Josh Layne's Harp Blog

I’m a classical harpist and composer – welcome to my blog

  • The season finale of Harpist in the Wild, season 6, plus a live-stream celebration!

    The season finale of Harpist in the Wild, season 6, plus a live-stream celebration!

    The 8th and final episode of Harpist in the Wild, season 6: Duets, goes live at 8am PST on Saturday, March 1, 2025 – you’ll be able to watch it here. This episode is another harp and voice duet with Rafaela Schützner, featuring the haunting Irish song She Moved Through the Fair, recorded in the…

  • Harpist in the Wild returns!

    Harpist in the Wild returns!

    (This was originally sent out as a newsletter to my email subscribers – join my list to have this delivered right to your inbox!) I’m thrilled to announce the final two videos of Harpist in the Wild season 6: Duets! Season 6 has featured duets that I recorded during my 2023 European adventures. I posted…

  • How long this publishing project took me (wearing a publisher’s hat)

    How long this publishing project took me (wearing a publisher’s hat)

    How long did it take me to typeset and publish my harp arrangement of the Andante from Bach’s Organ Sonata No. 4? Let’s find out! As I mentioned in my last post, the piano transcription that I was working from is five pages long. I estimated that it might take me about 5 hours to…

  • Happy New Year!

    Happy New Year!

    I hope 2025 brings good things to you and yours! I welcomed in the new year (as I’ve been doing since 2016) with an improvisation. I hope you enjoy!  And on New Year’s eve I wrote the first of a series of planned blog posts about “wearing a publisher’s hat” – various topics to do…

  • Wearing a publisher’s hat – new blog series

    Wearing a publisher’s hat – new blog series

    These days, amongst other hats, I find myself wearing the hat of a music publisher (in a very small way). I had planned to do a bunch of blogging from this perspective in 2024, and yet here it is, December 31st already… Guess I better get on it! As a publisher, one of the decisions…

  • Catching up on news (November 25 newsletter).

    Catching up on news (November 25 newsletter).

    Hi all! It’s been awhile since I wrote – I’m now back home in Victoria after three amazing months in Europe. I’ve just uploaded a video of my performance of the Adagio from Concierto de Aranjuez – Joaquin Rodrigo’s beautiful guitar concerto. I think almost anyone who hears it falls in love with the melody…

  • A train and ferry journey to the UK, plus additional concert dates

    A train and ferry journey to the UK, plus additional concert dates

    I wrote this from Enfield (near London), getting ready for my concert that happened this Wednesday. I had a full day’s trip to get to the UK and I just posted a short video with impressions of the journey! The trip involved an early start to catch a train near Cologne and take it to…

  • Upcoming concerts and more!

    Upcoming concerts and more!

    Today I’m writing from the Dortmund area (again!). I’ve been criss-crossing Germany and feeling fully recovered from the cold I had a couple weeks ago. I was just in the beautiful Bodensee area last weekend where I was teaching at the second of three “Connected Continents” weekend workshops (next stop, Hamburg) followed by a trio…