Cynthia Cathcart on Wire Harp: New Claret Duet

This piece can be found on Cynthia’s CD ‘Alchemy of a Rose’ (which I highly recommend). Not only is Cynthia an extremely accomplished wire harp player, she has also put out several excellent method & repertoire books for wire harp.  You can visit her website at cynthiacathcart.net

The Wrong Trousers Rock Lestats

I just can’t get enough of these kids. Although it’s hard to find YouTube videos of them with any kind of decent sound quality (believe it or not, this is one of the better ones). One of my favourite performances of theirs is a street performance of Video Killed the Radio Star that we posted earlier here. The official Wrong Trousers MySpace page can be found here.

February Tune of the Month: Portsmouth

Portsmouth is a popular English Country Dance tune. This version is in G major. Goes well with Knole Park and All in a Garden Green. To hear a midi version of this tune, click here.

The HarpBlog Tune of the Month is courtesy of Chubby Sparrow Music . For a printable version, right click on the picture and choose “save target as”, or pop over to the Chubby Sparrow Free Music page for more detailed printing instructions (note: if you just left click and try to print directly from the browser, it probably won’t print at the right size).

Jan. 31st: St. Brigid’s Day Concert in Ottawa

Jan. 31 ’09 concert, Ottawa, ON: In celebration of St. Brigid’s Day, Ellen MacIsaac (voice) and Mary Muckle (harp and voice) are giving a concert of Irish, Scottish and Welsh songs and harp music at St. Luke’s Anglican Church, 760 Somerset Street W., January 31/09, 8 pm. Guest performers include The Celtic Choir, Cantorian Cerdd Dant ( Welsh penillion singers) and harpists Kelly Aminian and Julie Leduc. Tickets, available at the Ottawa Folklore Centre or at the door, are $15 general and $10 seniors and students. For more info call 613-825-1379 or email mucklerice@rogers.com.

Renaissance Dance Harp Workshop, January 23 (Morrow, Georgia)

January 23, 2009 – Improvising on Renaissance Dances, with Paula Fagerberg, historical harpist.
Join us while we learn some of the most popular ground basses and dance chord progressions of the Renaissance and Baroque eras, and explore concepts in period-appropriate improvisation on the tunes. Come jam with us and let your creativity go! For all harps. Chromatic harps (lever, pedal, multi-row) will have the easiest time, but diatonic harps will work too. Lever harps are available to rent for those who need an instrument. Ask for details.
What: Sixth Annual Midwinter Workshop (sponsored by The Atlanta Early Music Alliance)
When: Friday, January 23, 2009, 6:00-9:30 PM; Saturday, January 24, 9:00 AM-6:00 PM.
Where: Clayton State University, Music Education Building, Morrow, Georgia (www.clayton.edu)
Fee: $95 (includes box lunch for Saturday) plus music fee.
For more information and a registration form, please see www.atlema.org, or contact Jorg Voss at Jorg@JFV.com or (770) 998-3575.

More Harp Events Here.