Harpblog

Camac review of the year 2010

As 2010 draws to a close, it seems a good time to look back on Camac's activites throughout the year.

Commercially, 2010 saw the launch of our online boutique, where you can buy music, CDs and DVDs and harp accessories. There are also new string charts, to help make ordering strings less confusing, especially for parents and other non-harpists.

 

We also launched an online second-hand harp list. Our second-hand instruments often come to us in part-exchange for new Camacs. We overhaul them thoroughly before selling them on, so you can be confident that the instrument is in as good a condition as it can be. 

You can access both our online boutique and second-hand shop via our commercial site, www.camac-harps.com. This site also, of course, contains details of all our models of concert, electric and lever harps currently for sale. There are links to our partner stores abroad, technical manuals, our quarterly newsletter Harpseasons, and an artists' gallery. We aim to be as accessible to as many parts of the world as possible and this year added a Polish version of our main website, for which many thanks to Marta Mogielnicka for the translation. Don't forget that we are also looking for new welcome music for our commercial website - see "Become a Camac Voice!" on Harpblog for details!

We are delighted to report that our new models launched in 2009 - the concert Elysée and Vendome harps, plus the ultra-wearable DHC Blue Light, have enjoyed great success in 2010; the DHC Blue Light is selling so fast even Deborah Henson-Conant herself has had to go on the waiting list. More and more harpists are putting their trust in our instruments and service, developing longstanding collaborations with us and becoming our friends. Our harps can now be found in the homes of professionals, top orchestras and music colleges throughout the world. Ten years after Camac's founder Joël Garnier sadly passed away, his spirit lives on:  his love for the harp, his passion for innovation and quality, his open-minded willingness to listen to suggested improvements, and his affection and respect for the harpists without whom no harp would sound at all. At the start of 2011 we look forward to a concert in Paris celebrating Joël: we are touched beyond words by the response from the harp community, which caused the concert to sell out before we had sent out the official flyer.

One of the things that gives us enormous pleasure, and which is certainly also a continuation of Joël's spirit, is the sponsorship and support we are able to offer to harpists. This naturally includes festivals, competitions, and recitals and recordings by top international artists. General music festivals tend either to neglect the harp, or only to programme its most standard repertoire: in contrast, festivals within the harp world play a key role in promoting new repertoire and celebrating fine harpists. Competitions discover new talent and provide valuable and intense experiences for young harpists, and it is wonderful to celebrate our instrument's most brilliant artists. However, it is also important to us to sponsor beyond these traditional avenues. If you mostly offer classical début recitals to international competition winners, you only help about three people a year. We aim to be much broader, more democratic, and to recognize the huge variety of ways in which musicians can develop flourishing careers for themselves. Our news blog, www.harpblog.info, reports on everything that is going on, and we never cease to be amazed by and to admire harpists' diversity and creativity.

 

 

 

 

Harpy Christmas!

Happy Christmas from all the team at Camac Harps!

May your journeys to Christmas gigs be easier than for our seasonal harp hero pictured here, Keziah Thomas!

'Carte Blanche' à Cristina Braga, January 9th @ L'Espace Camac, Paris

On January 9th, the day after the now-sold-out concert in homage to Joël Garnier, Camac Harps are delighted to invite you to an exceptional workshop about the harp in Brazil, with Cristina Braga!

Would you like some white beaches and warm breezes in the depth of winter? Do you want to break away from routine and get to grips with Brazilian rhythms and key Latin-American repertoire ? Then don't delay any longer - this workshop is for you! This afternoon, Cristina Braga is sure to transport you to different shores, and instill some Brazilian soul.

CONCERT 'Carte Blanche à Cristina Braga', 6PM

Considered to be the most important harpist in Sourth America, Cristina Braga is Principal Harpist of the Symphony Orchestra of Rio de Janeiro. After a classical training at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, then with Susann McDonald in the United States, Cristina has particularly explored popular Brazilian music on the harp. She was the first Brazilian harpist to record a samba CD, then one of bossa nova, and she also worked with the famous singers within this genre. Her delicate, sweet and somewhat melancholy voice seems especially suited to this repertoire. From Villa Lobos to Tom Jobim, together with her own compositions, Cristina will offer you - in the space of all too short an evening - a superb anthology of famous standards from her country. This music is tipped to become the classics of many, many years to come.

DON'T MISS HER PERFORMANCE AT L'ESPACE CAMAC!

Applications for the workshop and reservations for the concert to Florence Lédi:

+33 6 71 80 56 47

f.ledi@camac-harps.com

MIDI harp seminar, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London 10.01.11

  SEMINAR: JANUARY 10th, 10:30AM, MUSIC HALL, GUILDHALL SCHOOL OF MUSIC AND DRAMA, LONDON

MIDI HARP – new era, or fancy toy?

