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John Prosper ralston and “harpist Paganini”

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Home Forums Coffee Break John Prosper ralston and “harpist Paganini”

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  • #108316

    We’re doing research on a harpist named John Prosper Ralston who lived in the Seattle area and Alaska in the early 1900s. His writings claim he studied back east with “the great harpist Paganini.” Anyone ever heard of Paganini? or John Ralston?

    At one time John had 13 harps and lived in Australia where he mined opals. His articles about his adventures travelling with his harps and opals appear in several issues of The Wide World, a Magazine for Men published, I believe, in Britain. We have, to date, only found one article — in 1931.

    His dream was to build the world’s best harp — and he spent much time attempting his dream, although there is no evidence that he ever achieved his goal. He lived for a while in Montreal in 1943. We last heard of him in the 1970s in British Columbia where he sold his last remaining harp.

    #108317

    Sorry, to clarify, was there ever a harpist named Paganini? I know of the violinist. Was there perhaps a virtuoso harpist in Canada in the ’20’s who may have been thought of as the Paganini of the harp?

    #108318
    #108319
    ken-turner
    Participant

    I know this is an old post but I just found it after having typed in john prosper ralston. I met him in 1971 and spend two days with him. These two days turned into one heck of a long story. Anyways, I do have some info on him if you are still interested.

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