Gainesville Sun

December 16, 2001

Just the Right Touch
by Bill DeYoung

Megha Morganfield's love of music found expression in the Celtic harp.


Over the millennia, the heavenly sound of the harp has seduced and delighted all kinds of people, bringing them a sort of musically tranquil bliss that-no other instrument in history has been able to approach.

Megha Morganfield joined the harp club more than two decades ago, and today she wears her mastery of the instrument like a badge of honor. In 1992, Morganfield won Ireland's prestigious O'Carolan Competition, beating out a dozen traditional-music players with entirely original compositions for harp and voice - the only time such a thing has happened, before or since.

Morganfield, 45, grew up in Gainesville and recently moved back after many years based in Arizona. She'll play and sing at Monday's Veterans For Peace Winter Solstice Concert in the Thomas Center.

She believes the sound of the harp touches something deep within us. "It's amazing, people will have this dream," she explains. "They'll say 'I always wanted to play the harp.' Last week, after a performance, a woman came up to me and took my card. Her mother has always wanted to take lessons, so she's found a harp for her mother, and I'm the Christmas present. She's giving her one month's worth of lessons."

Born in Dallas, Morganfield was 5 years old when her father, a physician, passed away; her mother's parents, Beatrice and Percy Thompson, invited the family to stay at their Gainesville home. "My grandparents were first and second chair violinists with the University Symphony," says Morganfield. "I used to sit right over them in the balcony and the orchestra pit, which was great."

Thus was kindled Megha's love of music. A 1975 graduate of Gainesville High School, she left the city at age 18, eventually earning a masters' degree in community health education from Southern Illinois University. She then spent 16 years living in Arizona's Phoenix Valley, working as a professional musician.

"I started out as a vocal major," she says. "Actually, most of the songs that I do now, originally were as vocal pieces. Then I decided I really wanted to get involved with this instrument."

It took a period of searching before she discovered and fell in love with the Celtic harp. ''I have very, very small hands," Morganfield says. "And so to fit on an instrument such as a piano or a guitar, that was really not for me."

She found she had the naturally delicate touch needed for stroking the harpstrings. "The person I trained with was very strict; she said 'I have to test you,' " Morganfield recalls. "And within two years, she gave me all of her students."

To date, Morganfield has released three CDs, two featuring original music and one of Yuletide tunes. She performs in churches and at weddings, and enjoys pursuing the concepts of wellness through creativity, and on the healing power of sound (she'll be conducting a work- shop on the latter Jan. 10).

Morganfield has other interests, too - she is a published poet, and has had a book of her harp music published, and she works closely with the YMCA Writer's Voice Project.

"Quilting is a big part of my life," she adds. "Quilting and music are my two main things, and I do them a lot.

"I go out for a walk almost every day and write a song. I come back and work on it, or if it's a vocal piece, I'm working on the lyrics and the instrumentation. So pretty much every day, I'm working on a song."

Morganfield performed at the Vets For Peace show - an annual event - in the mid '90s. She wrote a song, "The First and Last Freedom," in honor of the program, which is sponsored by Gainesville Vietnam veterans.

Considering the world situation, she says, she's looking forward to discussing peace. "We're all making choices right now in our perspective about what's going on, and I think the best answer is to find some peaceful way to do this. The children that we bomb will grow up. So we need to offer other options.

"I'm glad that this event is here, and I think it's neat to be part of a community event. I love to be part of things that are making sense of the world."