COME AND DECIDE

Camac have made a concert MIDI harp. It can convert the harp's sound to anything. It can pilot a film or write down a score: it is a design masterpiece.

But MIDI technology is nothing new. If this harp can sound like a trumpet, so has your  electric keyboard been able to for years. The fate of the MIDI harp depends on what is done with it. Will it reach its potential, or end up a gimmick?

 

 

 

 

 

On January 26th, 2011 in the Maida Vale Studios, Sioned Williams, Andrew Litton and the BBC Symphony Orchestra will premiere Graham Fitkin's No Doubt: Concerto for MIDI Harp and Orchestra. The world's first concerto for the MIDI concert harp uses MIDI technology to have the harp trigger recordings of politicians' voices during the Iraq war: a politically as well as musically incendiary work.

 

 

Sioned Williams

 

January 10th's seminar will present the first in-depth discussion of the artistic and technical issues associated with the creation of this sensational new work. From the performer's experience producing sounds that at once do and do not belong to them, to the complexities of writing for both harp and technology together, composers, harpists, technicians, classical and contemporary musicians and of course interested members of the general public are all warmly welcome.

The morning will cover:

-    Introduction to the MIDI harp
-    Graham Fitkin’s new concerto: artistic & technical issues
-    Other approaches to writing for this instrument
-    Q & A session, and hands on the harp     

 

 

 
Dominic Murcott

With:

Sioned Williams,  Principal Harp, BBC Symphony Orchestra

Dominic Murcott, Composer

Helen Leitner, Camac Harps

ADMISSION FREE

 

Photos: Yvonne White

Friday Question of the Week

Two Polish harpists (and one French) have won the DVDs to last week's question - the famous Polish vodka I was talking about is Chopin Vodka!

Chopin and Liszt have been generally in my thoughts as I've been writing the sleeve notes for a new harp CD of works by these two composers. Which leads us to this week's question: which young star in the harp firmament has recorded this CD?

Christmas will come early with a fab jazz DVD for the first three correct answers hitting Harpblog's Santa inbox: harpblog@camac-harps.com.

Celtic harp courses with Myrdhin

Calling all lever harpists! Breton Celtic harp legend Myrdhin has sent Harpblog details of some upcoming courses. The courses will focus on Breton and Irish repertoire, improvisation, and autonomy at the harp.

Both in Plouer sur Rance, France, the first course is on Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th of March, 2011; the other course is the weekend of 30th of April and 1st of May.

Each Saturday lessons will run from 2 to 7PM, and on the Sundays the course will start at 10AM and end at 3PM, when there will be a closing public concert (tickets: €5).

Each course costs €100 to attend, including two meals, or €180 for both. Accomodation in Plouer can be booked via this link. Myrdhin particularly recommends Pont Méveault (contact Rosy Bordessa : 00 33 2 96 86 83 86, or La Guérais - Sylvie Billion, 0033 2 96 89 12 81).

Please send your applications to:

MYRDHIN
La GALERIE
22490 PLOUER SUR RANCE
myrdhin@telenn.net
00 33 6 08 64 55 02

You can read more about the history of the lever harp in Brittany here.

Alice in Antarctica!

News of a fascinating  new project from Alice Giles! Alice has been awarded an Australian Antarctic Division Arts Fellowship to travel on the Aurora ship to the Mawson Base, Antarctica, in February and March, 2011.

Camac are sponsoring on the logistical side - helping finance the shipping of harps and equipment to and from Hobart - and are also contributing towards the cost of a new work from Australian composer Martin Wesley-Smith.

Alice will be travelling with her blue harp, plus a lever harp from the Tasmanian harp maker Andrew Thom. She writes: "I will be making a recording of performance/s at the base during the 8 day stop at the base, record sounds of the (infamously strong) winds through the harp strings, and conduct a continuous blog about the trip involving interaction with composers whose works I will perform, and with school children (of all levels) who will be encouraged to follow the voyage and ask questions. The blog will obviously also be open for harpists and people interested in the Antarctic all over the world."

Alice's blog already contains extensive information about the project, the music that will be performed, and educational links about Antarctica.

It will also be a good test of how sturdy our instruments are!

"I have no idea how the harp will stand up to the temperatures. The recording equipment is also very sensitive to cold temperatures. On the ship we will have the crate in an area that is meant to be above 0, and inside the base it will be warm. I can't be sure what will happen between ship and base, but it is a risk I have to take for the extraordinary nature of the opportunity. I will use the Thom lever harp, which is also blue, and uses composite materials including aluminium and leather as well as wood, for anything I might attempt outside, and for use during the long sea voyage when I won't have access to the harp or equipment in the crate.

