UKHA fundraising cards

The United Kingdom Harp Association is celebrating 50 years in 2014.

It's run by volunteers and relies on members to keep the organisation thriving.... so if you are a harpist in the UK and are not yet a member please join and support this organisation!

It's for any harpist - whether you are a student, professional, harp business... basically anyone who loves the instrument and has a keen interest in all things harpy. We are a nationwide association covering the whole of the United Kingdom

You can also support the UKHA by buying a set of these fundraising greeting cards; beautiful images from UKHA members to celebrate 50 years of our organisation.  They are only £5 per set of 4 cards, and the cards are really good quality and can be bought online here

Silly season

Well the silly season has well and truly arrived. I did my first orchestral Christmas concert on Sunday... yes the 17th November!! The earliest time in the year I have ever played "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" sitting on a stage next to a 13 foot snowman.

A bizarre end to a manic week of concerts with the RLPO of Debussy La Mer, La Valse, Ravel Alborado del Grazioso, a recital with my good friend (and gorgeous soprano), Anna-Clare Monk and a couple of solo harp childrens school workshops thrown in for good measure.

My music stand is bulging with music to practice for the next month and I'm on the Barroca and vitamin tablets already to get me through the season.

A countdown of Britten Ceremony of Carols, Nutcracker Cadenzas, Carol concerts with the RLPO,  Raymond Briggs' The Snowman children concerts and a Harp Duo seasonal spectacular recital thrown in for good measure.

And according to the Daily Express, we are due for 100 days of snow!!!!

Bring on the Mince Pies.

Sheila Bromberg & The Beatles

Interview with Sheila Bromberg, who played harp on the Beatles track 'She's leaving home'. With Ringo Starr on the One Show.



A lovely article about her and her session work here

Why are harps harp shaped

Very interesting article by Jon Butterworth in The Guardian and fascinating to read about it from a physics point of view.

Also in the article are links to a research paper by Chris Waltham on harp design and construction.

For the less scientifically minded the images of the harp soundwaves are fascinating.

link to The Guardian article is here

La Source

Wow - Alisa Sadikova - (9 years old) playing La Source by Zabel with real musicality.

It's a really hard piece and she makes the huge stretches in the middle section look really easy, I don't know how she does it with her small hands. 

Brilliant !!!

Playing outdoors is no good for the harp...

How many times do I have to say that?

Considering I have a policy of not playing outdoors with my harps, I've played in some pretty funky outdoor situations this summer....

So for this one, I turned up to a private function only to find it was in a field.

After trying to explain why I couldn't play on grass, the TINIEST of stages was eventually found and some hay bales found to stop the stage from falling over on itself on the very uneven ground. 

Luckily the weather wasn't too bad, a fair cross wind, but it was just light summer jacket/cardigan weather, and a fairly short duration of playing.

Romantic looking = possibly?

Sound projection across a field with a waterfall nearby = zero

Still recovering from last nights orchestral summer pops gig in an outdoor theatre, complete with tarpaulin roof but no side panels on a day with terrible weather across the country - freezing rain and howling winds.

Only 3 strings broke, and for the first time in my gigging career I kept the base covers on during a gig. Had a black scarf luckily to disguise the blue base covers a bit.

Only in the UK, would you do an outdoor orchestral gig in the rain, with the wind howling through playing patriotic favourites, wearing fingerless gloves playing "Thunder and Lightning" polka by Strauss.

NO more outdoor gigs this year - PLEASE!!!

itsy bitsy spider

Yes I know it's only a tiny spider...... but in all the years I've been playing I've never had a spider drop down on my hands whilst I was playing before.

Flys, wasps, daddy longlegs - yes, but never a spider.

Breathing

One of my favourite pieces ever... By one of my favourite harpists, Rudiger Oppermann.

His duo with Park Stickney is amazing and his music is utterly brilliant, full of colour and soul. The duo version of this piece on their CD, Harp Summit is sublime and I think his solo harp version is pretty damn good too.



I was recommended to buy their CD by a friend who said it was one of the best harp CDs ever, and they certainly weren't wrong, if it isn't already in your harp collection you should get it!

Remy wins Gold!

Congratulations to Remy van Kesteren for winning the Gold medal in the 9th USA International Harp Competition!



I really enjoyed his Saxophone, Violin & Harp CD - Trio42... lovely music!

Lots of YPG

Wow, June has sped by.... lot of gigs this month, but one of the loveliest gigs I did was a rather bizarre but brilliant educational event I took part in as part of the Barnaby Festival in Macclesfield.



It was an ingenious introduction to instruments of the orchestra, set in Macclesfield library. There were groups of string and wind players spread out on the ground floor of the library, with brass and percussion players upstairs and the harp in the corridor.

There were tours every half hour with a stream of visitors to each group of musicians. As the tour party arrived at your spot, you played your cadenza from Britten's Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra. After each tour party had heard all the cadenzas from the various instruments they could then go off and have a go on the various instruments. After playing the first cadenza, there was a steady stream of children wanting a go on the harp throughout the morning.

Luckily I had my lovely teenage daughter with me as my official roadie that day, as well as someone who had volunteered to help fend off little fingers from the harps as I was playing, and boy did I need them both!

I took my little harp for everyone to have a go on, and it was a pretty full on morning of playing YPG cadenza lots of times and then supervising lots of very young children having a go on the lever harp.

The pictures make it look a lot more relaxed and sedate then it actually was, as it was usually at least 2 children having a go on the lever harp at the same time as there were just so many of them wanting a go. It was a brilliant event and lovely to introduce the harp to so many young (and not so young) people.



Never have I been as in need of a restorative cup of tea, as after that gig.

A brilliant concept of an educational event and I was very glad to have been a small part of it.