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:
And here's some more Catrin Finch news - our Dutch partners at the Otja Harp Center are hosting a specially large exhibition of our harps, plus the chance to have your Camac harp regulated, between April 5th - 7th, 2013. The weekend will be crowned with a recital by Catrin on Sunday, April 7th, at 16:00 at the Hervormde Kerk, Binnenweg 67, Bennebroek. Entrance is free, but it's a good idea to reserve your seats in advance.
To reserve tickets, and equally to book a regulation and to find out more about the exhibition, please contact Otja: 023-5849003 / otja@otjaharpcenter.com. Dutch-language details, and Catrin's programme, are up on Otja's site.
Many thanks to Nadav Konieczny for these photos of a recent workshop given by Edmar Castaneda at the Ayelet's String showroom. You can see the full album, and some short videos, on the Ayelet's String facebook page. A big thank-you too to the workshop participants for their feedback below!
"The workshop was an amazing experience! There was a great atmosphere, and I was amazed by Edmar's playing and personality. It gave me a new musical direction and I will never forget it. Thank you!" - Maya Knoller
"Edmar's workshop was very invigorating: with his smile, Edmar shows how much he loves music and the harp. He also gets everyone involved in experiencing his very special music and rhythms. His workshop was highly polished, and had everyone playing bossa nova by the end!" - Ruth Maayani
"It was very interesting to meet Edmar, he is a virtuoso, but also humble and willing to help ordinary people." - Nili Konieczny
Next month, our Welsh partner Telynau Vining Harps will also be hosting a two-day harp event, this time in Cardiff. This is to celebrate the opening of their new premises in the city, and offers a terrific programme featuring some of Wales's finest harping talent. As in Saltaire, there will be concerts, workshops, an exhibition of Camac harps, and Camac technicians available to service your harp.
All events - detailed below - will take place at the Cardiff School of Music, Cardiff University, Corbett Road, Cardiff, CF10 3EB. Regulation fees are £60.00 for a full lever harp service, and £140.00 for a full pedal harp service (any strings or levers required will be charged in addition).
Amanda Whiting will play some jazz, as well as give workshops on jazz harp and playing background music
The harp exhibition will feature an extensive range of Camac pedal and lever harps, together with a selection of music, strings, CDs and accessories. We've organised a particularly wide selection of finishes for the exhibition, as we realise that harpists buying in September can sometimes end up on waiting lists. We therefore hope to maximise your chances of finding the right harp at this event, and spare you waiting for a finish to become available.
Bookings can be made via info@camacharps.co.uk / 02920 620900. The closing date for bookings is September 4th. Concert tickets can also be purchased from the new Telynau Vining shop at 116B Pantbach Road, Birchgrove, Cardiff, over the phone on 02920 620900, or from Vining's webshop @ www.rowlandsonline.co.uk.
Here's a video we love where Ben Creighton-Griffiths teaches rugby star Gareth Thomas to play the harp! Ben won't be doing that at the Vining weekend, but he will be giving an afternoon concert.
And without further ado...here is the programme!
Tuesday, 11th September 2012
10AM - 7PM: Camac exhibition in the Octagon Foyer
11AM - 12 Noon: Hands-on-harp group session for complete beginners – Gwenllian Llŷr. Tickets: £10.
2PM - 3PM: The background harpist: how to be one; how to survive as one; all you need to know – Amanda Whiting. Admission: free.
Ayelet's Strings - our partners in Israel - hosted the first Israel Harp Meeting in Tel Aviv at the start of June. The meeting consisted of two workshops: the first a musical one, with Sunita Staneslow, the second a harp technician one, with Nadav Konieczny. It was a very successful day, with a full house of attendees, and great enthusiasm over this development for the Israel harp community.
Arpeggio is the brainchild of harpist Barbora Placha. "During my postgraduate studies with Jana Bouskova in Brussels, the time came for me to decide what harp to choose for my professional life. Obviously this is always going to be a matter of personal taste, but as somebody brought up on old, exhausted and unregulated harps from the Eastern bloc, I can tell you that all the major modern firms can offer you fine instruments. What they do not all offer, however, is a good service. When I saw how well Camac look after their harps and their clients, that clinched it for me, and I bought a blue harp.
I had also really benefited from all the harp events there are in Belgium, and I thought it was a pity there was nowhere in the Czech Republic to buy good-quality harps, as well as strings and music. As I was so happy with my harp, of course I wanted to approach Camac first with the idea. It did not take very long before the day of our official opening arrived. More than sixty harpists came to our opening day, from professionals, to very young beginners.
"The effect produced by harps – except in music that is intended to be heard at close quarters in a salon – is all the better when they are more numerous."
