Upcoming concerts – May 4 and 18, 2025

Join me in Chemainus and Victoria, BC, for a concert filled with stories! A time-traveling guitar in Deborah Henson-Conant’s Baroque Flamenco, a tragic tale of elves and a chevalier in Henriette Renié’s Légende, the evocative landscapes of Vivaldi’s Winter and Smetana’s The Moldau… these and more promise an unforgettable afternoon with the harp.

This coming Sunday, May 4th, Chemainus Classical Concerts presents “Once upon a harp” at 2pm – tickets and details here.

And then on Sunday, May 18th I’m performing at UVic in Victoria, BC:

 Tickets at www.joshlayne.com 

Couperin’s Le Dodo

This past Sunday I uploaded a music video of my arrangement of Couperin’s Le Dodo. This beautiful lullaby (Dodo = time to go to sleep) is the 2nd movement from Couperin’s 15th Suite (Qunzième Ordre). I was inspired to arranged it for harp after hearing Thomas Dunford and Jean Rondeau’s wonderful rendition of it on their album “Barricades“. 

Of course these days when I think of the piece I remember recording it “in the wild” in Tasmania a couple of years ago on lever harp – good times!

One more video left to go in my series of all six pieces from my book Baroque Music for Pedal Harp. The final video will be another work by Couperin – his Les Barricades Mystérieuses…

Australian bound, again!

Speaking of Tasmania, I’m excited to announce I will be the tutor at Harp Island in Tasmania in 2026! It takes place March 6th-9th, 2026 – Harp Island tends to sell out fast, so book now if you’re interested. A huge thank you to Camac Harps for sponsoring my travel! Updates on other Australian adventures in the days to come…

More Speed! A better way to play a section from Rodrigo’s Guitar Concerto?

Yesterday’s Harp Tuesday episode was a look at a pattern from the slow movement of Rodrigo’s beautiful Concierto de Aranjuez. 

I arranged this for solo harp over 20 years ago, but I’m always looking for better ways to do things, and last year I came up with an option that I think is much better and lets me get the speed and sound that I want in this pattern. 

I hope you enjoy this look at problem solving, and maybe carry it over to something you’re working on!

That’s all for now, as always, thanks for reading,
Josh

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