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I have been looking at courses (have to start a personal learning plan this year at school) and it seems to vary from place to place. The cons are traditionally geared up for performance and performers or composition but many are also joined to big universities so you can do lots of subjects with music like Elizabeth did and most offer a range of optional music academic topics depending which course you do. The list of music course options at all the cons and unis in Australia seems very diverse. The old idea that people hell bent on performing go to cons and people wanting a broader musical education go to uni seems to be getting dated. Well, perhaps not for some cons….the really famous ones. And you can do undergrad at one then go to another for post grad work. What do you want to do? I am not sure yet. Maybe a double degree in music and French but I would like to perform and do academic music. Philippa
I just say no immediately to things that I know I can not sight read reasonably well or fake. Especially if very exposed like this. I find it hard to believe that no one in a whole orchestra could play it as a piano part though. Most orchestras have some very good pianists lurking in their ranks. Good amateur pianists are typically much better sight readers than good amateur harpists! My amateur orchestra has some excellent pianists in it. Every so often we have chamber days and get to hear some of them.
My own harp is a cherry Camac Atlantide so clearly I like plain looking harps but i have a friend with an Arianna and it sounds wonderful. I really enjoy playing it. I love the inlay and I am not usually a huge fan of gold decoration or fancy carving. She loads and unloads it alone ok but it is harder to do than mine. I also love the look of the Iris in natural wood without the gold from Salvi. I only use the wheels on mine inside on nice surfaces and I don’t think any harp wheels are intended for outdoors or rough floors.
I’d love to come but Mummy says not when I am already going to the World Harp Congress during school term time in July. Please do another one in 2015 – it looks great! See you in Sydney. Love Philippa.
ALL the horns in our Symphony orchestra are currently women. In fact the strings in general are more women than men too esp the violins. Screened auditions. None of the trumpets or trombones yet though! And mum says double bass seemed a very male thing until more recently in her experience but now seems quite mixed.
I would be tempted to tune down to an unusual pitch on the occasions that Tinkerbelle might be following on and hope he/she doesn’t notice….or perhaps remove a few key strings.
I love to play Faure’s Romance without Words arranged by Daniel Burton for piano and harp. I also play the piano solo which is more difficult! The Faure harp part is easy – about a million times easier than the salzedo…However if you are both amazingly good the Ravel Introduction and Allegro has a piano and harp arrangment.
That is very good to hear. Thank goodness he is doing so well. The donor family will be delighted by the news. I just did a school project on organ donation. The rates of donation are very different around the world. The Israelis operate a preferential system whereby those who have been on the donor list themselves get preferential treatment when an organ becomes available when they need one. The English are thinking about the same thing. I think that is fairer. In many countries even if you have signed your licence your relatives can (and often do) refuse to donate after your death even if it was your written wish. So it is not enough to sign – you have to make sure your next of kin will cooperate. And then there are 2 pathways after death which many people are not aware of – brain dead and donation after cardiac death.
I broke my right wrist at that age. I was playing a carbon fibre lever harp at the time so no problem moving it back and forth with good hand and fingers of plastered one. I learnt nearly all the left hands of the pieces in my suzuki book during that period. It got a bit tiring with no chance to rest and give the other hand a go so I did a short periods only a few times each day. Your parent is supposed to be with you for Suzuki practices so my mum did the levers if I asked her to! There were not very many though. My right got tired quickly when it came out of plaster but I worked up gradually. Most 9 year olds arent playing for hours a day anyway. Mine was an undisplaced fracture – no operation or anything needed.
Payment in advance I hope – well before a note is played. I am a bit confused about why a “church” is putting on a circus. Do the 3000×17 members of the audience make them a profit to give to the less fortunate or is this a loss making show? I dont think I could play anything if I thought a tiger might be about to get out next door to me!
If you are ever lucky enough to go round the Salvi factory in Piasco you get to see that they have some lovely custom designs they have done in the past on soundboards. The original sketches of some are on the walls in the area where they do the decoration. They didnt mention the price of a commission but clearly they have people who can do it.
Worse than weddings where at least we can stand guard are amateur orchestras. Firstly you have to watch them come straight past you waving their bows and instruments and knocking over music stands. Then you have to watch them coming off stage. And worst of all the stage hands moving the harp around to fit two grand pianos on for the second half. My mum once did an emergency dash having yelled “stop” onto the stage (luckily there were steps) to grab mine as a grand piano was being wheeled straight at it during the interval. I think that T shirt needs to be reprinted as a harp cover with the message on both sides!
I am synaesthetic – it is not uncommon in musicians I know. Individual notes have specific colours as do keys. Obviously that also means absolute perfect pitch. Not chords though – I see those as the key colours. And have been ever since I can remember. But that has never been a problem for me in playing the strings on the harp! I dont see the colours so clearly when I play as when I listen. And it doesnt worry me at all that the C and F string colours are not my note colours. What age did you start the harp? I was 8. And I seem to be able to change according to different tunings. Different tunings dont worry me although I know if someone/orchestra is not tuned to 440 as I seem to be able to reset and the colours stay the same for the “new” notes. But if I listen to a piece that has been transposed I see it in the new colour…odd. For me I think the note on the page goes straight to my fingers to the strings without passing the colour centre in my brain.
My mum is a physician and suggests you ask your rheumatologist what you should be doing at the moment. Of course you should tell your teacher though as she will then understand that your time at the harp will have to be reduced at the moment and you may need to change to a lower tension harp for a while.
