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 from the 2nd movement of this concerto. I’m no exception and I did this arrangement for solo harp many years ago (I recorded it in 2001 as part of my CD Masterworks for Harp). I loved playing it as part of my European concert program, and I’m very happy to share this performance of it from a concert in Hamburg, Germany on October 25th.

I will be uploading more concert footage in the next few weeks – stay tuned!

Right now I’m busy preparing for two performances of Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols with the Island Bel Canto Singers. Ceremony of Carols is such a wonderful piece of music and it has a particularly special meaning to me because my first ever Harp Tuesday episode featured an in-depth look at it!

I just filmed a Harp Tuesday episode revisiting Ceremony of Carols. I always love trying to figure out better ways of doing something – even (or especially?) in pieces I’ve played for decades and know well.

In this episode I look at a few spots in the Carols on which I’ve changed my approach over the years (for the better, I think!) – including one spot that I figure out on camera could be done a different way!

Looking forward to more Harp Tuesday episodes now that I’m home :)

If you’re on Vancouver Island, you can catch the performances of Ceremony of Carols in Nanaimo on Sunday, Dec. 1 (tomorrow!) and in Parksville on Sunday, Dec. 8. More details here.

If you’re in Victoria, don’t miss Ensemble Sangineto! (Including the amazing Adriano Sengineto – check out our jam session from episode 2 of this season of Harpist in the Wild). They’re performing this weekend on Saturday and Sunday – I’m hoping to make it back home in time after my choir concert to catch their show at Hermann’s! (They’re headed to the states after that, check out their upcoming concert dates).

Ensemble concert videos!

I’m going to be posting more videos from my solo concerts in Europe soon, in the meantime if watching the Rodrigo has whetted your appetite, check out these duo and trio performances on Lena Rummel and Kristine Warmhold‘s YouTube channels:

Bodenseewellen/Waves on Lake of Constance by Lena Rummel (Trio Version)

Streuobstwiese by Kristine Warmhold (Trio Version)

Martini Summer by Lena Rummel (Trio Version)

Seagulls for Harp Duo by Kristine Warmhold (this was in a church in Cologne that had something along the lines of a 6 second delay/reverb!)

And something a bit different, Hush, my Baby, a song by Kristine Warmhold

Christmas with Harp Tuesday

And finally, as it’s almost December, I thought I’d highlight the Harp Tuesday episodes I’ve done over the years of Christmas/seasonal music:

3 easy pieces including free sheet music

Carol of the Bells + plus a follow up on figuring out how to play it on pedal harp. Sign up for my newsletter to get the music for free!

Oh Come Emmanuel. Sheet music.

Deck the Halls. Sheet music.

Then 3 episodes of more difficult music:

Two Salzedo arrangements (challenging):

Fantasy on a Catalan Carol (Fum, Fum, Fum)

Concert Variations on O Tannenbaum

And George Winston’s wonderful setting of Carol of the Bells. (Music video).

That’s all for now – wishing you all the best and thanks as always for reading!

Cheers,
Josh


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