Renting Harps in Foreign Countries

[vince-pierce]

Hi all,
I haven’t posted on here in AGES, and I’ve definitely missed the forum lots. I may be traveling to China and possibly Europe this summer with the band I am currently playing with, and I wanted to get a head start on locating harps to use while I’m there. This may affect my decision as to whether or not I will go. I have a hard time imagining taking my own harp all over the place, as neat as it would be to say my harp has traveled the world.

I would be performing in Beijing, and possibly Shanghai, Hong Kong and maybe two other cities on the coast along the route from Beijing to Hong Kong. I know Lyon and Healy has two distributors in Hong Kong that I know of, but I don’t know how practical it would be to rent a harp and have it sent to Beijing and then somehow try to transport it to multiple cities…

I wonder if I should try to find individual harpists or even schools in each city to loan harps? I just wonder how feasible that really is.

i would appreciate any advice, and if anyone knows any harpists in China who could be of assistance, it would be super if you could forward me their contact information – vpierce (at) utexas (dot) edu

I will have the same situation if I go to Europe, but I feel like there are more harp resources and harpists there. Although I would possibly be going to the Faroe Islands and Sweden, so I may post later about that as those plans are not confirmed. Thanks in advance for any info you all can offer!

Vince

[carl-swanson]

My understanding is that Lyon & Healy/Salvi have a factory in China. Call them and see if they can rent you a harp.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

I would take along a good lever harp for practice. There are plenty of pieces you could work on.

[laura-stokes]

I have a friend currently studying harp in China, I have heard it is extremely expensive to rent harps, hundreds per day. So make sure to talk to some chinese harpists before you go

[vince-pierce]

Thanks for all the responses. I have made contacts in the World Harp Congress, and I will get in touch with Lyon and Healy now that I have an itinerary for the trip. Nine cities..no small feat. However, I am going to prepare lever harp versions of my parts, possibly play some flute as our flutist will not be there, and also play a keyboard/piano where I can’t get a harp. However it works out it will make for an interesting trip! Thanks for the helpful responses!

Vince

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