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It starts every morning, early, as two children practice the Suzuki method of violin. The music rarely stops, except for slumber, or when it leaves for performance or rehearsal elsewhere, in this Victorian house in the Field Club neighborhood, where Omaha Symphony musicians Mary and Craig Bircher and their children, Walter and Josie, conduct their lives.

The music room right inside the front door has a grandparent's venerable Victrola poised, horn flaring, to pour forth the sounds of the days when reproducing music was a much more difficult proposition. There is Mary's harp, reclining, relaxing between shows. And it goes on up to the third floor, where Craig practices his trumpet in the airy heights, where a trumpet ought to be.

"Yeah, music is a priority in this house," said Craig, associate principal trumpeter for the symphony.

He and Mary, principal harpist, defy the notion that music is to be heard and played, not talked about.

On a bright fall day, with Halloween sentinels guarding the porch, they took time from hectic schedules to talk about the place music occupies in their family, their history, their education and personal growth.

Right now, the early morning Suzuki practice for Walter and Josie takes center stage.

"We do Suzuki violin for the discipline," said Craig. "We believe strongly they'll learn a lot from this kind of discipline. They understand it's something they need."

For the parents, music is more than full-time. They both have taught at Creighton University and the University of Nebraska at Omaha, usually have private lessons to teach, (often to non-traditional adult students) plus their commitment to the symphony, and for the past couple of years, their duets, now performed for 35-40 weddings a year.

"Practice now for us is becoming a luxury," said Mary. "We have rehearsal, normal household chores, uninterrupted time for us to practice is rare."

They acknowledge the "artistic challenge" of combining the sounds of the trumpet and harp, but seem to have mastered the compromise it represents for both instruments and instrumentalists. Their meeting as musicians happened in Omaha almost 20 years ago, as beginning professionals.

"He was the second person I met here," said Mary, who was straight out of advanced study in Cleveland under Alice Chalifoux, a legendary instructor of the harp. For Mary, playing harp professionally was her plan from childhood in Richmond, VA.

"I just had this picture in my mind of a woman in a long dress, playing harp in an orchestra," she said. "It was the most obvious thing to me. It's all I've ever wanted to do." And she's got a shoulder blade a little out of whack from addressing her instrument to prove it.

Craig came from Hutchinson, Kan., where he grew up with jazz on his mind. His father was a music major who did accounting for a living; his mother was a keyboard instructor. Craig had one of the few junior-college full-ride scholarships to play in a school jazz band. Then he auditioned in Ann Arbor for Armando Ghitalla who asked him, in so many words, whether his intentions toward his instrument were honorable. Craig averred that he didn't want to have to make a commitment to one kind of music or another, and Ghitalla suggested he learn to play the trumpet and see what happened.

In the early 1980s, Craig came to play with the Omaha Symphony from Ann Arbor. The Birchers met, then Craig left for New York where he worked as a nanny, (a job Mary also did in her earlier years), before they decided they couldn't live without one another. They married in southern Colorado. Only then did another trumpet vacancy open for Craig in Omaha.

So began these years of fixing up old houses, rearing children, playing trumpet and harp together, if not always side by side. The latest years, with Victor Yampolsky as Music Director of the Symphony, are the best, they say.

We've been there 20 years," Craig said. "And we're really fortunate to have seen three different music directors.

"This is definitely the highlight of our careers. Artistically we're all growing. It's really a kick to go to work."

Yampolsky, they say, has a lot in mind for the individuals playing in the orchestra. "I've played two major harp solos that I didn't even know existed," Mary said.

Now they are planning to record their duets on CD.

"We can challenge ourselves," said Mary. "We know now if we don't push ourselves artistically to keep growing, we're dead. We just wouldn't be happy." [email Mary or Craig]

More information about Mary Bircher and the two CDs she has already made:
http://www.osmoweb.org/bio/bircherm.html

Craig and Mary's Duo CD:
Music for Ceremonies & Celebrations - Mary Bircher, Harp and Craig Bircher, Trumpet

Reprinted from the Omaha Symphony Program book with permission from:
Omaha Symphony
1605 Howard St.
Omaha, NE 68102-2705
phone: 402-342-8565
email: bravo@omahasymphony.org
website: www.omahasymphony.org

© 2006-2007 Omaha Symphony Musicians' Organization