Dale Barco Donation
For more than thirty years, Dale Barco has been known and appreciated by harpists around the world as “The Harp Doctor.” Before ever working on harps, Dale began his profession serving the United States Navy, working in Mine Warfare on mine-laying destroyers, and in Germany working with booby traps and demolitions. Afterwards, Dale began a profession with the Navel Ordnance assembling torpedoes. When Dale’s contract with the U.S. Government expired in 1961, he began to look for work and came across an ad for Lyon & Healy. Even though Dale had no experience with harps or any musical instrument, he quickly learned and said he got “hooked on harps.” In 1975 Victor Salvi invited Dale to work for him at the Salvi Company. Here, Dale traveled around Europe and parts of Asia to learn many different ways of how harps were made. Now, Dale Barco has his own independent harp repair studio in Woodland Hills, in the Los Angeles area. Dale has given numerous lectures and workshops at Universities and Conferences.
Adapted from: McLaughlin, Carol. “On the Lighter Side: Dale Barco, the Harp Doctor.” American Harp Journal 13 (1992).