Southeastern Harp Weekend

Presenters 2014

Kim Robertson is perhaps the best-known name in the American folk harp scene. Many of the masterful clinicians and performers of the world today stand atop her shoulders. She has unparalleled inventiveness & virtuosity and has stretched the boundaries of the harp for all of us.

Born in Wisconsin, she was classically trained on piano and orchestral harp. In the mid-70's, Kim's discovery of the Celtic harp grew into a profound love, setting her upon a path of musical innovation, traveling with her harp from concert halls to grass roots folk clubs; from luxury cruise ships to remote mountaintops.  She performed concerts by candlelight, delivered singing telegrams, and played herself on an episode of "Beverly Hills 90210.”

She has trained most of us at one time or another, and is among the most popular lever harpists performing and teaching today. Her work encompasses over 40 recording projects and brilliant published harp arrangements too numerous to count. Her classes are great-great-great (she’s funny too), so you can’t go wrong.  We’re excited to have Kim here again as one of our great presenters.

Kim is also teaching an all-day class Monday October 26.

sharon thormahlen

mike williams

“I believe our music can suspend time. That is our true gift to the listener.”

________________

__________________________________

“Southeastern Harp Weekend is wonderful event, even for beginners. I was intimidated thinking my skill would not be up to par, but everyone made me feel welcome.”  - Janice Young

__________________________________

_________________________

“The talent of the instructors and performers is superb. It doesn't get better than this.” _________________________

Máire Ní Chathasaigh

kim johnson

Deborah Henson-Conant is a GRAMMY©-Nominated one-woman orchestra. And her teaching is just as exciting.

Last year was the first time Deborah (pronounced De-BOR-ah) taught and performed here and she knocked our socks off!  We already knew she is a showman & entertainer, and has been compared to musical greats from Leonard Bernstein to Elvis Presley, but we found out her workshops are gripping, fun, and packed with immediately usable info. Time flies with Deborah and you don’t want the workshop to end. 

She’s toured with the Boston Pops, opened for Ray Charles, jammed onstage with Bobby McFerrin and offstage with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler. She’s been featured on television shows from Charlie Rose to Joan Rivers, and The View.  And she's in two full-length PBS music specials.

We are thrilled to have her teaching; her workshops are so good that people often attend regardless of the topic; they just want to be immersed in a Deborah Henson Conant experience!

Deborah is also teaching and all-day class Tuesday October 27.

_____________________________

“It's a long way from Alaska, but Southeastern Harp Weekend is TOTALLY WORTH IT. You have fabulous instructors, and great vendors. The location is beautiful and comfortable.

The participants are a joy, and the price is affordable.  It's the only national harp conference I attend. Thank you!”

1. -Cathy Curby, Fairbanks, Alaska
   

_______________________________

ray pool

lorinda jones

"I believe that if we allow our true voice to be heard, our lost soul can find us."

_________________

joanna mell

deborah henson conant

“If you want to memorize your tunes, watch your hands instead of the music.”

___________________

Some of you have been asking for Lorinda for years.  Then Nancy Bick Clark wrote to me to urge me to have Lorinda Jones:

"Lorinda has an excellent reputation as a teacher.  She is the REAL DEAL – a board-certified music therapist (which is a 4 year bachelor's degree plus clinical supervision, and more.) 

"Lorinda has all the elements, and a completely different dimension from therapeutic harp programs. She runs Music Therapy Services of Central Kentucky. She is a kind, sweet and knowledgeable person and a good performer."  

Lorinda also teaches at the Kentucky Music Week, Louisville Irish Fest, Jan Pennington Gray Harp Camp, and John Campbell Folk School.  We are thrilled to bring her wisdom and warm friendly style to Southeastern Harp Weekend!

Lorinda is also teaching an all-day class Thursday October 22.  It is devoted to B-E-G-I-N-N-E-R-S only!

I believe freedom of expression and flexibility are enhanced by a solid, unencumbered technique.”

