Harpists aim to raise money, hope
40 will converge on Main St. for concert tonight
By Diane Urbani
Deseret News staff writer
A small army of harpists will converge on Main Street Saturday night, hoping to soften the heart of a kidnapper.
"This is something we can do, to offer some peace and comfort," said Patrice Laurence, Centerville, whose daughters Maren, 10, and Mette, 5, will be among the 40 harpists playing together to raise money and hope for the Elizabeth Smart search effort.
Like Maren Laurence, 11-year-old Kephren Bernhisel has played her harp with Mary Katherine Smart, the 9-year-old who saw her older sister taken from the bedroom the girls shared. When Elizabeth disappeared, Kephren's 17-year-old brother, Matt, and their mother, Debbie, joined the search.
Kephren, too young to go, kept saying, "It feels wrong to not do anything." Like many young musicians who've heard Mary Katherine and Elizabeth play their harps, Maren has been "yearning to lend support," her mother said.
Debbie Bernhisel broke the news of Elizabeth's kidnapping the same morning that it occurred. "I was very straightforward," she said. She told her 11-year-old what to do if she were threatened by an abductor. "You scream and kick, even if he says he's going to shoot you," and try to stay inside the house where parents can hear her. "As soon as you leave this house, it's not going to be good."
"My daughter is not shy," Bernhisel added. "But she said that if a kidnapper told her to keep quiet, she'd keep quiet. Especially in this LDS environment, you do what an adult tells you to do." Bernhisel taught Kephren otherwise, going over the scenario repeatedly.
Laurence had a similar conversation with Maren. "It's an awful thing to tell a 10-year-old. But I had to tell her, 'If anyone pulls a gun or a knife on you and tells you to be quiet,' " don't be. "They're probably going to hurt you anyway."
But Saturday night is a time to set aside the fear and sadness, Bernhisel said, and renew hope that Elizabeth will be found alive. The harp concert "will give people a better sense of what Elizabeth is like. They'll see her peers, who know her on a daily basis."
"The sound of the harp is so soothing," added Laurence. "There's just nothing like it."
It's also unusual for scores of harpists to perform as one.
"We've all played together at some point in our lives. We're all linked," said Megan Jones, Maren Laurence's harp teacher and organizer of the concert. The harpists, age 5 to 24, will begin at 8 p.m. with "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," and play their way up to Handel's "Concerto in B Flat." Elizabeth's parents, Ed and Lois, have said they will attend the 90-minute concert at Exchange Place, 350 S. Main. Look for the baby-blue kiosk, Jones said. That's Elizabeth's favorite color.
Admission will be free, but concert-goers can make donations toward the Smart search center, which needs help paying for postage and other supplies, said Smart family spokesman Chris Thomas. If money is left over at the end of the search, it will go to Shriners Hospital or to the Laura Recovery Center Foundation, he said.