UKHA 50th Anniversary concert

It's been a busy old week and a very enjoyable one! In between some freelance work in Birmingham, I managed to fit in a trip to London to see Sioned Williams performing at the Purcell Room. It was a fantastic concert, brilliantly conceived and performed and it was very well received by the near capacity audience.

The concert was put on by the Park Lane Group and was also part of the UKHA 50th birthday celebrations. And what a fantastic turn out by harpists from across the country who came to the concert. Playing the harp can be a solitary affair and it's not often we get the chance to all meet up, so it was lovely to meet up with so many harpists. I met some harp friends that I hadn't seen for nearly 20 years!!

It's been 18 months now since I became Chair of the UKHA and I was really pleased to meet so many young harpists at the concert. There is a real sense of a new generation of younger harpists coming through and being active in the UKHA, which bodes well for any organisation going into it's 50th year. For any organisation to have 80% of the committee being made up of people in their 20s and 30s is quite remarkable.

We have a new bursary scheme which is being launched in January, and we hope to be present at more harp events across the UK in the coming year.

Belonging to the UKHA is a fantastic way for harpists in the UK to connect with other players, whether they are a student, amateur, professional or harp maker. If you love the harp, join the UKHA and network with other harpists across the UK.

Setting up the UKHA table in the foyer of the Purcell Room before the audience arrived ;-)

Bartok concerto for orchestra

I've just been practicing two lots of recital music I have coming up with flautist Clare Southworth and my trio Caliente, when I had a niggly feeling I really should be looking at some music for orchestral work I have in a couple of weeks with the CBSO.

 I'm very glad I've dug it out! I do think this has to be one of the hardest second harp parts out there.

There aren't that many notes to play, but every passage has it's scary moments when you play it in the orchestra.

Especially the ones that look like they should be easy on paper.

Last time I played this was with the RLPO and the conductor took off like a rocket for the last section. I nearly had a heart attack!

Hark, a Lark

I've finally got round to sorting out finishing off some demo recordings with my fantastic singing partner, Anna-Clare Monk.

What a voice!



We are working on some new recital programmes at the moment which is great, you can't beat a really lovely song. It's so good to be working with a singer, especially one as fabulous as Anna-Clare.

Next up on the to-do list, getting some more gigs... I really need a P.A

Spiral of Discovery and Adventure

If you are in London next month, Tuesday October 14th, do go and see this concert at the Southbank Centre featuring Sioned Williams playing 6 new pieces by English composers.

A concert put on by the Park Lane Group, it also celebrates the 50th anniversary of the United Kingdom Harp Association of whom Sioned is president.

You can book tickets here and it will be great opportunity to meet up with harp friends old and new!

have harp, will travel

A harp you can pack in your suitcase?

What a great idea for keeping your fingers in shape whilst away on holiday!

I love the way it fits in the suitcase, although that does look like a pretty big suitcase.

Pretty nifty travel harp made by Don Peddle of randomsound music in Canada and it sounds ok as well.

Delta Harp

This looks extremely cool - a new electric harp which has a bridge and more bass end - so a cross between bass guitar and harp? These are really going to take off.



Unfortunately not much in the way of videos on the internet at the moment which showcase the possibilities of what you can do with it, with slides and bending notes, but no doubt there will be soon. I really like the way you can wear it like a guitar as well as a harp.

Very cool photos of Remy van Kesteren playing one on the Delta Harps Facebook page

psychedelic harp & mushrooms

A fantastic video from Erin Hill, with some pretty awesome production!

Erin and her psychedelic harp, (otherwise known as a black Big Blue Camac harp) has made this video as result of crowd funding through Kickstarter and has a new funding scheme to make more videos through a tax-deductible scheme in the US. 



I hope she gets to do more videos from her album as they are great songs and she also has the funkiest of CD cover designs, which is available to purchase here

Come on British Government, why don't we have tax-deductible schemes for sponsoring the arts here in the UK?

tuning key

What a great idea! A clever clip on tuner embedded onto a tuning key by Dusty Strings - very nifty!

The concert version fits Lyon & Healy, Camac, Salvi harps etc. The universal has an adapter to fit all types of harps, not sure how strong and effective that would be though.

What I like the most is that the tuner can be tilted with your thumb to get better viewing angle whilst you are tuning, as well as the usual things like calibration and standard LED display you can see in the dark.

At $85 for the concert harp version that's not a bad price, and it's available from Sylvia Woods Centre. Birthday present anyone??

A Greek in Spain

I love this video by Maria Christina - great use of loop pedals and a fantastic vibe to "A Greek in Spain"

Her Music is a mixture of Greek traditional music, jazz, blues with experimental sounds.




Nicely done - more please!

how gut strings are made

Some nice little videos from the Hong Kong Harp Centre of a tour round the Bow Brand Factory.







When you get a string out of the packet, it's easy to not realise the process it's taken to get to you.

I had the pleasure of a good long tour round the Bow Brand factory some years ago which was amazing. If you ever get the chance, do go and visit them. It's brilliant to see how skillful all the wonderful people who make our strings are... the smell is quite something though! The chemicals not the workers!!!

The whole process is on this video produced by Bow Brand in 2010, which for some bizarre reason, sounds like it is narrated by a time traveling man from the 1940s.