Harpblog

Jean-Michel Damase, 1928 - 2013

Jean-Michel Damase, while president of the jury of the Concours Cité des Arts, 2011. Photo: Jean-Marc Volta

 

As many of you will have already heard, Jean-Michel Damase died the day before yesterday, at the age of 85. Son of the great harpist Micheline Kahn, he leaves behind him an exceptional, prolific and imaginatively diverse contribution to our instrument. From absolute beginners to the most virtuoso artists, a concert harpist's repertoire is not complete without at least one work by Jean-Michel. Those fortunate enough to have known or met him personally equally treasure his kindness, open-mindedness and good humour. Like many distinguished musicians, he was first and foremost an exceptional human being. He will be sorely missed. 

Celebrating 100 years of harp at the Kiev Conservatory

 

On April 21st, the Kiev Conservatory will hold an anniversary concert to celebrate one hundred years of the conservatory's harp class. We are sponsoring the performances of two distinguished alumni of the conservatory: Andres Izmailov (Russia), and Hana Jouzova (Czech Republic). 

Jakez and I had a fascinating first trip to Kiev in 2009, when we attended the First Ukranian International Harp Conference, and which you can read about here. 

Results of the Pencerdd Gwalia Competitions 2013

Here are the results of the two competitions of the Pencerdd Gwalia Festival. The final stages took place in Bridgend, Wales, birthplace of the great Welsh harpist John Thomas, last week on April 13th. 

Junior Competition - under 17 years of age:

1. Mared Emyr Pugh-Evans 
2. Molly-Rowan Sharples 
3. Cassandra Tomella

 

Senior Competition - under 25, but with no lower age limit:

1. Llywelyn Ifan Jones 
2. Elfair Grug Dyer 
3. Molly-Rowan Sharples

 

 

Congratulations to all laureates!

The final followed rounds of competition in South and North Wales. The competition day was rounded off by a concert to celebrate John Thomas' life and work, featuring performances by Catrin Finch, Hannah Stone, Katherine Thomas, Gary Griffiths and the Tabernacle Choir. We sponsored the concert, and the first prize in the Junior Competition was sponsored by our Cardiff partners, Telynau Vining Harps.

The festival website has a good collection of information about John Thomas, ranging from contemporary anecdotes and extracts from Thomas's own journals, to two articles about Bridgend in the 1830s and links to events, recordings and sheet music.  

 

New lever harp journal - Harpes Mag'

 

For the French readers among you, there's a new lever harp journal out - and it's free! You can download the first issue of Harpes Mag here: 37 pages of articles about Stéphan Lemoine, Andréa Seki, Jean-Luc Vaillant, Valérie Patte, and many more. The magazine also contains the sheet music for Seki's arrangement of Scarborough Fair. 

For more information, contact the magazine's editor on harpesmag@voila.fr.

 

Cité des Arts prize tour: Maureen Thiébaut

Maureen Thiébaut in the final of the Cité des Arts competition, performing with the Quatuor Michalakakos. Photo: Jean-Marc Volta

Maureen Thiébaut, winner of the last Concours de la Cité des Arts de Paris, will perform her prize tour in April. She will start with a matinée recital at the Harfengalerie Camac Berlin, on April 21st, 2013 at 11AM. Your next chance to hear her will be in Cardiff: a lunchtime concert at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, April 30th at 1:15PM. Finally, she will perform in Italy on May 26th, at the beautiful Villa Carlotta on Lake Como. 

 

Villa Carlotta

Entrance to all events is free. If you need any more information, please contact our partners in Berlin, Cardiff and Milan, our collaborators on the tour:

 

Harfengalerie Camac Berlin

+49 30 21 97 11 76

info@harfengalerie.de

 

Telynau Vining Harps

+44 2920 620900 

info@camacharps.co.uk

 

Camac Italia

+39 3280 36 46 96

info@harpshop.eu

Early harp opportunities in Verona and Palermo

If you are interested in Baroque and Renaissance harp, Loredana Gintoli has some vacancies in her classes at the Conservatoire Dall'Abaco, Verona, and Conservatoire V. Bellini, Palermo. There are three types of course available: a three-year standard degree, a two-year experimental degree, and also a one- or two-year flexible course. Italian tuition fees are still relatively low, so it is a good chance to expand your professional options in a manageable and flexible way.  

Applications are due by the end of April, and auditions will take place some time before the academic year begins in November. Course prerequisites are good performing skills on a polyphonic instrument, plus good knowledge of harmony.

New jobs

I've just added some more jobs to our opportunities page. Don't forget your wonderful chance to become a member of the Bavarian Radio Symphony orchestra! 

Photos from Edinburgh

More photos from Edinburgh - the festival's fantastic official photographer, Lieve Boussauw, has very kindly allowed us to publish her pictures on Harpblog! Thank you Lieve - we love your work!

Edmar Castaneda

Edmar, Park Stickney

Jakez's new harp

Good news for Jakez in Edinburgh - he's finally found an antique Welsh triple harp for his collection of historical instruments. The harp, from 1896, has the original construction with the right hand playing the bass register, and the left hand the treble. 

Jakez has been searching for one of these for ages

Great new lever harp blog

 

The Camac team are currently heading to the Edinburgh Festival (another event I'm pretty gutted to be missing) - and thinking about the lever harp in Scotland leads me to highlight a really great new lever harp blog by Tristan Le Govic. Celticharpblog.com does what it says in its name, is written in English and in French, and currently features a particularly interesting interview about string theory - or, why the world is like a giant lever harp.

For intelligent, wide-ranging writing about the lever harp, with particular focus on Celtic repertoire and pedagogy, look no further than the Celtic Harp Blog. There is also a page where you can join in and describe your top three lever harp recordings.