September, 2002

by Patrcia North Buckley

When listeners hear the melodic, pastoral sounds of harpist Lisa Lynne and bamboo flutist George Tortorelli, it's difficult to believe that they both started out as bass guitarists in hard-rock bands.

"I grew up playing folk music on an acoustic guitar," said Lynne, who taught herself to play the guitar in second grade.

"I couldn't get into a rock band playing the guitar, so I switched to the bass because there was a deficit of bass players. I did it for the paycheck."

At a Renaissance Fair, Lynne saw and played a harp for the first time. She describes the experience as "love at first touch." Soon she was bringing it with her to gigs and beginning rock tunes with it. Finally, the time came to make a choice.

"I started getting asked to play at weddings, and that eventually took over," said Lynne, who is based in North Hollywood.

She began playing at street fairs, and that experience taught her much about making an impression with a harp.

"It's amazing how this soft thing plays so strong," she said. "It creates this bubble that draws people in. It can freeze people there."

She eventually started recording and performing at indoor venues. She currently is on the New Earth label. Five years ago, she made another major turn in her career when she met Tortorelli at a fine arts festival.

"We traded CDs and I was so enchanted by his music," she said. "It sounded so much like mine. We started playing together and it sounded so totally sweet ---- like it was meant to be. We don't even rehearse. We just play. It's like breathing because it comes so naturally."

Tortorelli is a master bamboo flute designer and player. He lives in Florida, which means he and Lynne rarely meet except to perform. That's worth it because the audience responds to the music they make together. They've sold a half-million records as a duo.

"There's a pureness that comes from these two simple, ancient instruments," said Lynne. "I've been told our music is like a cosmic lullaby. Because both of us are from a rock background, the chords we use are from classic rock, and that reaches more people than classical music would. We even have teen-agers who like our music."

That universally soothing quality is what led Lynne to begin Harps for Hearts at the City of Hope Cancer Center. She holds classes teaching patients, staff and family members to play the harp as a means of relaxation to promote health. It's a cause that began when Lynne comforted the family of the first injured student brought out alive from Columbine High School.

"I was supposed to play for her, but she was asleep, so I played for her family," she said. "It turned out to be so therapeutic for them. Her brother, who had been in the library and seen it all, talked about it for the first time. Her father cried for the first time."

Lynne had had similar experiences when taking her harp into her grandmother's nursing home, so she began the cancer center program a year ago.

"It's been so successful," she said. "We're growing our own garden of harpists. I love that it's a beginner-friendly instrument that takes very little to make beautiful music right away."

And that kind of peace is exactly what she hopes to achieve when she and Tortorelli perform in Carlsbad. "We want our music to give people a sense of well-being," she said. "It's a cleansing sound that makes you feel like everything will be all right. When we hear it, it blows us away as well."