×

NORTH COUNTRY AT WORK: Career is evolving for Keene musician Martha Gallagher

Martha Gallagher sits with a harp in her Keene home. (News photo — Andy Flynn)

KEENE — Martha Gallagher sits on a piano bench in her music room. A small grand piano is behind her, and a harp stands in front. She leans it back and plucks a few notes.

“I haven’t played this one ages,” she said, “so let’s see what happens.”

Gallagher begins playing an uplifting tune. The notes echo off the hardwood floor of her home on the banks of the AuSable River in Keene.

“When we moved in here, this was the living room. And in most people’s homes, it would be the living room. In our house, it’s the music room. There’s a lot of living that goes on here, but it’s all focused around the music,” she said.

The piano was her mother’s, and Gallagher loved to listen to her play.

“My favorite thing was actually to lie down under the piano on the floor when she was playing because the music is like … thunderous. I loved that.”

There are several kinds of harps in the room, and her husband plays the guitar.

“So it’s a place where it’s easy to just walk in and sit down with the instruments and start playing,” she said.

Gallagher turned 65 on New Year’s Day. After a lifetime playing music for a living, she continues to evolve — as a person, and a musician. Not just because of COVID-19, and the challenges that brings playing for a live audience. Or the challenges it brings for earning a living. But last winter, she was also diagnosed with breast cancer.

“I know I am very, very fortunate and truly blessed that we found it early on. I didn’t even know. I just said, “Oh gosh, 2020, I didn’t go for a mammogram.” I didn’t feel comfortable going into a hospital or anywhere there was a lot of people,” she said.

When Gallagher finally went for a mammogram, they found a very small tumor. The recommended treatment was surgery and radiation, so she did that.

“But nonetheless, it gave me a different perspective on things as well. So that’s in there, too.”

A life of music

Gallagher was born in Manchester, New Hampshire. She moved around as a child — to North Carolina, Ithaca, Watertown. But there was always music in the house. Her mother played the piano. Her father played saxophone and clarinet in a dance band. And there was the record player.

“That’s how I learned a lot of music, by ear.”

Gallagher played flute and piccolo, and she sang. She also took piano lessons. But those were too structured. She didn’t want to practice; she just wanted to play. Studying music education at Hartwick College, she found the same structure, and she didn’t like that, either. So she created her own major: music performance, composing, arranging and recording. And she’s done that ever since.

While finishing college, Gallagher saw someone play the folk or Celtic harp, and she was hooked.

“I didn’t know anyone who played the harp or taught the harp, so I thought, ‘Well, how hard can it be? Sure with all this music background, I could figure this out.’ And I did, right, wrong and everything else in between. And I realized that I love playing the harp,” she said.

Redefining a career

When Gallagher moved to the Adirondacks 31 years ago, she became the Adirondack Harper. She spent a lot of time on the road. Traveling from one gig to the next. Earning a living playing nursing homes, weddings, concerts. Then COVID hit. Everything shut down, and there were no gigs. Just one big pause.

Even before the pandemic, Gallagher was experimenting with online programs. Perhaps she was preparing for a new life, away from her audience, without even knowing it.

“So, how’s work? Not as much work as I would love to be doing, not as much connection with people, which is one of the things that I love about live performance. And yet there is the creative aspect of my work,” she said.

COVID forced Gallagher to pause and reflect on life. She began producing an online program called Just a Minute Music — wellness music in just one minute. Then she started a virtual concert series.

“The first time I went to record a virtual concert, I felt like I hadn’t spoken to anybody in months,” she said. “I thought my social skills had slipped. I couldn’t play a song all the way through, and these are pieces that I played for years, some of them decades.”

Without in-person concerts, the virtual series was good for Gallagher. She got some much-needed income, but more importantly, she got to play music again for an audience.

“It was wonderful the things I heard from people saying, ‘This really makes a difference in my life. A concert once a month is uplifting. It’s fun. I feel so much better about everything.’ And, as a musician, that really moved me,” she said.

Last summer, Gallagher held her first in-person concert since the pandemic began — outside at Marcy Field in Keene.

“And when the audience was there, it just felt so good,” she said. “From my perspective, it was just like, ‘Ah, yes, I’m alive!’ And from the audience perspective, it wasn’t the most glorious of evenings. It was kind of windy and a little chilly. But people came. They loved it. They just wanted to be out, even after a time all summer, people had opportunities to be out and see other people. It was just this time to gather together for this concert.”

Gallagher hasn’t felt comfortable performing indoors — for herself or the audience. But that’s OK, she said. It’s almost as though she needed the break.

“I found I really loved it. I loved being home,” she said. “I loved having the chance to do some of the things as a musician, as a creative person, that I hadn’t always given myself the opportunity to do when I was working out and about. And that was to just simply sit and play for the sheer joy of it.”

Gallagher also gave herself a challenge — to write a new piece of music every week. Based on things she was grateful for. She calls them gratitunes.

“So each Tuesday, I would record myself playing this new piece, which was still in the works at the time, so semi-improvisational, and we covered things from being when I forgot that I left something outside, and I woke up at 3 a.m., and I went out to get it out of the yard. And it was in the summer and the sky was glorious. The stars were incredible, and Venus was up in the sky. And so the next piece I wrote was ‘3 a.m. Venus.'”

Gallagher plays different types of harps. From the folk or Celtic harp you hold in your arms to the one in front of her piano bench.

“This is my primary performance harp, and this one was made especially for me,” she said. “It stands about four to four-and-a-half feet tall. It has 34 strings. Each string is an individual note.”

Now Gallagher’s taking her harp to new places, figuratively. Her career is evolving every day. It’s not a life on the road anymore. There’s new music. Opportunities to play concerts online. Concerts outside in the summer. Now she teaches TranscenDance — using dance as a transformational and healing art. And there’s a new program — musical blessings.

“I have just recently was invited to bless a concert series. I blessed the land that someone was going to be building on soon,” she said.

When you boil it down, Gallagher just wants to do two things: create music and share it with others.

“Creating and sharing music is what I really feel is really at my core of my being. And not just a casual way. People tell me how much the music moves them, effects them, reminds them of things, helps them reconnect with themselves,” she said. “I feel that’s really important work in the world. And so the music, even when we’re simply having a casual concert, I know it’s doing deeper work, and I love that. So I will continue to do that.”

Starting at $1.44/week.

Subscribe Today