The Milevska Trio at the World Harp Congress, Amsterdam 2008
Speaking of jazz, another jazz harpist Camac loves is Rossitza Milevska. Even "jazz harpist" is a bit of a misnomer because Rossitza actually does many types of music, such as classical, world, impro and pop. Composer and singer as well as harpist, you can also read about Rossitza at www.popharp.com.
Rossitza studied classical harp at the Sofia Conservatoire in her native Bulgaria, before postgraduate work with Elisabeth Fontan-Binoche in France. Having played and recorded various piece of jazz/variety music since the age of fifteen, post-concert harp studies she decided to expand her grasp of jazz. Like so many successful jazz harpists,
Rossitza did this by studying with a jazz pianist: Robert Persi at the Conservatoire National de Region in Nice. Rossitza also began lessons on the piano herself, but introduced the harp into their lessons more and more, adapting what she had learnt for the piano to the harp. The process was a mixture of open-minded guidance from Persi, and personal experimentation.
Although the harp's relatively atypical status in jazz presents its challenges, Rossitza points out that to be unusual is also an advantage: "it was a pleasure to adapt and arrange standards for a new type of sound. Especially coupled with singing, jazz harp makes for an original sound. The development of the electric harp has also made it possible for the harp fully to participate in jazz bands - whereby it is necessary to have some idea about amplification to be able to profit from this instrument's great potential. I also use the lever harp, which allows a different approach on-stage and a different rapport with the audience, because of its portability."
You can hear Rossitza within a variety of ensembles and musical genres. "In Duo Eclectica (harp, piano and double
vocals, with Peggy Polito), we are interested in all types of music, and are one of the rare
ensembles to present classical, pop and jazz works within the same
concert. We also find it very important to arrange classical pieces that have never been
played by harp and piano together, to develop this repertoire." Another one of Rossitza's main groups is her jazz trio The Milevska Trio, with Frederick Lacroix and Cedric Le Donne, Your next chance to hear them live is on June 3rd at the Sentmenat International Harp Festival in Spain, and their music is a mixture of jazz standards - such as the YouTube clip below - and original compositions. We're all looking forward to Rossitza's first album, which will be out before too long!
The Milevska Trio cover Miles Davis's 'Human Nature'.
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