After years of no harp shop in the land, good news for harpists in Israel - Aylet's Strings, Camac's new representation in Tel Aviv, is now open! It has been founded by Camac-certified harp technician Nadav Konieczny and his mother, Nili, and finally offers Israeli harpists the chance to buy harps and accessories directly, and to have their harps regulated whenever it suits them.
"I have a background in fixing things, like cars", Nadav explained to Harpblog yesterday, "so when we inherited a Russian harp with a broken neck mechanism I tried - with the help of a harp manual - to fix that too. Harps are very neglected in Israel because of the scarcity of regulation tours, and it has always been difficult to get hold of parts for independent repairs. I ended up working on quite a few harps belonging to friends and local teachers, and in the end we thought - we're doing a lot of helping out here, so why not make it official?
We contacted Eric Piron at Camac France about the possibility of becoming Camac partners in Israel. He responded warmly, and invited us to Mouzeil so that Nadav could take the Camac technical course and become a certified Camac technician. Aylet's Strings has now been open for three months, and we will be exhibiting at the first Israeli Harp Festival next week. I will be conducting a workshop for harpists in basic harp maintenance, and we'll also be bringing a fine Atlantide Prestige and a Bardic for people to try. We're also lending this Atlantide to artists performing in the festival who cannot bring their own harp, so of course we are also organising time for them to get used to the harp before they perform.
We hope we can offer harpists a valuable resource both for buying new instruments, and having their existing ones repaired for the first time in Israel. I'm designing a harp trolley at the moment, which a racing car manufacturer I know will then build. The point is to be able to offer accessories without astronomical import costs. At the moment, if you buy a low range harp trolley for $300, you have to pay $700 on top of that for the shipping from the US.
In any case, I take a lot of pleasure in good technical design. I really admire the innovations Camac has brought into harp design, from the way they have eliminated the possibility of broken pedal rods, to the disc system that gives a more precise intonation. They are the harps of the twenty-first century, and I can't wait to see what they come up with next."
"Nadav Konieczny is a talented harp technician, whom it has been a pleasure to work with on the Camac technical course. I am delighted that he and Nili are now our official partners in Israel. Our instruments should now be more accessible and affordable for Israeli harpists, as well as such a good technician now being available full-time."
Jakez François
Nili Konieczny at the Camac factory in Mouzeil
Nili and Claude at L'Espace Camac in Paris
