I’m performing this week (Oct. 20, 2025) in Dilsen-Stokkem (Belgium), Selm (Germany), and Münster (Germany) – see you there!
Hello all,
I’m in Europe right now – I wrote most of this newsletter on a high speed train going from Rome to Venice (at 245km!) on my way towards Grado, Italy, where I spent a wonderful few days doing some wildlife photography before continuing on to do a workshop in Trieste on Oct. 18th.
I fly to Belgium tomorrow to do a concert in Dilsen-Stokkem on Wednesday (Oct 22), then to Germany to perform in Selm and Münster, back to Belgium for a concert at an arts theatre/centre that used to be a farm, back to Germany for a concert and masterclass in Berlin at Camac harps, a concert in Leipzig, and then a concert, workshop, and masterclass in Vienna!
You can find the full schedule here – I hope to see you somewhere in Europe this fall.
Speaking of Selm, I recently posted a performance of The Moldau from the same church I’ll be performing at later this week. It has amazingly reverberant, lush acoustics and I love performing there – check out the video here.
I’m mainly doing concerts this year, but if you’d like to work with me there are a couple upcoming opportunities – the masterclass I will do at Camac in Berlin, and the workshop (teaching my composition Forgotten Summer) and masterclass I will offer in Vienna.
New Composition!
One of the pieces on this fall’s program is a brand new composition! It’s something I started writing in 2023 and just finished in early September of this year.
It’s called Starlight Glimpses and it features a repeating ostinato pattern throughout most of the piece, that gradually adds layer after layer. I’m very happy with it – hope to share a full performance with you soon!
(You can hear a few moments from it in this “trailer” I posted recently).
Calgary, Paris, Milan, and Rome.
My trip started with a lighting tour of Calgary, flying in on Saturday to perform that evening, then teaching a workshop and masterclass to a full house of Calgarian harpists – with a bonus visit by a family of elk wondering by the windows at one point!
I flew out that same Sunday to Paris and from there onto visit the Camac factory. Jakez François gave me a wonderful tour of their new factory space – fascinating!
(Jakez has been posting videos on social media describing his way through the factory, here’s the first episode on Facebook).
From there it was back to Paris, to visit harp stores (Camac, L’Instrumentarium, Harposphere) and try a bunch of harps. And also to hangout with Lena Rummel and Kristine Warmhold!
Last year we collaborated on three Connected Continents weekend workshops and various concerts. It was great to catch up with them both and explore Paris together. We were even treated to an unexpected concert – visiting Harposphere we learned that Sylvain Blassel was performing that evening – his arrangement for harp, flute, violin, viola, and cello of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3! (Sylvain’s recording of the Bach Goldberg Variations is one of my favourite recordings of the Variations, on any instrument).
From Paris I took a train to Turin and then by train and bus (an adventure!) to Piasco to the Salvi factory – again, fascinating, and now I’ve visited the factories of Camac, Lyon and Healy, and Salvi :)
Milan was my next stop, to do a concert at the Salvi showroom. You can see a few clips of that, plus clips from Calgary, in this short video.
I need to send this off and get packed for my flight tomorrow, will write more soon!
Cheers,
Josh