Hector Berlioz
It's not for nothing that 'Un Bal' from Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique is an orchestral audition excerpt. But it remains a bit galling, after all that hard work, not to be able to hear anything beyond some pinging from the tops of the arpeggios, and maybe a few nervous buzzes and pedal twangs after figure 22.
What can be done? Conductors: instead of shouting at the harps to play louder all the time, you could ask the orchestra to play quieter. This is theoretically intelligent, but in reality doesn't usually work well either. The really cunning solution is what Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos has just done with the Spanish National Orchestra: insist on four harps instead of two. Et voilà: glorious loud whooshing worthy of the most glittering Viennese ballroom.
In his memoirs, Berlioz mentions the difficulty he had getting Symphonie Fantastique performed, because of a lack of capable harpists and harps. What a pity he died one hundred and forty-three years, one month, two weeks and three days before the concert in Madrid on January 22nd this year! He would have been happy to see Alexander Granados and Camac Ibérica lend the orchestra an Atlantide Prestige, bringing their harps up to four in number.
Spanish National Orchestra Principal Harpist Nuria Llopez with Selma García Ramos, Isabel Maicas Muñoz and Celia Zaballos Cuesta in Symphonie Fantastique
Here are some photos from the second part of the launch party for La Casa del Arpa. Camac Ibérica is our new partner for Spain and also Portugal, and it was great to find that two students from Portugal had made the long journey to play in the masterclass with Isabelle Moretti. A huge thank-you to Isabelle for her wisdom and her time, and well done Sophie Steiner (Austria), Selma Garcia (Spain), Juan Antonia Garcia Diaz (Spain), Catarina Rebelo (Portugal) and Ana Aroso (Portugal)! Many thanks, also, to Nuria Llopis for being our wonderful interpreter throughout the masterclass.
As I said in my last post, we are also hugely proud of Alex: no detail was too much trouble, and his organisation and planning assured the great success of the weekend. He even gave me a ride on his motorbike, which is one of the most exciting things to have happened to me for ages.
Waiting for it all to begin - every chair in the store was brought downstairs, including the practice room sofa
La Casa del Arpa is only a few minutes' walk away from most of Madrid's most beautiful landmarks, including the Almudena cathedral pictured above.
Here in Madrid, Camac Ibérica's launch is underway! Last night, we heard a wonderful, sell-out concert by Marie Normant, Boris Grelier and Isabelle Moretti. Marie and Boris performed some of the best repertoire the flute and harp combination has to offer, with great temperament and flair - if you think flute and harp is boring, look no further than this duo for a swift revision of opinion. From the wistful, et in Arcadia-quality of Jean Cras's Suite en Duo, to the kaleidoscope of feeling that is Piazzolla's Histoire Du Tango and the Romantic plasticity of the Saint-Saëns Fantasie Op. 124, we didn't want the first half to end. We were, however, soon comforted by the arrival of the second half. Isabelle Moretti received a standing ovation for her stunning programme, the first concert on her new harp, and featuring the first performance of her transciption of Debussy's Suite Bergamasque. When Isabelle's first notes rang out, I wondered if I had died and gone, against all the odds, to heaven. I was not the only one asking themselves this question: had it been true, St Peter would have had a busy night. Whatever happens in the afterlife, in the here and now, one thing is sure. It is not always easy to be a musician, but when you experience such music, you remember why you are doing it, what makes it all worthwhile.
The concert was followed by a drinks reception at the Camac Ibérica store. "I'm on the list...Jakez, he knows me" I squeaked, as I tried to get through the door. Finally inside, it was great to find a party in full swing, that went on well into the small hours. It's just as well Spanish time runs later than in the chilly North. Isabelle's masterclass will begin today at 4PM, and we're now all up, bright-eyed and off for some tapas before it begins.
We are really proud of Alexander Granados, who has worked tirelessly to prepare the showroom and organise the event. It has also been brilliant that so many Spanish harpists made time to attend - muchas gracias to you all!
On Saturday, January 14th, there will be a concert in two parts. The first part will be a flute and harp programme by Boris Grelier and Marie Normant; after the interval, Isabelle Moretti will give a solo recital. You can download the full programme here:
On Sunday, January 15th, between 4PM and 6PM, Isabelle Moretti will give a masterclass for students. Both concert and masterclass are free of charge and open to all, but it is a good idea to reserve a place in advance.
To book as an auditor for the concert and/or masterclass, or to enquire about participating in the masterclass, please contact Sr. Alexander Granados by telephone: +34 91 006 37 27 - +34 61 964 89 68 (please do not email).
