allows more opportunities to perform at weddings, funerals or parties. Uejio also plays piano, organ — and occasionally harp — at Central Union Church. She will continue to teach harp lessons to keiki and adults.
Uejio met her husband, Glenn, while attending Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. He grew up in Kaimuki and is known for his store, The Slipper House, now closed, which was one of the first tenants at Ala Moana Center.
Their children share her love of music. The oldest daughter, Rebecca, plays piano, harp and organ. Currently, she is a music teacher at a school district in Modesto, California. Their middle child, Steven, played trumpet at ʻIolani School. Their youngest, Kirk, picked up the clarinet.
“We're not trying to make every student the professional,” she said. “We’re just trying to give them a love of music and let them appreciate what's possible.”
Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.
