To start this week, a link that got posted on one of the harp email lists I’m on (hat-tip to Janis) – “Musical Migrants” about musical emigrants from the Val d’Agri (Italy). Tons of pictures of harps and a fascinating read: http://www.youblisher.com/p/813853-Italian-Historical-Society-Journal-Musical-migrants Then, I saw this come by on my facebook feed – pretty funny […]
Sunday Spotlight for March 29th, 2015 Read More »
While doing my last Harp Tuesday episode (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YcSwbtjYA4 which features a look at me playing in slow motion) I got the idea to start a new video series. On the weeks when I don’t do a Harp Tuesday episode, instead I’ll do a “Slow Motion Monday” video. These videos will be quite short – a
New video series – Slow Motion Monday! Read More »
Last week I linked to Dame Janet Baker singing Elgar’s “Sea Pictures” – here’s a short video of her talking about stage fright: I stumbled across this symphony on YouTube yesterday by contemporary composer Andrei Golovin – I quite like it (notice also the very effective use of the piano in an orchestral setting): And
Sunday Spotlight for March 22, 2015 Read More »
One of my favourite moments at the World Harp Congress in 2011 was listening to Sylvain Blassel give a spellbind performance of the entire Bach Goldberg Variations. Here’s a video of him playing a portion of it: (You can buy his recording of the entire Variations on iTunes) Just played the harp part in Elgar’s
Sunday Spotlight for March 15th Read More »
It’s International Women’s Day today! Here’s a fascinating look at the gender makeup of the “top 20” US orchestras. Last week I posted a link to an interview with 100 year old former MET harpist, Reinhardt Elster. In the interview there’s a passing reference to the fact that back when he was hired orchestras were
Sunday Spotlight for March 8, 2015 Read More »
To lead off with this week, a link that came up on both my facebook feed and one of the harp email lists I’m a part of – an article about 100 year old former MET harpist, Reinhardt Elster. And then, speaking of harpists from an earlier era, here’s a video from 1963 of Marie-Claire
Sunday Spotlight for March 1st, 2015 Read More »
As I mentioned in the return of “Sunday Spotlight”, I want to do more writing this year. I’m going to start with a 3 part series talking about mistakes and learning. In this post I’m going to look at societal attitudes towards mistakes, as well as our own relationship with them. In part 2 I’ll
Musings on Mistakes – part one Read More »
For this week’s spotlight we start with some great “two minute technique” videos by the one and only Deborah Henson-Conant: http://www.hipharp.com/blog/9618 Then a nice collection of traditional pieces freely available – tune plus chords. http://www.cpmusic.com/tradmus.html (I’ve been using The Star of County Down with several students – a nice piece). And finally, this rather unique
Sunday Spotlight for Feb. 22, 2015 Read More »