Canadian Harpists in the News

Apologies for the lack of posts these last few months, real life got in the way. More news and links to come, but in the meantime, here are three featured Canadian harpists in the news and in concert:

Thurs. May 14 concert at Hart House in Toronto, including Handel’s Harp Concerto with soloist Véronique Drozdz. 8pm.

Harpist revives old ways in the new world from Annapolis County shop (article on luthier Timothy Habinski)

Harpist Elizabeth Volpé Bligh happy to be a rarity

Alisa Sadikova, classical pedal harp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1-LCnGojnw

Alisa Sadikova, at the Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory Music
School. There’s some debate as to the actual title and composer of this piece in the YouTube comments, but consensus seems to say that it’s “La Source” by Albert Zabel (rather than The Fountain by Grandjany). Truly impressive playing either way. Hopefully young Alisa gets to have some ordinary kid time in between all the crazy hours she must be practicing. She certainly seems to be playing with her whole heart on this one.

Louis Spohr – Fantasie in C minor Op. 35

Apologies for the intermittent postings as of late. To make up for it, here are some lovely performances of classical masterworks, brought to you by the magic of the internet. – T.H.

Lena-Maria Buchberger performing Fantasie in C minor for solo harp, Op. 35, by Louis Spohr.

Harp effects in action

Ever wonder why your teacher insisted you learn things like harmonics, tremolo, trills, près de la table, and all those other harpy effects? This arrangement is a good example. And yes, all the effects she uses are also perfectly doable on lever harp.

The piece is Sweet Blues by Bernard Andres, performed by Ruth Boyajian during a Focus on Youth concert at the 11th World Harp Congress in Vancouver.

‘Summertime/Why Don’t You Do Right’, performed by Tamsin Dearnley

Great arrangement, stellar playing. And she flips levers like a boss. I won’t be buying a newsprint dress anytime soon (awesome though hers is), but this has definitely inspired me to get back to some of my more jazzy repertoire.

You can find out more about Tamsin via her website: http://www.tamsindearnley.co.uk/

The Urban Youth Harp Ensemble

I feel like I should have heard of this group before now. Such a great idea! I wish I was in a populated enough area to start something like this. The mission of the Urban Youth Harp Ensemble is “to deliver quality musical instruction on the harp, develop music reading skills and musicianship to at-risk, urban youth.” You can visit their official website at http://www.urbanharp.org/.

Here are some members of the group playing “What a Wonderful World” (the sound is a bit fuzzy but it’s still way cool):