World Harp Congress in Vancouver

[Jerusha Amado]

Did anyone go to the WHC in July?

[unknown-user]

It was lovely in Vancouver, and the atmosphere was exciting! So many incredible concerts…

~Sam

[Jerusha Amado]

Hi Sam,

Can you describe one of your absolute favorite concerts?

[unknown-user]

Judy Loman’s opening concert was AMAZING. The international competition winners’ concert was also incredible – I remember a moment when Agnes Clement was playing a Liszt piece (Liebestraum, I think) and she did a lightning fast chromatic run down the harp. You could hear the pews creak as the entire audience leaned forward to see her pedals. Luckily I was in the second row on stage left, so was able to see her feet flying as fast as I’ve ever seen anyone’s. It was quite the spectacle. Friday night had some very serious concerti with the Vancouver Symphony – that night was stupendous! The Focus on Youth was very fun to watch – there were some real starts in that crowd!

I test drove most of the harps being sold! The major manufacturers there were Aoyama, Camac, L&H, and Salvi. I hadn’t tried the first two (save Deborah Henson Conant’s Big Blue) and I was impressed! The L&Hs and the Salvis were beautiful as always. Nothing out of the ordinary, except that they brought some very expensive gilded harps – that was fun! There were also some smaller manufacturers, mostly lever harps.

[unknown-user]

Oops! I meant “stars in that crowd.”

~Sam

[Jerusha Amado]

Thanks for responding!

[Philippa mcauliffe]

Jerusha,

Did you know that Camac did some interviews with quite a few people at the Congress – they are accessible from their website.

[Jerusha Amado]

Thank you dear!

[jessica-wolff]

Apparently we brought lovely weather with us. Prior to that, Vancouver had been having what locals were calling a “bummer summer”: cold weather. I think it went with us too.

Comparing with/to the only other WHC I’ve been to (Prague 1999): the biggies were all there, but the smaller European manufacturers were missing. Heartland Harps and Gerharps were there, but R-Harps and Josephus were not. Dusty Strings and Rees were.

Unlike Prague 1999, where the venues were all over the place, both sides of the river, the venues were pretty centralized. There was a convenient Japadog cart two blocks away (that’s s a hot dog with Japanese fixings) and about as many Starbucks or other coffee places as in Seattle.

I would have liked to see more lecture/workshops, in particular on antique harps.

High spots for me: Sylvain Blassel playing Bach; Mariano Gonzalez playing “Pajaro Campana”; Celso Duarte Sr. & Jr.; Maire ni Scathasaigh (sp?); Cristina Braga; and a Dutch group playing blues.

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

I am so glad you enjoyed the 11th WHC! The blues group was headed by Brenda Dor-Groot, with local Vancouver musicians Laurence Mollerup, Mike Michalkow and Bryan Binnema. We tried to get all the harp manufacturers we could, of course, but sometimes it isn’t convenient for them. I would love to hear more feedback from people who went!

[patricia-jaeger]

Thanks to Diane Moss who printed the link below in her September folk harp newsletter Reigning Harps for the Puget Sound Folk Harp Society.

http://www.worldharpcongress2011.com/program.html

This brings to your computer the 136-page PROGRAM of what happened at the recent World Harp Congress in Vancouver. One can just leave it on your hard drive and enjoy reading it from time to time (I did) or print it out. Though I wish I could have gone, since it was under a four-hour drive from my home, it is very good to read who the performers were and what they played. Elizabeth Volpe Bligh did a fantastic job, chairing this wonderful Congress with all of its details!

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