______________

Therapeutic harpers are not the only ones who love Joanna Mell’s classes. Joanna opens vistas to all interests and all participants.  Her easy-going yet focused teaching style makes her workshops fun and informative. She uses humor, interesting exercises, and student participation to keep workshops upbeat and stimulating. 

She has recorded several CDs of Celtic music and therapeutic music. She is also a professional therapeutic harpist and uses her musical gifts to bring comfort, peace and healing to those who are suffering in mind, body and spirit.  Joanna is founder and director of the Heart of God Foundation which trains therapeutic harpists and also provides therapeutic harp music to patients in health care facilities.

Everyone falls in love with Ray Pool.  He uses analogies from daily life to make difficult concepts fun to grasp.  Ray empowers you with seeing the logic and structure behind music on the harp.  He will help you recognize patterns on the strings and why they occur so frequently.  And that makes it so much easier to play!

Ray received his formal education at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, majoring in organ.  He came to the harp at the age of 24 and studied with Dewey Owens and then Lucile Lawrence. 

Five years later, in 1976, he was contracted for his first Broadway show "Pacific Overtures."  After participation in many original Broadway show pit orchestras in Manhattan, he was engaged at The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue. He performed as solo harpist there for seventeen years.

He has been a popular teacher at pedal and folk harp conferences for almost a quarter century. He’s a true educator and will open up new vistas for you! 

Ray is also teaching an all-day class Thursday October 22.

"I believe knowledge paves the road to success on the harp. It just takes a little study.  In my teaching, it is my goal to take the ‘harm’ out of harmony.”

____________________

"Beauty in music is life-enhancing and its absence saps the spirit."

_______________

Living legend Máire Ní Chathasaigh (pronounced Moira Nee Ha-ha-sig) is a huge coup for us at SEHW.  She is literally one of history’s most important musicians; she changed the fundamental  direction  of Irish music.  

When Máire was born, the harp in Ireland was sweetly used with chords and arpeggiated chords for singing accompaniment.  But as a curious teen Máire was convinced that the rhythms and ornamentations of traditional Irish music on pipe and fiddle, could be reproduced on the harp.  She experimented several years before perfecting these sounds.

TV and radio lauded young Máire as creating “a single-handed reinvention of the harp.”  She won endless All-Ireland championships and Pan-Celtic Harp competitions, and went on to have a full-time concert career, playing (with her guitarist-husband Chris Newman) to packed houses all over the world today.

Now thousands of harpers around the world play bouncy Irish dance music and ornamented Airs on the harp... because of this amazing musician.

It is HUGE for us to have a chance to study with Máire.  For those of you aiming to play authentic Irish music, here’s the source.  And she’s an approachable, warm woman as well. We’re thrilled to have her for you at Southeastern Harp Weekend!

Máire is also teaching an all-day class Monday October 26.

emily mitchell

kim robertson

nicolas carter

Nicolas Carter came here in 2013 and is one of the most popular instructors we have had in our ten years of Southeastern Harp Weekend.

Nicolas is American and grew up in Paraguay.  He began harp lessons at the age of ten. His teacher was maestro Isidro Caballero, a master harpist who travelled extensively throughout the world and father of Nicolas Caballero, one of the most accomplished and famous Paraguayan harpists in the world. Nicolas learned harp in the traditional folk manner; by ear, working on finger techniques and improvisational skills.

Nicolas started his career as a musician at eighteen when he came to the United States to study at the University of Minnesota. The music  connected him to the memories of his past and gave him a way to rejoice and share the music and traditions of Paraguay.

You can read about his touring and collaborations on his website; we can’t tell it all here!  Suffice it to say that Nicolas makes the harp FUN and brings a smile to all.  You'll have  to find out by coming to his classes! 

Nicolas is also teaching an all-day class Thursday October 22.

Every year I try to raise the bar for all of us.  And this year a conference participant shared a recommendation that was so over-the-top-enthusiastic for Emily Mitchell, that I contacted Emily to come teach.   She said yes!  Emily will bring an astounding new level of knowledge to Southeastern Harp Weekend, especially in technique and injury prevention.

