RABUN GAP — It's a whirlwind afternoon at the Young Artists Harp Competition and Seminar, a sort of twangy boot camp held each year in the North Georgia mountains, and Vivian Hsu, a reed-skinny girl whose face conveys unflinching determination, is taking a lesson.

At 14, she's already an ace harpist. Working through a billowing sonata of French impressionism, she leans the 80-pound instrument against her right shoulder and lets loose a cascade of brazen strums and fierce plunks. Her eight fingers — harpists never use their pinkies — are a blur of motion.

Alexander Acosta / aacosta@ajc.com (ENLARGE)

Bethany Wheeler of Cedar Rapids, Iowa practices during the harp seminar.

RELATED LINKS: • More photos HARP NOTES Some vital statistics: • A concert grand harp weighs more than 80 pounds, has 47 strings and covers 6 1/2 octaves. To facilitate fast finger work, the C strings are red and F strings black. The others are white or natural gut colored. • Seven-foot pedals ring the base of the harp. These alter the length of each string so the harp can play an octave scale with the same notes as the white and black keys on a piano. • A top-quality concert harp can cost more than $30,000. LISTENER'S GUIDE Covering the wide-ranging moods and technique of the modern harp. • Handel: Harp Concerto (1736) • Mozart: Concerto for Flute and Harp (1778) • Donizetti: Harp solo in the opera "Lucia di Lammermoor" (1835) • Debussy: "Danse sacrée et danse profane" (1904) • Ravel: "Introduction et Allegro" (1905) • Mahler: Symphony No. 9 (1912) • Berio: "Sequenza II" (1963) LIVING Latest Headlines: Secluded Georgia refuge takes in misfit gorillas  Decatur First Baptist keeps woman in the pulpit  Zoo Atlanta's gorillas include numerous old-timers  Atlanta conference examines institution of marriage  World's oldest polar bear dies at Canadian zoo  • More Living Stories • Living photo galleries • Georgia Aquarium news and photos • Zoo Atlanta news and photos

But her right thumb is a touch too heavy on the strings, a flaw that's barely audible to a visitor but has caught her teacher's attention.

Hsu, from San Jose, Calif., is among 30 young harpists who have taken over the secluded campus of the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School for 17 days. They have come from as far as Spain and as close as Dunwoody to perfect finger work, gauge their place in the hierarchy of talent and, not least, find emotional support for an instrument that doesn't typically play in groups.

For those who aspire to a professional career, it can also be a reality check in a hypercompetitive field.

Bridget Kibbey is the seminar's New York professional and glamorous role model. Just 29, she's trying to sail a career where few have voyaged — as a Yo-Yo Ma or Evelyn Glennie of the harp. On recordings, Kibbey has premiered music by acclaimed composer Osvaldo Golijov; in concert, she's joined Fringe Atlanta, a multimedia chamber group that is redefining the concert experience.

As Hsu unpacks sections of the sonata, Kibbey coos and coaxes for the desired effect — "Bring out the colors!" — but that thumb continues to stymie the student.

So master slides over to apprentice's place and shows how it's done.

In a small cinderblock dorm room, a harp can be as loud as a truck. Yet Kibbey's sound is quieter than Hsu's and more theatrical; her phrases are more sculpted, charged with feeling. Within a few seconds Kibbey has given the harp an outsized personality and ethereal purity, like a piano set free of its hammers and heavy case.

Lesson over, Hsu thanks her teacher and swings opens the door — to see that her 13-year-old brother, Wesley, also a budding harpist, had been listening in the hallway.

High art amid nature

The Hsu siblings vanish. It's dinnertime for the students, who cross the broad, grassy campus set in a valley ringed by forested mountains, a spot as rustic as the classical harp is ornate and cultivated.

Wesley isn't the youngest harpist here — the ages range from 12 to 24 — but he is the only boy in the stream of mostly teenage girls headed for the school's dining hall.

Kibbey, meanwhile, postpones her own dinner to talk about harps, ambitious young musicians and her own tough career choices.

"I expected to find, you know, a couple of really good students here," she begins. "But there's a really high percentage who expect to make a living on the harp, and they're hungry."

Part of Kibbey's role, as competition judge and mentor, is to raise expectations on what qualifies as good. "We can be incredibly hard on them," she says, "because there's no way they can all make it."

Unless you're brilliant and lucky enough to land a post at a university or with an orchestra — the Atlanta Symphony, for example, employs one harpist, Elisabeth Remy Johnson, who also teaches at Emory, Kennesaw State and Georgia State — you'll have to cobble together teaching with freelance gigs such as weddings, receptions and church services. (By some estimates, there are about 40 professional freelance harpists around metro Atlanta.)

"The changes in the music industry have meant that musicians have to be businessmen, create their own concerts and opportunities," she says, while conceding that the set salary and benefits of a symphony musician holds its allure. She recently auditioned for a Cleveland Orchestra harp job, but didn't make the cut.

Making the harp 'cool'

Kimberly Rowe lives that cobbled together harp-entrepreneur life in Philadelphia, which includes directing the Young Artists Harp seminar.

Why Rabun Gap? Scrambling to prepare for an ensemble rehearsal, she ticks off the school's virtues: scenic beauty and remoteness, its ground-floor conveniences — essential where young people wheel fragile instruments on specially constructed harp dollies. (The school has also hosted Remy Johnson's Urban Youth Harp Ensemble, a program for 25 students drawn from nine Atlanta public schools.)

Who's a typical harpist? Rowe knows her history: David serenaded Saul in the Bible. Celtic minstrels and Provençal troubadours were (mostly) men. But from ancient Egyptian tomb art to Renaissance paintings, it's clear harps (and related lyres) were the instrument of choice for beautiful maidens or angels.

"In the U.S., the typical harpist was female from an affluent family," Rowe notes. The entry barrier is higher than for most classical instruments: a deluxe pedal harp can sell for $20,000 and up.

Slowly, a mighty murmur is welling up from the building's large central atrium as a dozen harpists warm up. Seated in the middle of the group is Brittany Stokes in a bright red sun dress, one of the more advanced students. The Mableton 17-year-old first noodled on a harp when she was 19 months old; she recently earned a music scholarship to attend Furman University in South Carolina.

Then there's that 6-footer at the back. Shaun Stimson, from Pennsylvania, started piano as a boy. But at 12, on vacation with his family in Washington, he chanced upon a harp recital at the National Mall's Folklife Festival.

"I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen," he remembers. He was initially razzed by friends, and when he first attended the Young Artists seminar three years ago as the only male, he felt awkward.

This fall he'll be a senior at a small Christian private school. He hopes to attend Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory, aiming for a career as a high school music teacher.

"Now when I get taunted by my buddies, I whip out the pictures of me with all the cute girls and that silences them. I hear 'em say, 'I didn't know the harp could be so cool.' "

For Rowe, that harp camp overcomes shunning teen approval is good. That it can steer talented young harpists into professional careers is better still.

"I've watched good students come here and they're probably the best in their class, but still playing simple music." she observed. "When they return, they've kicked it up a level. They've seen what their peers are up to."