Become a Patron of the Arts for Siobhán Armstrong

Hello, friends.  Siobhan Armstrong, an Irish harper, and the director of the Historical Harp Society of Ireland, needs your help.  Siobhan is fundraising for a CD project that will feature the music of 16th Century Ireland.  On the forthcoming CD, she’ll play various harps, including her Kortier Trinity replica, and  will be accompanied by a range of musicians, including, as she explains on the video, a number of “up and coming” young Irish musicians and singers.  What a great project to support!

Please join me in immediately supporting this crowdsourced campaign, which will end on July 26, 2014.  Here’s the link to the secure FundIt site (http://fundit.ie/project/cd-music-of-16th-century-ireland).  Give a little if you can, and give a lot if it’s possible to do so.  Now, go watch the video, be inspired, and support this magnificent instrument’s revival.

PS:  I neglected to post information on the blog about a campaign that Simon Chadwick ran a few months back to support a concert series in St. Andrews, Scotland.   These projects are worthy of support, and you’ll feel the splendid surge of happiness that comes with providing 21st century patronage for players of the marvelous early Gaelic harp.

Wishing you a summer of good music and adventures,

-Sue

 

 

Harping at the Portland Highland Games

Here’s an exciting development:  for the first time, the Portland Highland Games, taking place next Saturday, July 20, 2013, will include harpers.  A friend of mine made it happen, and I’m proud of her as well as impressed.  I’ll be there with my Trinity College harp to talk with visitors about the clarsach traditions and the 20th/21st century revival of interest in this magnificent instrument.  Here is the schedule:

Harp demonstration and workshop:  1pm-2:30pm
Harp circle:  2:30-4pm

Mistral plays at Portland’s Bastille Day celebration, 2013.

In other news, I visited the Bastille Day celebration in downtown Portland today, and enjoyed the set played by my favorite Breton band, Mistral.  I hadn’t seen them perform since the excellent Dark Harvest Ballads back at Samhain.  They were in fine form.

If you come to the Highland Games, please come by to say hello!

–Sue

(A special thanks to my friend and mentor in Scotland who nudged me about posting.)

Interview with Ann Heymann, Siobhán Armstrong, and Talitha MacKenzie on Irish Radio

The 10th annual Scoil na gCláirseach in Kilkenny, Ireland has just ended, and why not find out more about some of its most interesting tutors and students?

Students at Scoil na gClairseach, 2009. Photo by Sue.

Here’s a link to an interview on KCLR, a radio station in Carlow/Kilkenny, Ireland.  You’ll hear Siobhán introduce the program with a brief history of the Summer School of the Early Irish Harp, with a delightful, intelligent explanation of replica harps, and how they are different in sound and materials from modern harps.  She clacks on her deliciously resonant soundbox for the benefit of the listeners, and goes on to play Eleanor Plunkett by Carolan on her Kortier Trinity College harp.  Then Talitha MacKenzie offers a brief example of puirt-a-beul, or mouth music, and the master of the instrument, Ann Heymann, closes with a short piece she learned from the fiddler James Kelly.  Check it out, as I don’t know how long the link will be active.  A special thanks to scholar Karen Loomis for pointing out the interview.

Wishing you a fine late summer,

–Sue