And, for French-speaking lever harpists, here's another course, with Roxane Martin and Clotilde Trouillaud.
I'm intrigued by how this course is run by an artists' collective, la compagnie bAlAgAn. Their site provides a platform for their artists to sell their CDs and scores, advertise their courses, share their diaries, and discuss and exchange ideas.
The sun is out, the birds are singing, the snowman I built on my balcony is melting, Je Suis Encore Dans Mon Printemps is playing on my iPod... and summer school news continues to ping into Harpblog's inbox, which is great. If you're running a summer course, please let us know, and we'll add it to the Harpblog calendar, and our opportunities page.
The Ibacus course (UK) website for 2012 is now live: click here for more details.
Here is some more summer school information. Nikolaz Cadoret (December 2011's Camac Voice!) will be teaching two courses this summer, both at the cultural centre Le Grenier de la Mothe in Normandy, France:
July 16th - July 28th:
A summer course for young harpists (aged 14 and up)
Pedal, Celtic and Jazz harp (beginners, to electric harp).
Individual lessons, chamber music, and music theatre.
For more info and forms, click here.
August 24th - August 26th - Nikolaz will be teaching with Dominig Bouchaud.
Open to all levels from 2 years + of study
Celtic harp repertoire from Ireland, Scotland, Brittany and beyond...an idea way to get fit again for the new season!
For more info and forms, click here.
Le Grenier de la Mothe also offers music courses for even younger harpists (aged 8-12, and 12-15), with Anne Raffard and Alice Soria - details here.
Last weekend, L'Espace Camac was delighted to welcome a concert and workshop by Elisa Vellia - "A day between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic".
Claude writes: "Thank-you to everybody for braving the snow and ice, to come and spend a day with us under the Greek sun! And thanks above all to Elisa, for your music, your smile, your teaching and the wonderful concert you gave us too. As for "La femme qui marche": it's a fantastic album!"
Elisa Vellia
This reminds me (this is going to be an exceptionally well-constructed blog post) of an incident a while ago, when I found my husband on our balcony smoking a cigarillo.
Helen: Why are you smoking a cigarillo? I've always associated those more with balmy long al fresco tapas evenings, not huddled against a door in the freezing cold.
Husband: I've given up smoking.
*pause*
Husband: I've given up smoking cigarettes...
For my New Year's Resolution, I gave up Facebook. But! The Camac Facebook Page is like a tempting cigarillo, and one thing our FB page is particularly handy for is detailed photo albums. Claude has uploaded such an album, of Elisa's concert and workshop. View it here!
We try to schedule our Qatar regulation tours in middle of the European winter
It is minus eleven outside as I type this (minus twenty-three in Moscow!), so it's nice to think ahead to 2012's summer schools, whose websites are now mostly updated for this year. On Harpblog's opportunities page, you will now find links to the summer academies with, among others, Isabelle Moretti, Germaine Lorenzini and Isabelle Perrin. I'll be adding to this list throughout the long, cold winter.
The vast, world-wide audience that was glued to CamacCam throughout last year's World Harp Congress in Vancouver will already know about the USA Young Artists' Harp Seminar and Competition. Harpcolumn's Kimberly Rowe kindly talked to our CamacCam cameras about the event - watch it again here!
For those of you who missed CamacCam because - I don't know, maybe because you were not yet born in July 2011 - the YAHS and competition is a great double event, which will take place in the summer of 2012 in Georgia, USA. The competition happens first, starting on July 11th; after that, you can relax and enjoy the seminar from July 14th - 28th.
The competition is open to harpists up to the age of nineteen - find all details about repertoire and regulations (you need to make a video for the preliminary stage) here.
The seminar will be taught by Kimberly Rowe, Susan Bennett Brady, and a fine line-up of assistants and student counsellors, and this year also welcomes none other than Judy Loman as guest artist. The seminar's entire programme is excellently designed to cover all the most important student harp bases - from private lessons to orchestral excerpts, ensemble playing, stage presence, memorisation, music theory, coping with performance nerves and so on.
It's not too late to apply for the second International Jazz Harp Academy! It will take place at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USA between September 23rd and 25th of this year. at the end of this month! Brenda Dor-Groot and Sabine Meijers of the Jazz Harp Foundation write:
Do you want to make a head start in jazz harp, or seriously improve your already developing jazz harp skills? The Jazz Harp Academy is the place to be.