She’s played in Carnegie Hall, recorded with Michael Jackson, Carly Simon, Bernadette Peters, Dawn Upshaw, Diana Krall, Audra McDonald, Natalie Cole, and Harry Connick, Jr., and performed with Ray Charles and Barry Manilow.   She has also won the most prestigious harp competition in the world (Israel International).

And you didn’t know it, but you heard her in the film scores for Aladdin, Fargo, Wolf, Failure to Launch, Fur, The Good Shepherd, and Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.  She’s a wonderful teacher and a delight as a human being!

Emily is also teaching an all-day Master class for all levels, Monday October 26.

“I believe the harp has no enemies as it spreads peace and joy to those who encounter it.”

____________________

The most creative harpers have all collaborated with musicians of other genres:  fiddle players, dulcimer players, or guitarists, to name a few.  This year we are bringing back Mike Williams, a brilliant 12-string guitar picker from Nashville Tennessee.  Mike is a master songwriter; John Denver even performed and recorded some of Mike’s songs.  Mike has helped many musicians start and advance their careers, notably Emmylou Harris and Nancy Griffith.

He is also the quintessential entertainer who can naturally and joyfully “work the crowd,” bringing them to laughter and tears.

During the late 1970’s Mike “played” the college circuit and brought in (what in today’s terms would be) over $325,000 per year.  (We should have him do a workshop on how harpers can do that... maybe another year!)  The crowds liked his creativity, and colleges kept asking him back.  Yes, he has lots to teach us -- and your melody writing will never be the same!  He’s a charming a charismatic guy who can be joyfully irreverent at times and immensely passionate about music and sharing.  

Mike came in 2012 :

“My favorite workshop was Melody Writing with Mike Williams. I liked the topic, the presenter, the group involvement, and I've been sharing his hand-out and information with lots of people since then.”  – Cynthia Price Glynn

“Mike was charming, funny, inspiring and endlessly helpful in his Melody Writing workshop! It was a great class for all levels and what a fantastic time.”  – Nadia Birkenstock

“I believe I’ll go write another song.”

_________________

Kim Johnson knows something that lots of you WANT to know: how to use modern digital devices to enhance our harp lives!  She is librarian of the South Carolina Three Rivers Harp Ring and has helped her grateful fellow harpers get “up to speed” on this; we bring her to you so that your harp life can be even more fulfilling.

So bring your tablet and learn how to enjoy new freedom  and fun in your harping!

Sharon has published 11 books of original compositions and her arrangements of traditional tunes, and many teachers recommend these books for the way the tunes “fall under the fingers.”  She also teaches, does workshops, and helps run Thormahlen Harps with her harp-building husband, Dave. 

She is super at patiently working with beginners and this year may also get you off your duff and get you enthused about using a metronome!  She is a happy addition to our team of clinicians at Southeastern Harp Weekend.

"I believe Music is the language of the Spirit.  To speak it fluently is to communicate a thousand blessings, to empathize with a thousand griefs, to immortalize a thousand memories, and to salve a thousand injustices without ever saying a word."

_____________________

“I believe that music should be JUICY!  In order to get all that good juiciness out of a piece of music - good tone, exciting phrasing, crisp execution - we must do some groundwork first.  Kind of like picking a luscious orange from a tree, washing it, cutting it, squeezing it.  But OH the rewards of that glass of juice!!!”

________________

Glen Hill is a former expert violin luthier who now makes only custom harps:  each harp according to the sound and weight and look the customer wants, even custom carvings.  He is amazing to schmooze with... a total wealth of knowledge.  

In 1985 Glenn was accepted into the almost impossible-to-enter (25-student) Violin Making School of America in Salt Lake City.

He completed the two year program, hand building everything with no power tools.  He even built three identical Stradivarius style Violins.

This year Glenn and his wife Laurie are doing a short demo on how to build your own high-quality harp, from plans, or from an almost-finished kit, if you don’t do woodworking.  Great for people who don’t want to hock the family jewels to play the harp! 

glenn hill

I believe

"Designing and crafting harps is a spiritual practice, to add joy, love and creativity to the world.”

____________________

sue carole devale