kathy-chanik

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  • in reply to: Bernard Herman #255655
    kathy-chanik
    Participant

    Bernard Herrmann has always been my favorite film composer, but I just recently discovered that he wrote a stunning segment with solo harp for one of my favorite old movies, The Day the Earth Stood Still from 1951 with Michael Rennie. It’s all bass wire pedal slides, and it’s in the part where the little boy is secretly following Michael Rennie as he sneaks back to his spaceship. A wonderful little Easter egg for us harpists, I’m sure nobody else knew what the unusual sound was. Herrmann also wrote for lots of Hitchcock movies including Psycho, and for other great films like The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Taxi Driver, and the original Jane Eyre with Orson Welles (I love old movies). I’m sorry I don’t know anything about the flute/harp piece in question but I’d love to hear it since he seemed to know a good bit about the harp.

    Maybe our Hollywood expert David Ice knows more about Bernard Herrmann…

    in reply to: help me identify harp model #253627
    kathy-chanik
    Participant

    It sounds like a Caswell Sweetharp, those came in a rainbow of colors. Unfortunately the builder has died and those are no longer made, but Blevins may be making a new version.

    in reply to: the passing of Brook Boddie #251679
    kathy-chanik
    Participant

    Oh no! This is certainly a shock, what terrible news. Brook was indeed a kind person, I enjoyed seeing and speaking with him in emails and at conferences, and we shared a love of exploring and owning and comparing different harps. I’ll certainly miss having him in the harp world.

    Rest in peace, Brook…

    in reply to: What's on your music stand? (September 2018) #222180
    kathy-chanik
    Participant

    Hi Jerusha and Rachel, I also love playing Blue Orchid by Savourna Stevenson. I learned it several years ago and have been “polishing” it ever since. Getting it up to tempo and all those lever flips is very challenging! I also like some of the little extra bits she adds to this tune on YouTube, so I’ve transcribed those as best I can and added them to the arrangement. And I love her pieces Un Buachaille and Emily’s Calling, also brilliantly played on YouTube. I got as much of her music as I could from her website. It’s all pretty crazy hard tho!

    in reply to: Anybody played one of the NEW Lyon and Healy 17s? #218358
    kathy-chanik
    Participant

    Thank you so much, Emma-that’s great info. Just what I need to know…

    in reply to: Low C String #218173
    kathy-chanik
    Participant

    Oh wow, Brook, sorry to hear about your back issues! I know how much you love that black 30, so I hope it all works out somehow. As far as lifting the lever harps goes, when it’s time to move them you might try just putting a cover over them and strapping them to a dolly (like pedal harpists do) rather than wrangling them in and out of a big case and carrying them around. That’s what I do and it’s so much easier-also very little lifting required.

    I’m down to two Fishers and three Thormahlens, so I’m TRYING to downsize…

    Good luck with that back procedure, being limited to lifting only 10# would be really brutal! Let us all know how you make out with that.

    in reply to: Low C String #217141
    kathy-chanik
    Participant

    Yikes! I wonder how much it weighs? And how much it costs…Brook, I think this might be your harp! I hope all this extra size is giving it extra volume too. And the extra height will increase the vibrating string length, so what about any changes in tension or string gauges and string spacing? I guess we’ll see…

    in reply to: Dr. Carrol McLaughlin #215744
    kathy-chanik
    Participant

    Hi Jerusha-yes, I saw this a bit ago on the Harplist. I didn’t know she’d had cancer, but it’s still a shock that someone so vibrant and full of energy could be gone. I remember her so well from the Lyon and Healy jazz festivals of the 80s and 90s-especially the first one where she won the competition hands down and Park Stickney was there competing at the age of 7. Many of us will have wonderful memories of her to treasure.

    in reply to: new pedal harps from Camac! #212021
    kathy-chanik
    Participant

    That natural 11 truly is gorgeous! I remember 20 years ago I ordered a natural 26 (the one with the angels carved into the pillar) and Janet Harrell (the president of L&H at the time)said she was happy to do one in natural since she was so backed up with gold Harp orders. Altho Antonio said a few years later he felt that the gold 26 was a signature harp and shouldn’t be made in natural. But now they’re building the natural 11 (though not the 26), so yay! I think the natural wood really shows off the beautiful carving. More options are good. I think the Style 11 Nouveau (the one with all the color) is also beautiful.

    in reply to: new pedal harps from Camac! #211997
    kathy-chanik
    Participant

    Wil, I think he meant the pedal harps. Camac also brought some of their higher end lever harps, like the Excalibur, Ulysse and Isolde, but there was no mention of those getting the new framing. I was sitting behind and playing the Art Nouveau when he was explaining it to me-not that I understood completely what he was talking about. I’m sure there will be more discussion of the new framing as time goes on, I think it’s still pretty new just now. And anyway, wouldn’t additional framing add weight to a lever harp? It seems like many people want smaller and lighter lever harps these days…

    in reply to: new pedal harps from Camac! #211980
    kathy-chanik
    Participant

    Yes, Jakez was explaining that the new framework would be used on their higher-end harps like the Art Nouveau and the Canopee. And the sound was definitely on the “warm” side, and quite loud and resonant too with those two models. Everybody was drooling over them. If you’re interested don’t wait too long cause the Camac people said the price is probably going up after this introductory period…

    in reply to: new pedal harps from Camac! #211938
    kathy-chanik
    Participant

    Jerusha, the Camac festival here in DC happened just this past weekend and it was so terrific! Isabelle Moretti’s opening concert on Friday night was the highlight for me (she played the new gold Art Nouveau)along with her wonderful master class the next morning. And those new models they brought from France were just beautiful and each with a huge fat sound. Something about a new framework inside the sound box designed to let the harp resonate more freely…you can see some pictures from the festival on the Virginia Harp Center Facebook page, although not all the harps are pictured. There were something like 160 people there, a lot more than I thought there’d be.

    in reply to: new pedal harps from Camac! #210107
    kathy-chanik
    Participant

    Jerusha, Camac is doing a weekend festival (free) here in Washington DC in Nov, and they’re bringing these harps for us to try! One of the Camac guys had a booth at the Somerset festival to talk about it. I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on both of them-and they’re also bringing Isabelle Moretti to play for us! I’ll try to remember to post something afterwards about the harps…

    in reply to: Has anyone tried Harp Column Academy? #210065
    kathy-chanik
    Participant

    Karen, Harp Column Academy is wonderful! I’ve been playing harp-pedal and lever both-for over 40 years and I love looking at the videos. Sunita’s are my favorites, she teaches relaxation, phrasing and sensitivity just so beautifully. I watch her videos over and over since I play mostly lever these days, and also the excellent ones by Kim Robertson and Maeve. The nice thing about a video is you can watch it many times and really learn. And then when I want to get gobsmacked by amazing harp technique I watch Sara Bullen’s videos or Judy Loman’s. And they add new videos all the time-it’s so much fun!

    in reply to: best advice you were given? #209666
    kathy-chanik
    Participant

    Oh Jerusha, I LOVE this question. I immediately thought of what my pedal harp teacher (Marjorie Call in LA, one of Salzedo’s wives) told me when I felt so overwhelmed by the fifty things you have to keep in mind while playing-sit up straight, thumbs up, elbows up, shoulders down, wrists in, pull the fingers into your palm, raise, and above all BREATHE! I told her I just couldn’t think of all that and try to make the music soar at the same time, and she said-just think relax, and pull your fingers in. Ahhh! I still think of that, and something magical happens, my body just immediately DOES relax.

    I’m looking forward to hearing other responses to this excellent question!

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 155 total)