WHAT: 3 day intensive course
WHEN: September 23-25, 2011
WHO: YOU, Park Stickney, Carol Robbins, and many others
Costs: $ 350 (lodging and meals not included)
WHAT: 2 day light course
WHEN: September 24-25, 2011
WHO: YOU, Park Stickney, Carol Robbins, and many others
Costs: $ 230 (lodging and meals not included)
Jazz Harp Academy ingredients: hands-on harp lessons | combo classes | theory lessons | jam session | concert | bass lines workshop | blues workshop | optional private lessons | optional outing to New Orleans on Sunday night
Faculty:
Park Stickney - jazz harpist
Carol Robbins - jazz harpist
Kurt Schwab - saxophone player
Bill Grimes - bass player
Brenda Dor-Groot - blues harpist (yes, the harp with strings and levers)
Sabine Meijers - harp educator
Kimberly Houser - LSU harp professional in residence
Levels: The 3 day course will be an intensive course for harp students and professionals with some experience in jazz playing, divided in 2 levels: intermediate & advanced. The 2 day course will be an exploration course for harp students, professionals and amateurs who are beginners in jazz playing, divided in 2 levels: beginner & intermediate.
Did you know that:
- the 2 day course is especially interesting for lever harp players, since there will be a lot of blues in this course
- all participants get to play with a jazz ensemble (drums, bass, etc.)
- the 2012 edition is expected to take place in Europe, so US harpists should grab their chance now!
Separate concert tickets for Saturday September 24 are available in our webshop.
Register for the 2 or 3 day course here
More info @ www.jazzharpacademy.org
This year, the Harpmasters summer school featured a special double masterclass by Germaine Lorenzini and Isabelle Moretti, together! Many thanks to Veronika Lemishenko and Annamaria Gergeley for these reports.
"This year`s Harpmasters was especially bright and fascinating - largely thanks to Germaine Lorenzini and Isabelle Moretti.
They brought us fresh motivation and the desire to develop ourselves, through their experience, knowledge and inspiration!
Firstly, Isabelle Moretti gave a fabulous concert with her delicate musicality and fiery expression of emotion. The following day we had the exciting master-class with the opportunity to learn from such magnificent, experienced and world-class harpists: Isabelle Moretti and Germaine Lorenzini.
Personally for me it was very thrilling to play Fauré's Impromtu to Isabelle, as she herself is one of the world's best interpreters of this piece. And she helped me so much!! Her description of the intricacies of French music was especially interesting and evocative. How to your feelings and desires in your playing, and how to live with the music, became much clearer to me. I hope that I will be able to keep and develop everything that Isabelle Moretti gave me.
And then we had the masterclass from Germaine Lorenzini! It was breathtaking, unusual: in just a few words she brought so much fire and life to the music. She knew exactly what to do! Amazing.
We all were so impressed by this master-class from...MARVELLOUS MUSICIANS!!!
Thanks so much to Camac Harps for sponosoring the Harpmasters Celebrity Guest Programme and for these unforgettable days!
Veronika Lemishenko
"In 2011 for the very first time I experienced Harp Masters Academy in Switzerland. I came away with many emotions trying to fit them in the most suitable "boxes" of my life as a performing artist and as a person .
Thoughts and ideas still go through my mind as thunders ever since I left that place. It takes time and reflection on that massive amount of information, gathered during a very intense period of time.
It needs to settle, flourish and mature like the most exquisite French wine.
There is a reason why I mention French in my description, as I find the French way of performing the most complete, enriching way towards achieving a full bodied artistic result!
It is the sensitivity, it is the fire, the flames and its different shades from bright yellow to dark red and purple, it is the flirtation with every single note, and the courage to court the most majestic sounds and go beyond those fears of being on stage while attempting to reach out to the audiences' deepest emotions, grab them and take them on a musical journey. Your journey!
When interpreting music one must dare to let it flow or to cut it short, one must dare to shock and to absorb, one must dare to run away in flames and return like the most peaceful sea of waves and calmness.
Music is passion in the true sense of the word! Passion for love, life and giving!
Music making is probably one of the most complex professions one can have, if trying to get to the highest possible level. It' s not easy but it is not impossible, and the latter should be kept deep inside our minds. It needs an immense amount of focusing, thinking, and intelligent practice of personally suitable technique and interpretation. Every note must be thought through, every note has to become our second nature, every note has to come as the most natural continuance of our emotions, with consideration towards the composer's message, the musical period's rules and expectations, so that as a result we may reach full aesthetic entity.
Isabelle Moretti and Germaine Lorenzini pulled and pushed all these emotions through my inner being and dipped it into their fantastic world of passion, intelligence and fire.
I will be forever thankful for those hours of happiness and pure joy of being with the most amazing two harpists and professors I have ever met!"
Annamaria Gergeley
Thank you to Imogen Barford, Head of Harp at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, for sending me this information about the Ibacus International Harp Course she teaches along with her colleague, Charlotte Seale (Royal Academy of Music).
The course will take place between August 9th and 14th in Suffolk, England. It allows talented harpists aged 14-24 the chance to learn and have fun in the beautiful and peaceful Suffolk countryside.
Attractions include daily classes on solo repertoire, private lessons, workshops, guest artists, recitals, and individual practice rooms.
For more information and booking details, see www.ibacusharpcourse.com
