Fright night

Feeling brave?

Be afraid, very afraid.

Caliente - Big!

Another video to post of my trio ;-)

Caliente, with Clare Southworth on flute and Andy Scott on saxophone, playing one of Andy's pieces - Big!

Caliente - Ibert

I've been doing quite a few videos this past month to go up on YouTube.

Here is the first one!

It's the Ibert Interlude with my trio, Caliente. Clare Southworth on flute and Andy Scott on Saxophone...

ultimate sight-reading

You just can't beat a glass of chilled Pinot Grigio and chilling out on the sofa watching Family Guy.....

especially after an evening of sight-reading two contemporary operas on a gig.

Maybe 2 glasses?

bonfire night

How quickly can you pack up a concert harp and get it out the house?

Well it seems that I can do it less than 90 seconds....

Last night my shed caught fire - who knows why? Electrical? Stray firework? The shed is right up against our converted double garage, (which has LOADS of my business equipment in, plus all my husband's instruments and his life times collection of sheet music), which is right next to our house.

So when the shed caught fire and the flames were 20 feet high and licking the roof of the garage it seemed like that was going to go up in flames too.

First thought after calling the fire brigade was - EVERYONE OUT.

That's our 2 teenage kids, our dog, student (that my husband was teaching in the garage at the time) and her mother out on the opposite side of our street watching the flames coming from behind the garage.

Whilst my husband and a neighbour were moving as much gear as possible before the fire engines got there (without getting anywhere close to the fire of course), I suddenly panic about the fire spreading to the garage... and then to the house.... and know that I have to get my harp out of the house now.

FFS - I know - very stupid, but it seemed logical at the time.

So apparently not only can I find my outer harp cover in the dark (as all our electricity was out), I can move the harp at speed without it being strapped properly to the trolley, get it out the door without the special door ramps which are essential for getting it over the awkward door threshold and out across the road in about 90 seconds.

Luckily 2 fire engines and an hour later, no one was hurt, only one corner of the garage roof had started to catch fire, and they put that out without any water damage to any of our gear in there.

How lucky are we? No one hurt and our ability to carry on our business intact.

Unfortunately I found out today that I had done something last year which I had never done before, and that is to forget to re-new our buildings and contents insurance. SIGH.

The whole experience was so GOD DAMN scary and happened so fast, that thank god, due to the fantastic fire service we are all ok.

The fact that we are going to have to live off tin beans for god knows how long whilst we pay to get the building repaired is a moot point.

Sunbeams

Sometimes you come across something unexpected that just puts everything in perspective.

I came across this wonderful audio slideshow interview with harpist Annie Mawson on the BBC wesbite. She founded a charity twenty years ago called the Sunbeams Music Trust which works with children and adults with varying levels of disability.

A truly remarkable woman whose charity has been doing amazing things with music therapy in Cumbria for many years.

Bravo!

Click on the image below to watch the interview, it's wonderful.

Far Beyond the Stars

My husband was in the middle of writing a euphonium concerto for Glyn Williams and Fodens Band when Ali Stephens died a couple of years ago.

He subsequently arranged the second movement of that piece for guitar, harp and string orchestra for myself and Craig Ogden (Ali's other duo partner) to play at her memorial concert at Trinity College of Music.

Last year Craig and myself recorded a demo version of it with the RNCM strings - appropriate to post up now it's 2 year anniversary of Ali losing her battle with cancer. A remarkable woman who achieved an enormous amount in her 40 years.

Far Beyond the Stars by Andy Scott
Craig Ogden - Guitar
Lauren Scott - Harp
RNCM Strings directed by Chris Hoyle

Robert Maxwell

I've just come across a really good article about Robert Maxwell on the jazz harp website.

I must admit to buying a copy of his Ebb Tide when I was a teenager (which I know is lurking somewhere in one of my music cupboards), but never really playing it as I found it too cheesy and preferred playing Misty.

Born in 1921, he studied at the Julliard under Grandjany and became a popular showman harpist and songwriter, apparently more popular in his day than Harpo Marx! Another good article about him here where his music is listed as exotica lounge - Nothing quite like exotica lounge harp - FANTASTIC!!!

Accidental Slip on an Oriental Rug by Robert Maxwell, His Harp & His Orchestra

brilliantly bonkers and of course Ebb Tide 

Still not mad on the tune but great orchestration!

harp boogie

A "pop video" from the late Forties - harpist Adele Girard and kooky dancer!

Lovely comments on YouTube about this video - worth reading!

keep smiling

• Don't you wish you played the flute? - 1

• Bet you can't get that under your chin? - 3

• Which way to the toilets? - 4

That'll be the number of times asked those questions on a gig... 

Flog it

Before you ask I wasn't at Tatton Park trying to flog my harp....

My little stint on BBC Flog It which I did in May has finally aired on TV.

I played for 20 minutes in total, and 20 seconds was aired!