My grandfather Dr Cecil T. Madigan was a member of the first Australian Antarctic Expedition, and 2011 marks the centenary of the start of that voyage. I will perform a piece that uses references to his diaries, as well as other pieces written for the occasion, some pieces that would have been listened to on the original expedition, and possibly other pieces from my blue harp repertoire. As far as I can trace, this will be the first visit to the Antarctic by a professional musician for the purposes of performance (as distinct from composers)."

Recordings of Alice's musical journey will be replayed, along with further creative musical and audio-visual additions at the 24-26 June 2011 “Antarctica Music Events” weekend at the ANU School of Music. This exciting project will take place before the “Antarctica - Music, Sound and Cultural Connections” Conference to be hosted by the ANU School of Music 27 – 29 June.

Alice's blog is interactive, allowing you to ask her questions about the history of the Australasian Expedition, the project's music, or the great adventure that it is. We'll be following her journey avidly! Watch this space.

Beginners' workshop at the Harfengalerie Camac Berlin, 20th February 2011

The next in our series of Camac France-sponsored events at the Harfengalerie Camac Berlin will be a workshop for complete beginners on Sunday, February 20th 2011 between 3 and 6PM, led by Berlin concert harpist Maria Todtenhaupt.

If you read Harpblog, there is a good chance you play the harp already, but please forward this information to anybody you think might be interested!

 

Never played the harp? Always wanted to try? Suddenly intrigued? The afternoon of Sunday, February 20th, at the Harfengalerie Camac Berlin is for you! From 3-6PM, in a FREE workshop sponsored by Camac Harps France, Berlin concert harpist Maria Todtenhaupt will present and explain this instrument: an instrument so stunning to hear and to look at, yet for many still so mysterious. It is a mystery well worth unravelling! The harp has the most extraordinary range of colours and effects, and can play all types of music from folk, classical and jazz to the newest sonic experiments. Not for nothing did the great harpist Marcel Grandjany remark that "the possibility of colour, dynamics, effects and scope of literature are endless with this beloved instrument of mine; it represents the entire orchestra."

Everyone is welcome between the ages of 10 and 100, no matter what level of musical training you've had in the past. You do not need to be able to read music. Harps of all shapes and sizes, not to mention coffee and cake, will be provided by the Harfengalerie Camac Berlin.

Places are necessarily limited so please book by emailing Helen Leitner on helen@camac-harps.com, or tel. +49 151 226 72340.

We look forward to welcoming you in Berlin, to discover the harp!

Wir freuen uns darauf, Sie herzlich in der Harfengalerie Camac Berlin willkommen zu heißen!

Sie haben noch nie an einer Harfe gezupft, wollten es aber schon lange einmal ausprobieren? 

 

Dann ist Sonntag der 20. Februar 2011 Ihr großer Tag!  Von 15.00 bis 18.00 Uhr bieten wir, die Harfengalerie am Schloss Berlin-Charlottenburg, einen Schnupperkurs für Harfe an. 

Harfengalerie Camac Berlin

Where next with the MIDI harp? - Arnaud Roy

Coupled to the world premiere of Graham Fitkin's No Doubt: Concerto for MIDI Harp and Orchestra in London on January 26th, Sioned Williams will be giving a workshop at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama on January 10th (more details soon to follow on Harpblog). This event will explore the artistic implications of playing a MIDI harp instead of a concert harp. For example, the harp sound currently programmed into the MIDI harp is a sample of Gabriella Dall'Olio playing, so when Sioned plays, Gabriella's sound is what you hear. That is a strange new world for today's classical artist: a sound that both is and is not their own.

Obviously the MIDI harp's future lies in serious artistic use; otherwise, it can only be an amusing toy, not all that different from a MIDI keyboard, albeit it much more expensive. A pioneer of the artistic development of the MIDI harp is the French harpist, composer and sound designer Arnaud Roy.

Arnaud, who has a background in audio-visual design as well as in music, began working with the MIDI harp almost as soon as the first prototype appeared, in 2009. Jakez lent him the instrument for the summer vacation of this year, to test its technology and see what possibilities could be explored.

Friday Question of the Week

In answer to last week's question, the Arctic animal in question is of course the HARP SEAL! The Harp Seal can grow to up to two metres long and weigh up to 190kg. If Camac started breeding seals, I'm sure we could find a way to make them lighter, just as we have done with the use of carbon fibre in our harps. This has allowed us to shave ten kilos off the weight of our concert harps, without compromising sound quality. We use fine woods for the parts of the harp that affect the sound, such as the soundboard, but carbon fibre with a wood veneer can be used to excellent effect in structural components such as the column.

Despite the snow, the Camac team made it to Cracow for the harp days organized there by Agnieszka Grela. A great time was had by all and the success of the weekend has inspired this week's question. It is not *strictly* to do with harps, but it is musical. There is a brand of very delicious Polish vodka with a composer's name in the title. What is the brand?
 
Nazdrowie, and have a nice weekend!