Adjunct Lends “Heavenly” Music to Hospital Patients
For the past several months, patients and staff at Hunterdon Medical Center have been treated to private concerts courtesy of André Tarantiles, harpist and adjunct professor of music at TCNJ.
Everyday, in the early afternoon, patients and staff throughout Hunterdon Medical Center are treated to a private concert. André Tarantiles, professional harpist and adjunct professor of music at TCNJ, has been volunteering his time and his talents to the hospital for more than two months as part of a grant from the Hunterdon County Cultural & Heritage Commission. To say Tarantiles’ performances have been well received would be an understatement. Indeed, upon hearing his harp music resonate throughout the floor, a patient who had been in a coma for five days awoke and said, “I thought I was in heaven.”
Tarantiles plays during the hospital’s quiet hours and his music has a calming and soothing effect on the patients and the hospital staff. He leaves a harp at the hospital and travels throughout the building playing for different units, floors and patients, often taking requests from his audience for classical pieces as well as popular songs, such as “Over the Rainbow.” The performances have been such a hit that the hospital recently received an additional grant to extend Tarantiles’ residency there. As the harp instructor at Montclair State University, he has been involved in music therapy programs, but had yet to put the those concepts to work in a hospital setting. “I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “But, the response has been fantastic.”
At an age when many children are experimenting with music using the pots and pans in the kitchen, Tarantiles became interested in the harp by initially tinkering around with one his family owned. At age 10, he began taking lessons and still uses the family harp as his primary instrument today. After graduating high school, Tarantiles moved from his native Martinsville, N.J. to Indiana to attend college at Indiana University, earning two degrees, a Bachelors of Music with high distinction and a Masters of Music with highest distinction. Following graduation, Tarantiles moved back east and began his career as a professional musician with the Off-Broadway production, The Fantasticks, the score of which written solely for harp and piano. “It was the longest running show in the world at the time,” Tarantiles said.
From early in his career, Tarantiles has been eager to share his passion and his knowledge with others who have an affinity for the harp. Around the time of his stint as the harpist for the The Fantasticks, Tarantiles also opened his own music school ran the school for a decade. Thus, in 1999, when TCNJ had a sudden need for a harp instructor, it was a natural progression for Tarantiles. An incoming student wanted to major in the instrument and the college began holding interviews to add a harp instructor to its faculty. Tarantiles earned the job and his first class was he and the one student. Since then, he has had classes of up to five aspiring harpists and the program has grown to include private instruction as well as ensemble performance classes. He also teaches graduate classes at Montclair University.
Dubbed an expert by The New York Times and a virtuoso by The Star-Ledger, Tarantiles spreads his talents across several organizations. He is currently the principal harpist for the Philly Pops, Glimmerglass Opera Festival, Arizona Opera Wagner Festival, New Jersey State Opera, Connecticut Grand Opera, the Center for Contemporary Opera, Teatro Grattacielo, Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, Riverside Symphonia, the Princeton Symphony, the Key West Symphony, Festival Musical de Santo Domingo (2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007) and, most recently, the Casals Festival in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Equally as impressive is Tarantiles’ 20-year stint as one of the harpists for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular and his position as the official harpist of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.
Posted on January 14, 2009
