H. Renie: Esquisse (Willy Postma, harp)

Henriette Renié (1875-1956): Esquisse from Feuillets D'Album
Willy Postma, harp

"Do you love the harp?" Henriette Renié asked all her new students this question. It was fundamental to her vocation. Renié already loved the harp by the age of five, but because she was so small, had to wait until she was eight (1883) to have her first harp lesson. Alphonse Hasselmans, the remarkable Belgian harpist, placed Renié's hands on a harp for the first time. It was certainly a prestigious instrument, but also one whose resources and repertoire at tht time were very limited.

Hasselmans, who had recently been appointed professor of harp at the Paris Conservatory, introduced his sensational pupil, "the petite Renié", in the annual concours in 1887 when she was just 11. She won a brilliant first prize which opened a new era for the harp.

Renié's father, an artist by profession, was also an accomplished actor and singer. He turned down numerous proposals for engagements which would have exploited his daughter, a true child prodigy. Instead, he made certain that she received a solid musical foundation, studying both with Charles Lenepveu and Theodore Dubois. Barely an adolescent, Renié led an extremely busy professional life, performing throughout Europe, teaching actively in Paris, and taking composition classes at the Conservatoire, for which she won prizes.

Renié struggled all her life under the double handicap of being a woman and playing the harp. One well-know critic, Max Pincherle, regretted that a musician of her class had to express herself on such a minor instrument as the harp! Perhaps because of these feelings, Renié seemed to want to stretch the possibilities of the harp. She did both by her extraordinary virtuosity, and her daring compositions which, beyond their musical value, were full of risks and dangers in performance.


Harpist Willy Postma was born in Amsterdam. After attending Schools in Rotterdam, Paris and New York, she came to Noway at an early age and has been affiliated with the Trondhein Symphony Orchestra since 1964. Prizewinner of the International Harp Competition in Israel in 1970 Postma has had an all-round career as soloist, chamber-music performer and teacher. Postma has recorded several CD albums and has been a frequent guest on television and radio programmes. In 1980 she started the Nordic countries' first harp class in Trondheim, a class she still conducts. Since 1991 she has been a teacher at the Norwegian State Academy of Music and since 1992 also at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.

Information and photos were taken from the internet.