Our small but mighty group for Peace Hour, Sept. 11th 2011. We played Ode to Joy, Dona Nobis Pacem, and sang John Lennon’s “Imagine”. I’m very proud of all my students, they did a great job! We also made a group donation to Amnesty International, in honour of Peace Day.
Thanks to Alexis & Harpists for Peace for organizing Peace Hour (which has become an annual event). For more information on Harpists for Peace, you can visit the official Facebook page here.
Yet another wonderful example of how versatile the lever/folk harp is, and how effortlessly it embraces music from around the world.
For more of Cecile’s music videos, visit branmusicfrance
Dona Nobis Pacem is now up on the Chubby Sparrow site, you can download and listen to it here.
Along with Ode to Joy (below), we’ll be playing this at the Peterborough-Kawarthas harp circle in honour of Peace Day on Sept. 11th. For those who can’t make it, we’ll be playing with you in spirit!
All music in the Chubby Sparrow free music section is available for anyone to download and use free of charge. We just ask that you include all headers and footers in your print copies.
I’ve uploaded the first harp circle tune, Ode to Joy (for multiple harps), to the Chubby Sparrow Music site:
http://www.celticharper.com/springpeeper/freemusic.html
Everyone is welcome to download the music and play with us in spirit, even if you won’t be able to attend the Peterborough-Kawarthas harp circle in person. I would just ask that you include all acknowledgements, headers and footers in the print-outs.
Music for Dona Nobis Pacem to follow shortly.
The Peterborough-Kawarthas harpists will be joining in the spirit of Peace Hour by holding a harp circle on Sunday, Sept. 11th, starting at 1:30 p.m (location TBA). All harpists welcome.
Official Facebook page for Peace Hour (an all-day international event): http://on.fb.me/o5NCe3
Peterborough Harp Circle Event page: http://on.fb.me/osT3VJ
Updates will be posted here and on our Facebook page.
More on the Southeastern Harp Weekend, which will be taking place this October (2011). Thanks to Carolyn Deal for the udpates.
Southeastern Harp Weekend October 7-8-9, Asheville, NC.
A mountain retreat weekend of world-class workshops and concerts, plus a huge and varied vendor hall! This year’s clinicians include Cheryl Ann Fulton, Maeve Gilchrist, Frank Voltz, Joanna Mell, Mary Radspinner, Christina Tourin, Jan Jennings, Rhett Barnwell, Jerry Brown, Sharon Thormahlen, Nancy Clark, Analee Foster, Dee Sweeny, and more.
Topics include Welsh Aires, Scottish harp, speed playing, conquering harmonics, conquering Irish trebles, hymn arranging, therapeutic music, classical music, overcoming fears, NLP and memorizing music, the Astral Harp Experience, chord recognition, Pop music, medieval modes, injury prevention, touch for tone, Taize, exercises for beginners, improvisation, keeping up with the tempo, sight-reading, fun innovations for beginners, celtic tunes to love, harp roundabouts for technique, left hand heaven, French technique, tunes for the seasons, the liquid lever, jazz, rhythm, advanced classes with Maeve Gilchrist and more for all levels. Most comprehensive lever harp vendor halls in the Southeast!
www.southeasternharps.com
smilingharp@gmail.com, 828-649-3016
From The Raw Story:
NEW YORK — Few instruments can be gentler than the harp, but authorities in New York’s Central Park have branded street musicians like harpist Meta Epstein a public disturbance and want them driven out.
A new campaign to enforce eight “quiet zones,” including in some of the city’s most hallowed spots for street performers, is turning virtuosos like Epstein into outlaws.
After years of being left in peace to perform her baroque repertoire on the beautiful, golden instrument, Epstein, 59, says she’s suddenly being treated as a menace.
Harp, flute and cello sighting! Not sure I could convince my trio to do something like this though (then again, I almost have enough antique tea cups to pull it off)…
Back from vacation in B.C. July is turning out to be a busy month for weddings and the like, so for now we’ve got a couple more videos, all the way from Peru! Considering the harp is one of the oldest instruments in human history, it’s not surprising that nearly every culture has developed its own unique style of harp and harp playing. Still, it never ceases to amaze me how different each type of harp, and its corresponding technique, can be from each other, and just how much variety there is in the harp world.
The first one features harpist Otoniel Ccayanchira playing Peruvian Andian music, as well as some traditional dancers. Courtesy of FolkPeru21
The next one features a solo harp piece performed by Florencio Coronado, followed by a Peruvian folk band and singer (Esmila Zevallos). Good close-ups of the harpist’s hands at the beginning if you want to check out the traditional Peruvian technique a little more closely.
Courtesy of proansa
Just got back this morning, and what a weekend it was! The first ever Northern Lights Harp Fest in Ottawa was a resounding success (despite the glitches with the sound system on the last day). I had hoped to blog “live” (as it were) from the hotel, but my computer decided it didn’t like the hotel’s “plug ‘n’ play” internet hookup and refused to play along. Turned out I didn’t really have any free time to spare, anyhow. I only left the hotel once, and that was to walk one door over to the restaurant (which, it turns out, is accessible by a nearby escalator, so technically I could have spent the whole weekend indoors, only seeing the sky through the rain-streaked windows.)
Much too tired to write more today, but there will be full-fledged review of the event coming up, as soon as we’ve unpacked and I’ve had a chance at a real night’s sleep. Update Dec. ’09: Real life intervened and I never did get around to a proper review, sorry about that. Hoping to get the Blog going regularly again in January, after things calm down. – T.H.
One final note for all who are interested, the NLHF is going to be held bi-annually, so start saving now for 2011!