I love the unsubtle edit the BBC has done and must remember to do that next time I play the Dussek Sonata.

Iona

The highlight of August for me, was playing my tiny lever harp at a family wedding on the wonderful Isle of Iona - part of the Inner Hebrides.

Getting there was quite a journey! Long drive to Oban, than a ferry to the Isle of Mull. There are no visitors cars allowed on Iona, so you have to leave your car on Mull, and carry your luggage onto a smaller ferry over to Iona - hence the lever harp, and handy rucksack case for my Camac!

The wedding was in the historic Abbey on the island....

which you can also just make out in the picture below from the boat. (The only large structure on the centre right of the picture). Total population of Iona is 130 - info here

We made a family holiday out of the week, and had a lovely break on Mull and Iona. A truly wonderful place and we will certainly be going back there. The weather was fantastic, the air was pure and because there are no street lights, the most amazing night sky.

It's an hour by boat from Iona to the Isle of Staffa, and of course Fingal's Cave. It was worth the effort to see why Mendlessohn was so taken with it - it's an incredible place.

photo inside Fingal's cave - which was a bit of a slightly daunting trek across the basalt rocks!

Waltz of the Flowers

as you have never heard it before!!!

On googling Mario Lorenzi I came across this astonishing bit of footage (1:48) from 1947 of his playing of Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers. He makes the chromatic sections sound complete effortless!

It's a British Pathe film and the sound doesn't always sync with the recording, the close up of pedal work is quite funny considering the speed his feet must have been going at. However the sound recording is very good.

All that sound from an Erard.

Mario Lorenzi (1894–1967)

Harp weekend in Saltaire

Harp weekend coming up next weekend in the fabulous Salts Mill in Saltaire.

Organised by the Early Music Shop and Camac, it features a weekend of workshops and recitals by Sarah Deere-Jones and Louise Thomson.

(click on images for to view in detail)

Affiniti

Lovely music from Affiniti who are an Irish Classical crossover trio with Aisling Ennis on harp, soprano Emer Barry and violinist Emer Barry.

Inappropriate noise

Q. What's the worst noise that, as a harpist, you can make at a wedding?

A. A wire string snapping whilst the bride is waiting to say "I do"?

I very rarely have any wire strings break on me... I change them regularly every year and a half and I can count on the fingers of one hand how many have snapped on me. It's like a gun shot when they snap and even though it's a rare occurrence it quite freaks me out!

Half way through the signing of the register today (and the wedding guests were very quiet), there was a loud crack which is the horrible precursor to a wire string snapping.

Luckily I managed to draw to a close very quickly the piece I was playing and then jump up and slacken off the offending wire before it snapped. PHEW!!!

After a crazy month of being really busy and being stuck in the pit at Buxton Festival, I think my harp was trying to tell me I need some time off!

asbestos fingers

After spending most of my life obsessing about the state of my finger tips (too soft?... too hard?), you'd think I'd have tried most things to avoiding getting blisters?

Well it turns out not.

I'm doing a couple of operas at the moment, one is a bit of a pedal work-out, and the other one is a finger shredder.

(double click on image for closer view)

Kaschei the Immortal by Rimsky-Korsakov is a great little opera, which is really enjoyable to play.... apart from the 4 pages of solo (loud) harp glisses at the start (which you can't use felt picks for!)

After the dress rehearsal my fingers were SO SORE that I didn't know how I was going to get through the run over the next few weeks.

In fact they were so sore, they felt bruised to the touch, which was when I had the brain wave of using arnica cream.

Hallelujah! Had the first show last night and my fingers were fine - not sore at all.

Came home and rubbed a bit of arnica cream into my fingertips, and so far so good.

Fingers crossed (no pun intended) that arnica cream will be the answer to keeping the blisters at bay over the next few weeks.

The case for wedge heels

Played in a church yesterday, and this was the only place to set up..... and the holes in the grate were just large enough for the heels of your shoe to slip into!!

Now if I had been wearing wedges or flip-flops it would have been fine....

Blazing pedals

Sensible shoes only please...

Definately no wedges or flip-flops!

(double click on image for closer view)

I had thought re-writing this little bit from 2nd act of Intermezzo by Strauss so that you aren't reading enharmonic notes, (my personal pet hate) might make it easier.

Figure 94 in 1.

80+mm per bar!!!

Maybe shoes with little booster rockets are in order?

Locking string onto the tuning pin

A while back I posted some videos which I found online on how to tie a harp string, brilliantly demonstrated by Lyon & Healy technician Steve Moss.

However I only posted his videos on how to tie the anchor knots. Here is the other important end - locking the string on the tuning pin.

I never used to do it this way, but since using Steve's method it is brilliantly simple and straight forward, and better still, really easy to describe.

The quality of the video is a bit fuzzy, but if you listen carefully to what he says it is really simple!

Locking a string on the tuning pin, 0-4th octaves by Steve Moss